O2 wand

Just finished building an O2 wand from some left over parts I had. I installed a push button gas valve so that I can stop the flow of O2 to the diffuser stone by just letting go of it. The rod is made of stainless steel.

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That looks awesome, i just got the big oxygen system, but I might have to go the over-designing route with it soon, thats a good looking setup.

Your yeasties will be livin' large with that setup!

Thanks! I didn't want to over design it but since I had all the parts just lying around I figured, why not.

I like the SS wand idea, I just used the tubing (and surprisingly it didn't float up) but one question, why the in-line filter? As I understand this is a good idea when using an aquarium pump but not needed with an O2 tank.

Kampenken said:

I like the SS wand idea, I just used the tubing (and surprisingly it didn't float up) but one question, why the in-line filter? As I understand this is a good idea when using an aquarium pump but not needed with an O2 tank.

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I had it when it was attached to an aquarium pump and when I switched to O2 in a tank, I just left it on, doesn't hurt anything.

If its not too much trouble, mind writing a breakout of the pieces used for the wand portion?

Nice

Eugenio said:

If its not too much trouble, mind writing a breakout of the pieces used for the wand portion?

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Sure.

- This is the push button valve: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0098W48HW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

- The elbow is a 1/4" NPT to compression, you will need to get the size compression for the stainless tube you have. If your stainless tube is 1/4", you'll need a 1/4" NPT male to 1/4" compression. The NPT side will thread into the button valve.

- The barb coming out the other end of the push button valve is a 1/4" NPT barb. Again, match the Barb size to the size vinyl tubing you have attached to your O2 tank.

- I am using this threaded diffuser stone from More Beer: http://morebeer.com/products/diffusion-stone-5-micron-flare-threads.html

Since the Stainless tube I had is not 1/4" (I forgot the size it is, but it is smaller) I had to install this barbed flare fitting : http://morebeer.com/products/flare-fitting-14-barb.html and use this swivel nut: http://morebeer.com/products/flare-fitting-14-swivel-nut.html. I then used a small amount of vinyl tubing to attach it to the stainless rod.

The plan is to get a 1/4" stainless tubing and flare the end of it so that I can attach it directly to the diffuser stone's flared end without having to use vinyl tubing. This way I can easily remove the stone from the wand to drop into boiling water to clean and sterilize it. For now, I'll leave this setup as is, again, this was put together from a bunch of left over parts I had when I was building my cooler based kegeartor. The valve I was going to actually use in another project about a year ago but never got to use it until now.

Remember to use teflon tape on the threaded fittings for the push button valve, do not use it on the compression fittings.

I've had a wanded air stone for awhile but began to worry about how to be sure nothing was growing within. Is that a concern? How do you clean the wand after using it to introduce oxygen? How can you be sure it is truly cleaned? A clear tube seems to show best?

KY Dan

kydan47 said:

I've had a wanded air stone for awhile but began to worry about how to be sure nothing was growing within. Is that a concern? How do you clean the wand after using it to introduce oxygen? How can you be sure it is truly cleaned? A clear tube seems to show best?

KY Dan

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You boil the stone end, that's why I went with a stone end that screws onto a wand so there isn't a long tube sticking out of a small pot of water.

And what do you do to clean inside the tube itself? My stone screws onto the fitting which is at the end of a ss tube. My fear is if turn off O2 or on before inserting into wort, wort would backfill similar to backwash and without pains to clean may be a source of contamination.

kydan47 said:

And what do you do to clean inside the tube itself? My stone screws onto the fitting which is at the end of a ss tube. My fear is if turn off O2 or on before inserting into wort, wort would backfill similar to backwash and without pains to clean may be a source of contamination.

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In all the years I used a clear vinyl tube with a stone before switching to a wand, I have never seen wort backwash into the clear vinyl tube. Once you shut off the O2, there is still pressure in the tube forcing O2 out. Every time I turned mine off and pulled the stone out, I always see bubbles forming all over the stone from the left over pressure in it.