DIY degasser $12

Looked around a bit at degasser whips and stumbled upon a youtube video using a wine saver vacuum pump to degas wine. I couldn't find the model he was using so i rolled the dice on vacu vin wine saver off amazon. It came with 2 stoppers for $12 shipped. After a quick look i realized all i needed was a tube to connect from the plug to the carboy stopper. I used a belt sander to remove the cup part of a 3 piece airlock and tossed it together, seems to pull a good vacuum. From what I read, 20-40 pumps 2 days in a row will pull all CO2 out of the mix.

Even 50 pumps a day for a week will not usually be enough. Good find though on the vacuum pump. I am looking for better ways to do it but I seem always find my way back to a electric vacuum pump.

It seems to pull a good vacuum, i guess we will see. Wine is still in the primary so i wont be able to post results for a few weeks at the least.

10000 pumps may not be enough. It all depends on how much CO2 is dissolved into the wine.

I have a vacuum pump and have done 45 minutes 2 days in row and still had gas.

I do longer sit time now, 6 months minimum.

Besides waiting a year I find the best way out to vac it, let it sit a day, vac it again, then leave it for a couple weeks. Then when you try again there will be much less gas.

Keep us posted on the technique; I've already got one of those pumps but I'm a little skeptical.

They are nice to pump the air out of a bottle of wine, not a carboy. If you have a lot of gas when you do this you might think its going to hold but as more gas comes out you will loose the vacum and maybe contaminate your wine. Other DIY methods that work to varying degrees but with much less effeciency are the hook it up to a food vacum bagger, the brake pump, the put it on top of the washing machine while its churning, stir a lot fast etc. Keep these handy, we use them in our bottled wine after opening them and they work very well for preserving the wine.

Keep trolling ebay until a nice vacum pump comes up, its like 1000x more easy to use a real pump than fool around with things that can only draw off a little gas at a time.

WVMJ

I'm mainly a brewer and mead maker and bought my wife a wine kit.The idea was cheap and effective. I didn't want to blow $40+ on a SS whip or more on a vacuum pump that i will use once a year.

DrCad, good point i will be sure to allow my wine to sit for a few months before i hook it up.

Check your local medical supply store. I traded a few bottles of wine for a vacuum pump that had been returned from a lease

I hooked up my food saver vac. Ran it for about 10 minutes on a gallon batch that I needed to degas it worked great. You could actually watch it clear I was amazed so the food saver does work. Harbor freight tools sells a vac pump for 90.00 not sure how that would work.

Has anyone used the Foodsaver method on a plastic(Better Bottle) carboy? I am concerned it might crush (implode) the container.

bamaproud said:

has anyone used the foodsaver method on a plastic(better bottle) carboy? I am concerned it might crush (implode) the container.

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do not even try this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!