Single head keg washer pump size

[Darienhiggins]

Hi folks, I know there have been other discussions on this, but I was considering building my own single head keg washer using a pump like this:

https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/northern-brewer-wort-pump

It does a max of 5GPM and can work at high temps.

https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/blichmann-riptide-brewing-pump-tri-clamp

This one is also one I'm looking at.

Am I aiming way too small and low powered here? We're a small cidery, and I plan on cleaning 1/2BBL and 1/6BBL kegs with it. I just want to make sure I'm hitting all parts of the keg without drainage issues. I've only ever cleaned kegs with manual washers that had two or four couplers, and on the four head washer I used a pump where I could control the speed, and it was way overpowered for that job.

[Dheeraj]

Calculate total dynamic head and velocity required at the end of the keg spear tube for proper sizing.

and check final numbers on Pump graph to determine the HP required.

Thanks

[gitchegumee]

Much depends on soil load and cleaning chemical. For filtered cider, I use a heated acid based cleaner and skip the caustic. Also skip the air purges and just use CO2 as it keeps DO levels very low and you don't have to waste CO2 purging after the cleaning/sanitizing cycle.

That pump seems more for home use. For reliable commercial keg washing one keg at a time, I'd use at least 3/4hp. Among others, CPE Systems has what you would need. It's not so much about the impingement of the cleaner, so don't worry too much about blasting cleaning chemicals. Indeed your keg washer should have a very slow speed for spear wash at the end of the washing cycle so that the low flow just trickles down the spear to clean it.

[Darienhiggins]

Much depends on soil load and cleaning chemical. For filtered cider, I use a heated acid based cleaner and skip the caustic. Also skip the air purges and just use CO2 as it keeps DO levels very low and you don't have to waste CO2 purging after the cleaning/sanitizing cycle.

That pump seems more for home use. For reliable commercial keg washing one keg at a time, I'd use at least 3/4hp. Among others, CPE Systems has what you would need. It's not so much about the impingement of the cleaner, so don't worry too much about blasting cleaning chemicals. Indeed your keg washer should have a very slow speed for spear wash at the end of the washing cycle so that the low flow just trickles down the spear to clean it.

I was looking at this pump (3/4HP, single phase) for general use- cider transferring, CIP of 5BBL tanks, etc- do you think this could also be used as the keg washing pump? EDIT (I forgot to paste the link) : https://www.cpesystems.com/collectio...-pump-assembly

I was also looking at just using Acid #6 so I could just use CO2 rather than compressed air for cleaning. So the cycle would be Rinse-purge- Acid #6- purge back to detergent tub- rinse- PAA- purge-pressurize. The cider will be filtered also, so you think that would be sufficient?

[gitchegumee]

Put a purge first before doing anything to drain your keg of whatever might be leftover. Then you've got a cleaning/sanitizing profile very close to what I use with great results. I even use the same pump with a VFD and 1HP motor. BTW, if you're handy, the motor is pretty standard and can be had fairly inexpensively. Think you'll like where this gets you. Best of luck!