DIY Beer Line Cleaner

63belair said:

Yea, that's my plan. I called the local HB store here, they have posts for ball locks but didn't know what kind they were, so my plan is:

Go to HD, buy the A-176 coupling, see if it will fit on the sprayer, then go to the HB store (very close thankfully) and see if the other end of the coupling fits into any of their posts.

Cross your fingers!

Click to expand...

Please be sure to let us know if it worked, if it didn't, or how you made it work. Take pics if you can

great thread, i'm gonna build this today

Mixed bag of results, hd had the a176 coupling, but no sprayers. I'll try another one this weekend. LHBS didn't have any spare Firestone posts for sale, but we took apart a Firestone keg they had and confirmed it fit in the a176 perfectly.

Stay tuned!

You can also just screw the Firestone straight onto the sprayers threads after removing the OEM nozzle. There's no need for the adapter unless you want to use another type of post.

followed instructions in OP, worked like a charm...now all i need to do is build my keezer lol

dahray02 said:

followed instructions in OP, worked like a charm...

Click to expand...

Yeah..now if only the death-ray & laser forums were this good....

Hang Glider said:

Yeah..now if only the death-ray & laser forums were this good....

Click to expand...

Working on it, but having a hard time finding the correct Firestone/death ray adapter

Am I the only one that noticed that the threads on the Flomaster are not 3/8" FIP like the ones on the A-176 part? Tried threading it and realized they were different. The threads on the sprayer seem to be more like 3/8" compression fitting threads.

shroomzofdoom said:

Am I the only one that noticed that the threads on the Flomaster are not 3/8" FIP like the ones on the A-176 part? Tried threading it and realized they were different. The threads on the sprayer seem to be more like 3/8" compression fitting threads.

Click to expand...

Mine fit just fine. If the sprayer nozzle is a 3/8 compression, the firestone should fit right on without the adaptor. I've heard of some people that have had thread issues, but I didnt experience it when I built the original.

I built mine exactly like the original last night. Works awesome! I thought that I would have to press the lever on the sprayer to get it to flow, but the flow starts as soon as I open the tap. Either way, works wonders!

milesvdustin said:

I built mine exactly like the original last night. Works awesome! I thought that I would have to press the lever on the sprayer to get it to flow, but the flow starts as soon as I open the tap. Either way, works wonders!

Click to expand...

If you saved the white plastic gasket from the original assembly, if you insert the wide end of that inside the A176 before threading it onto the sprayer, the other end will seal against the "trigger" plunger, making it functional...

Cheers!

Cool... I have a six tap keggerator and I have been trying to figure out an easy whay to clean it.

What I have been doing is using Cobra Heads instead of the taps so I don't have to clean them... This causes a little problem will all the condensation that builds up each time I open the chest freezer.

The part I needed to understand was the fitting on the Firestone Ball lock because I want to mount six of them on a copper or pvc tube, connect that to a sump-pump, and clean all six at once... I really hate clean the damn thing so it would be worth it to me to spend the money...

I think the volume of pressurized air you'd need to clean six faucets at the same time would exceed that available with these small sprayers. If you don't just commit a corny keg and CO2 to cleaning duty, I'd look to base a more practical solution on a polyethylene pump sprayer between 2 and 3 gallons capacity...

Cheers!

OK, after a month or so of fruitlessly looking around my LHBSs for the appropriate post fitting, I finally stopped screwing around and bought the post at the link provided by the OP. It arrived yesterday, and I just put this thing together. Assembly was a snap, the interesting thing was that the biggest leak I had was between the pump fitting and the adapter, not between the adapter and the post fitting. A couple turns of teflon tape took care of that one as well.

I decided not to try to use the washer to activate the trigger; I figured that having to use the trigger would be more of a pain than it was worth, since I have the faucet as an on/off switch.

Once I had it assembled I took it for a test run, and it worked flawlessly. I thought the flow rate was a bit on the slow side, but I only gave it maybe 10-15 pumps, do people pump it more, or is the trickle what should be expected?

Anyhow, a nice tool, thaks to geniz for developing this design.

Pump it more. I can get mine to push cleanser and rinse water through my faucets at the same rate that my beer flows. And the less head space in the sprayer the quicker you'll need to pump it up to keep things moving along...

Cheers!

When I use mine I first pressurize the sprayer. After I start the flow I just keep pumping. That's the main reason I don't use the trigger.

geniz said:

When I use mine I first pressurize the sprayer. After I start the flow I just keep pumping. That's the main reason I don't use the trigger.

Click to expand...

fwiw, the trigger has a lock to hold it "on". Works very well, too...

Cheers!

I did pre-pressure the sprayer, obviously just not that much. Not a problem really, just experimenting with my new toy. And even at that it was fast enough, just not very fast.

I took the idea of building a keg/carboy cleaner and married it with this idea. For ~$15 in pvc and fittings (HomeDepot) + ~$30 shipped for the pinlock fittings (E C Kraus) This was the most economical I could find and they were delivered in 3 days.

After completing the faucet disassembly cleaning/maintenance, Place the beerline attachment tree to the top of the keg cleaner. Connect the Beer Out lines from your kegs. Heat up you cleaner/sanitizer of choice. Open the ball valve (this just recirculates the cleaner back to the pump bucket, a crude way to regulate the water pressure), turn on the pump. Place another bucket under your faucets. Open the faucets, and slowly adjust the ball valve until the desired flow is achieved.

CaptainDucman said:

I took the idea of building a keg/carboy cleaner and married it with this idea. For ~$15 in pvc and fittings (HomeDepot) + ~$30 shipped for the pinlock fittings (E C Kraus) This was the most economical I could find and they were delivered in 3 days.

After completing the faucet disassembly cleaning/maintenance, Place the beerline attachment tree to the top of the keg cleaner. Connect the Beer Out lines from your kegs. Heat up you cleaner/sanitizer of choice. Open the ball valve (this just recirculates the cleaner back to the pump bucket, a crude way to regulate the water pressure), turn on the pump. Place another bucket under your faucets. Open the faucets, and slowly adjust the ball valve until the desired flow is achieved.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z92R5Wv6XEE

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyRN1uAmcjk&feature=plcp

Click to expand...

Wow!!

For pin locks:
I never could find the correct fitting at Home Depot but I did at ACE Hardware.
Works like a charm.

Mind posting the parts for the pin lock version?

SoonerDoc said:

For pin locks:
I never could find the correct fitting at Home Depot but I did at ACE Hardware.
Works like a charm.

Click to expand...

Nice job!

To work on a Cornelius post I used part A-117 ,1 nylon washer & white washer from sprayer worked great.

emjay said:

That's what I use... I get 5cc and 10cc (1tsp and 2tsp, respectively) two-piece oral syringes from my pharmacist for free.

Click to expand...

so is the answer that we use 1tsp of starsan in this bottle?

dahray02 said:

so is the answer that we use 1tsp of starsan in this bottle?

Click to expand...

I use about half that much.

emjay said:

I use about half that much.

Click to expand...

You use half a teaspoon? I dont beleive that is enough. It would be nice to get some clarification on that

chemman14 said:

You use half a teaspoon? I dont beleive that is enough. It would be nice to get some clarification on that

Click to expand...

Do the math! The sprayer is 56 ounces. The dose for star san is one fluid ounce or 30 mL per 5 gallons of solution. 5 gallons = 640 ounces, so that's 30 mL/640 oz = 0.046875 mL per ounce of solution. 56 ounces * 0.046875 = 2.625 mL. 2.625 mL=0.53 teaspoons.

So yes, half a teaspoon.

I use a small fountain pump and a backflush adapter. Fill a bucket with water and BLC, throw the faucet in and attach the backflush adapter to the pump. Then take apart the ball lock fitting on and put it in the bucket. Turn on the pump and let it circulate for a couple of minutes. Then I'll put the pump in a bucket of plain warm water to rinse the cleaner.

Very simple and much easier than the old spray bottle I used before. Total cost is around $35.

Picked up everything to do this but the post. Plan on ordering some ingredients from brewmasters next week, so I'll get the post then.

zachattack said:

Do the math! The sprayer is 56 ounces. The dose for star san is one fluid ounce or 30 mL per 5 gallons of solution. 5 gallons = 640 ounces, so that's 30 mL/640 oz = 0.046875 mL per ounce of solution. 56 ounces * 0.046875 = 2.625 mL. 2.625 mL=0.53 teaspoons.

So yes, half a teaspoon.

Click to expand...

yeah, it doesn't take very much. I usually fill the reservoir up 1/4-1/2

Not sure what that amounts to.

zachattack said:

Do the math! The sprayer is 56 ounces. The dose for star san is one fluid ounce or 30 mL per 5 gallons of solution. 5 gallons = 640 ounces, so that's 30 mL/640 oz = 0.046875 mL per ounce of solution. 56 ounces * 0.046875 = 2.625 mL. 2.625 mL=0.53 teaspoons.

So yes, half a teaspoon.

Click to expand...

I thought we were talking about BLC here. Sorry

Picked up the pump and adapter fitting a few weeks ago when I went to Home Depot. Got the Firestone post delivered this morning with my next brews ingredients from brewmasters warehouse. Went together easy and works well. the hardest part was getting the white gasket out of the original nozzle. I ended up bending a paper clip in half and pushing it through the hole until it caught and was able to pull it out.

FYI, the Lowes equivalent pump is slightly smaller (1.5L) but does seem to have the correct threads (same as the adapter fitting). So not as much concern with leaks or messing up the threads. However, it seems the 'white gasket' is similar (Lowes pump is actually clear in color) to the HD pump but doesn't seem to work well when transferred to the adapter. So, the working button can be a issue if it's wanted.
I have a working setup, so I'm a happy camper, THX OP!

Robert

Thanks to OP for figuring out the threads on the Firestone post! Similar to CaptainDucman, I used this to set up my Keg Washer to continuously pump BLC through my lines (but just one tap at a time for simplicity).

shroomzofdoom said:

Am I the only one that noticed that the threads on the Flomaster are not 3/8" FIP like the ones on the A-176 part? Tried threading it and realized they were different. The threads on the sprayer seem to be more like 3/8" compression fitting threads.

Click to expand...

You're not the only one. I cannot figure out the the threads on mine either but they're definitely not 3/8" pipe thread.

I think the reason everyone is having to
use so much tape is because they're cross threading using a 3/8" fip. It only goes on a few threada before it binds up. The threads on the nozzle are more coarse than pipe thread even.

jcaudill said:

You're not the only one. I cannot figure out the the threads on mine either but they're definitely not 3/8" pipe thread.

I think the reason everyone is having to
use so much tape is because they're cross threading using a 3/8" fip. It only goes on a few threada before it binds up. The threads on the nozzle are more coarse than pipe thread even.

Click to expand...

On my original, I did not use tape on the mip/fip connection. There was tape on the compression fitting.
Mine does not have stripped threads. Didn't have to jam it on. Just hand tight and no leaks.

Not sure if the manufacturing of the sprayer has changed? Never had a problem with mine

Looks like it must have! Because 3/8" fip won't thread I will try and figure it out.

I didn't go all the way through this thread but it looks like, from searching, that nobody ever came up with a solution for cornelius posts or firestone pin lock posts.

I'm a pin lock guy, and a cheap bastard, and i happen to have a cornelius pin lock post with only 1 pin still hanging on - so i could use it to clean both liquid and gas disconnects and lines.

Did anybody else notice that CHICompany has "tank conversion" fittings?

1/4" FFL to 19/32-18
1/4" MPT to 19/32-18

Those are just the adapters relevant to cornelius posts - they have numerous "put a post anywhere" adapters, all about $7.50/ea.

alowell said:

Did anyone have trouble fitting the adapter into the firestone post? I don't know if it is a ball lock vs. pin lock thing. I bought the same brass adapter from home depot and a 3 pin lock firestone post, and I am having trouble with them fitting. The 3/8" adapter seems too small for the pin lock firestone post. Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

I already had the sprayer.. which i use to spray StarSan on parts. So, I bought the adapter and the Firestone part. Parts all went together just fine.. BUT, I can't get it to quit leaking where the brass adapter screws onto the sprayer.. even with a bunch of teflon tape.

Oh well.....