I got a set of those Fastrack bottle trays. It works, but I wish there was an inch more space between each holder so it would better accommodate larger bottles, which is what I've primarily moved to because I hate sanitizing all those smaller bottles.
In my quest to eliminate or minimize the crappy parts of the brewing process, I decided to build a manifold that you could sit under the rack and pump the solution in all 24 bottles at the same time. I decided to use copper to do this because you can't get small PVC pipes and I was wanting to learn how to sweat and solder pipes. I thought about using just plastic tubing and some nylon barbed tees, but the 1/4" is the standard for those, and with 24 1/4" outlets I wasn't sure I'd get the pressure needed to get the water all the way up.
Material:
Total: ~$35 with shipping
Tools:
The bottles are spaced out 2.5" apart on this rack. To achieve that spacing with the above mentioned fittings, you'll need to cut the pipe into:
4x 15"
3x 1 5/8"
From there, I prepped and soldered everything together and then drilled the holes. Alignment was tricky for me because I actually don't own some simple tools like a square. As a result I worked backwards from what would seem like the easiest way to sweat everything. I started with the caps, then put a tee on each of the 15" pieces and then made the final connections.
I drilled last, again for alignment sake. Unfortunately I drilled by hand, and although I was close, it wasn't very accurate. My initial intention was to solder a 2", 1/8" diameter copper tube to each hole to create a jet to squirt straight up. This way you could set the bottles directly on the manifold as well as keeping them in the rack. However, after the testing it with just the holes, water shot a good two feet up from even the furthest hole from the input. So the 'jets' are not necessary, provided that the holes are accurately drilled, which mine aren't. I just tried to solder on a piece of the 1/8" tubing to one of the holes, and it's much more difficult than I imagined, so I'll probably just get some more copper tubing and drill it properly.
Once this is done, I'll put some type of spacers on the manifold so I know where to set the rack, or I'll just cut a notch in each leg of the rack so it'll sit nicely on the manifold. I still need to find a tub that this will fit into, along with the pump, which is a cheap submersible pump that I had lying around. Hopefully I'll have it finished in a day or two.
In my quest to eliminate or minimize the crappy parts of the brewing process, I decided to build a manifold that you could sit under the rack and pump the solution in all 24 bottles at the same time. I decided to use copper to do this because you can't get small PVC pipes and I was wanting to learn how to sweat and solder pipes. I thought about using just plastic tubing and some nylon barbed tees, but the 1/4" is the standard for those, and with 24 1/4" outlets I wasn't sure I'd get the pressure needed to get the water all the way up.
Material:
- 10ft. 1/2" copper pipe ($18)
- 3x copper tee ($0.86 ea, 5520K71)
- 2x elbow, female ($0.49 ea, 5520K61)
- 1x elbow, male ($2.62, 5520K264)
- 1x female to male NPT ($1.07, 5520K11)
- 4x cap ($0.36 ea, 5520K44)
Total: ~$35 with shipping
Tools:
- Pipe cutter
- Torch (solder, flux, steel wool or pipe brush)
- Drill
The bottles are spaced out 2.5" apart on this rack. To achieve that spacing with the above mentioned fittings, you'll need to cut the pipe into:
4x 15"
3x 1 5/8"
From there, I prepped and soldered everything together and then drilled the holes. Alignment was tricky for me because I actually don't own some simple tools like a square. As a result I worked backwards from what would seem like the easiest way to sweat everything. I started with the caps, then put a tee on each of the 15" pieces and then made the final connections.
I drilled last, again for alignment sake. Unfortunately I drilled by hand, and although I was close, it wasn't very accurate. My initial intention was to solder a 2", 1/8" diameter copper tube to each hole to create a jet to squirt straight up. This way you could set the bottles directly on the manifold as well as keeping them in the rack. However, after the testing it with just the holes, water shot a good two feet up from even the furthest hole from the input. So the 'jets' are not necessary, provided that the holes are accurately drilled, which mine aren't. I just tried to solder on a piece of the 1/8" tubing to one of the holes, and it's much more difficult than I imagined, so I'll probably just get some more copper tubing and drill it properly.
Once this is done, I'll put some type of spacers on the manifold so I know where to set the rack, or I'll just cut a notch in each leg of the rack so it'll sit nicely on the manifold. I still need to find a tub that this will fit into, along with the pump, which is a cheap submersible pump that I had lying around. Hopefully I'll have it finished in a day or two.