Use pump with garden hose sprayer?

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JJWP

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So I'm looking for an easy way to clean out my keggles after a brew day. I live in an apartment so I don't have an outside hose hookup or anything like that. Currently my best option is to drag the kegs inside and try to spray them out in my bath tub. This is a real PITA and the wife is not a big fan either.

I was thinking: is there any reason I couldn't attach a hose with a standard garden sprayer nozzle at one end to the outlet of one of my pumps (i have two Iwakis, an MD30 and an MD40)? The idea would be that I would fill an empty keggle and heat it up some PBW water - or just plain water - on my brew stand. Then i would pump to the sprayer attached to a hose on the outlet side of the pump. I would leave the outlet side ball valve wide open and use the spray nozzle to hose down anything that needed it?

Would there be enough pressure generated by the pump to create a good spray? The iwakis are rated to a ridiculously high gallons per minute I believe..


Any reasons that this wouldn't work? Dangers to the pump due to restricting flow in this manner?

Thanks
 
They also sell adapters that go from garden hose to your kitchen (or bathroom) sink faucet.

As long as the wife is okay with a hose running through the apartment, that would be the simplest way I can think of.

I dont know much about those pumps, but I would imagine it would work.
 
I don't know the specs on those pumps, but I doubt that any of them could provide enough pressure for that type of application. If I were you, I would clean the kegs outside. You don't need a lot of pressure really. Mostly you want to be able to rinse well. I would find a way to get water outside through a window or something. A garden hose adapter on a sink faucet is a good idea or tap into the line under the sink. Be careful with the keg in a bathtub. I could see it damaging the tub if it's porcelain or anything similar. I'd put a rubber mat in the tub to protect it if you must use the tub. It can be a major challenge to brew in an apartment situation. Oh yeah, have you looked to see if the building has any outside faucets? That would be my first option even if you have to bribe the maintenance guy. Ply him with some home brew if necessary.
 
thanks for the replies guys. the building is a 100 yr old chicago 3 flat - no outside water hookups.

I do have a faucet adapter and had considered just doing that (or hooking up to my hot water heater drain in the storage room) but bc of the way my place is laid out id either need 100 feet of hose to get outside or I'd have to run the hose right by my flat screen tv, computer equipment, etc which makes me nervous.

I think ill give it a try with my spare pump and we will see what happens - I think at worst it just doesn't get a good high pressure spray...
 
I think at worst it just doesn't get a good high pressure spray...

if they are direct drive pumps, the worst that will happen is you burn out the pump with the restriction of the sprayer. you can only restrict magnetic drive pumps, like the march 809, in this way without burning them out.
 

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