The IDD Squire Plus 2 thread

[beerguy1]

Well ran the Squire 2 for the first time today and was damn impressed with the results. Time on sequence 1 was 1:56 on 2 was 2:37. As you can see from the photo I used alot of the ideas that others talked about such as the surge tanks and 1/2 line coming from the CO2 tank and 3/4 coming from the comprtessor. I used pex to run from the compressor and CO2 vaporizer. It worked great and is "right and tight" as looks are kinda important to me. So, I wanted to say thanks to all that contributed to this thread as it made my life easier and to those that are thinking about the Squire it is a great piece of machinery and one that will save you much time. If you are planning on getting one I suggest this set up that I used (but did not invent) as there is no sense in reinventing the wheel on something that is proven to work. Thanks Everyone

[TGTimm]

Very nice install, Mike! You're getting even better purge times--by nearly a minute--than we are--I'll have to look at ours and figure out why.

[Steve Sharp]

I'm planning on ordering a Squire Plus 2 in the next couple of weeks and this thread has been very helpful, but I still have a couple questions.

Is anyone using casters and moving this around? With limited space, one of the possibilities I'm looking at is having all the utilities piped to one place where this would get used, but disconnecting and moving it out of the way when not in use. It seems like almost everyone is setting this up with a permanent home.

The sell sheet from IDD says the fill-by-weight option has a typical ROI of 10 months, but that doesn't mean anything without relating it to a volume of product packaged. Anybody have any numbers to support or refute the use of the fill-by-weight?

Cheers,
Steve

[DowneastCider]

We have it on wheels and move out of the way every weekend to make space for the public. Pretty easy. Tri-clamp the water hose. Quick disconnect for air and nitrogen.

We don't have fill by weight. Heard not great things from one brewery that does have it. But that is just heresay.

[TGTimm]

Steve--the Squire II comes set up with casters. Adjustment range for leveling is very limited (1/2" or so/caster IIRC) so plan on putting it somewhere relatively level.

We purchased ours with the FBW option and have never used it. We just fill with the automatic FOB and don't see any problem. We don't collect the blow-off from the kegs, so we can't quantify just how much is wasted, but we do fill on the scales and our weights are very consistent.

The scale unit for the FBW option is crap--or, at least, the programming is crap. You need to manually enter the projected weight for every keg size and beer density every time you change kegs or beer, instead of having saved values that can be called up. The instructions for the FBW are entirely inscrutable. The manual for the machine itself is bad enough--even the new one--but the FBW manual (which isn't integrated with the machine manual) is useless. Hence this thread.

[GoodBeerNut]

I'm looking at purchasing a used Mini King Plus washer. Does anyone have experience with this unit? When did they replace the Mini King with the Squire and what are the differences? Does anyone have any things we should look out for on a used model? Just trying to get some direction from those that may know more about the unit than I currently do. Thanks.

[beerguy1]

I'm looking at purchasing a used Mini King Plus washer. Does anyone have experience with this unit? When did they replace the Mini King with the Squire and what are the differences? Does anyone have any things we should look out for on a used model? Just trying to get some direction from those that may know more about the unit than I currently do. Thanks.

I have used both the squire has a switch that you can adjust the washing times from shorter to longer. a few simple design changes. I am sure there are more but thats all I have seen. I would make sure that the seller has it hooked up and run a few kegs so you can make sure the heater works,all the valves work and it cycles thru like it should. The IDD company are very nice people and they have always helped walk thru any issues. I would purchase the sensors that detect when the keg is empty I believe they are some kind of light sensors from IDD. You will need to adjust the amount of chemical thats going into the tank (s) so you will need that multiple orfice kit. Do some reading on what others have done to insure quick wash times at the beginning of this thread I used those ideas and have had great success. You can see my set up a few posts ago

[gouldbrew]

For those using Ultra Niter and X-Puma as an acid detergent in the Squire Plus 2, are you using just ambient temp wash water and the long cycle setting?

I recently spoke with my Birko rep and IDD tech support about switching to Ultra Niter and X-Puma s an acid detergent for the Squire Plus 2. My Birko rep told me I should use warm/hot wash water for the pre-detergent step rather than ambient, and ambient for the post-detergent step. I don't think there's a simple way to switch between 2 different wash water sources on the Squire, and certainly don't want to use hot water with the oxine rinse. Birko was concerned that ambient pre-rinse may not loosen heavy soil without a longer detergent step and/or increase in dosage rate.