Cracks in auto siphon...

Looking at my A.S. ...there is an area 6" from the bottom that has lots of little cracks...
It is not very old and I hang it from the ceiling...It looks like it might have been stepped on...
I'm thinking it is junk due to it now being a possible infection source...right ?
Maybe it's time to upgrade to a 1/2" ss unit...?

mine has small cracks but i have yet to get an infection....knock on wood. They seem to degrade and warp after time which is unfortunate

Ahoy hoy,
I dont know how many of these I have gone through. I found that the secret to longer life is to never wash them in water thats any warmer then....well...uh...spit. Yeah thats it. I mean so luke warm its just above room temp. I even switched to a different brand, had a red cap at the bottom instead of black. It holds up fine, but loses its purge in the clutch when your too close to the crud to want to try and restart it without sucking crud, costing you a half gallon of sweet nectar. So, I went back to the standard black bottomed one, and its the smaller of the 2 sizes available. As soon as Im done using it i rinse it in lukewarm water, dry it and put it up. One trip in the dishwasher, or in some hot water in the sink, and the stress cracks appear. I never even gave thought about the infection angle.
Also, is there really a stainless steel auto siphon out there? Where?
Thanks folks FYI.....

I was just at More Beer and they had ss siphons...

+1 on water temp... I THINK it has to do washing them in really hot water and then rinsing them with cooler water..

They way I always cleaned mine was I would put some PBW in a carboy with screaming hot water and then once syphon it out usign the auto syphon....

then... i would use room temp watter to rinse out the carboy really well... and once done, again... syphon it out.

I went through a few auto syphons that way and since I've stopped doing that... (I know use warmish-hot water for both cleaning and rinsing, it stopped happening.

Maybe it is coincidence but it seems to work.

Cape Brewing said:

+1 on water temp... I THINK it has to do washing them in really hot water and then rinsing them with cooler water..

They way I always cleaned mine was I would put some PBW in a carboy with screaming hot water and then once syphon it out usign the auto syphon....

then... i would use room temp watter to rinse out the carboy really well... and once done, again... syphon it out.

I went through a few auto syphons that way and since I've stopped doing that... (I know use warmish-hot water for both cleaning and rinsing, it stopped happening.

Maybe it is coincidence but it seems to work.

Click to expand...

Same here. My tap water is hot enough to cause the stress cracks. I ruined 2 before figuring out it was the water temp. My third looks new going on 6 months or more now.

Linc

I never wash mine in very hot water but still have these cracks about halfway up. Only a problem yesterday if I pumped very long strokes.

At least now I know my little girl didn't step on it.

Don't certain types of detergent also degrade certain types of plastic?

tireater said:

I was just at More Beer and they had ss siphons...

Click to expand...

Stainless steel *auto* siphons? I haven't heard of those... but stainless steel siphons are all over the place.