Turbo Better Bottle Washer

Lately I've been in an improve the brewery mode.... If it ain't broke, make it better.
So I was soaking a BB in oxyclean last night and was thinking, "man that is a lot of wasted water. I remember seeing the BYO article on how to make one out of copper and it looked okay, just a bit wide at the bottom and with all of those fittings I'd be afraid I would scratch something.

Here is the build list.
$6.77 - 1/2" type M copper pipe @ 5'
$0.48 - 1/2" pipe cap
$1.57 - #8 hose clamp pack of 2
$2.35 - 1/2" Female NPT adapter
$7.63 - 1/2" Sweat Ball Valve
$4.55 - 5' of 1/2" ID braided vinyl tubing
~$2.00 - 1/2" MPT to 1/2" Hose Barb (Had one on hand)
$3.87 - Portable Dishwasher sink adapter
$7.73 - Mister Landscaper Large Circle Spinner (MLM-15) Pack of 10 need 1..
$36.95 - Total. You could do better if you buy the pipe by the foot and find smaller packages of the mister landscaper. You could also forgo the ball valve and use the sink valve.

Cut 1 24" piece of pipe and one 6" piece.
Drill a 5/32 hole in the middle of the pipe cap.
Sweat the 1/2" FPT adapter to one end of the 6" pipe and the valve to the other end.
Sweat the other end of the valve to the 24" pipe and sweat the cap to the end of the 24"

I took a sending drum to the lip of the cap so it was nice and smooth. Didn't want to scratch up the neck of the BB.

Take one of the mister landscaper bits and screw it in to the hole in the cap. It wont screw right in and will require a fair bit of force while turning, but it will go. Maybe seating it with some JB weld or other epoxy would be a good idea.

Thread in the 1/2" hose barb at the other end and attach the hose with a hose clamp.

Push the portable dish washer faucet adapter on the other end of the hose and secure it with a clamp.

Screw it in to the sink turn the hot water on. Shove it in a better bottle and let her rip.

I don't have a dirty carboy to test it on so I don't know how effective it is. This is the first time I have looked forward to cleaning one...









[youtube]j2X4oc9Hq6w[/youtube]

That is insane. Overkill, and very very cool!!!!!! I just use oxyclean or my jet bottle washer, but that is cool.

I wonder how it would work in a beer bottle. *grins evilly*

Wow. That looks like it works well.

Revvy said:

That is insane. Overkill, and very very cool!!!!!! I just use oxyclean or my jet bottle washer, but that is cool.

I wonder how it would work in a beer bottle. *grins evilly*

Click to expand...

Hey thanks!

I bet it would work well, the only problem is the sprinkler is too wide for the bottle mouth. It looks like the wing on one side could be cut off and it still work. Don't quote me on that though.

They have other options that may work but I liked the rotating concentrated stream.

Surprisingly it doesn't make mess. I tried it on an ale pale and it through up a whole lot of mist but that was about it. It doesn't use a whole lot of water either. It does say 10 gph but my tap pressure is probably twice what they are rated at. Still, that isn't much water.

I'm also thinking about using a couple of the 90 deg fan misters as a return for my cooling water for the CFC. This way I can recirculate a couple of gallons through ice instead of 7 like I currently am.

CodeRage said:

Hey thanks!

I bet it would work well, the only problem is the sprinkler is too wide for the bottle mouth. It looks like the wing on one side could be cut off and it still work. Don't quote me on that though.

Click to expand...

Nope... the sprayer is held on the top and the water of jet sprays out at the spinner.

JVD_X said:

Nope... the sprayer is held on the top and the water of jet sprays out at the spinner.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured that much out I don't know if both sides need to be attached to the top to hold the spinner in place. I just clipped one and it is hard to tell. Ill test it tomorrow.

1/2" pipe would be a TIGHT fit in the bottle to. I don't think I would go bigger than 3/8"

I have a buddy here in town and on here, that has built prolly every gadget on here and on youtube. I pmmed him about this gizmo, I expect to see it in his brewery withing the week.

If I paypal you a couple bucks, would you send me a pair of those spinners?

PM sent
....

I wonder how it would work if you put some PBX or OxyClean in a bus tub, made your super spinner thing stationary and pointing up vertially, and used a sump-pump to pump the PBW through it. Hold the BB upside down and move it up and down (in a suggestive manner) so the cleaner runs out and back in to the bus tub so you can recirculate the cleaner. Would be a great way to clean several of them at a time, and if you found a configuration that would fit in a beer bottle, that would be even awesomer.

Edit: Something like this pump might work, and its only $9. It has a max of 66GPH, not sure what the min is, but there's a switch.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=45303

I really like yout thinking on this. Nice little build. Maybe this could go on the end of the sprayer for sanitizing the bottle as well. Would be a lot easier to get a nice even coating in there.


As you mentioned about the pressure.....I would think that is where the demise of the tip will come from. Those drip irrigation systems are regulated down to like 10 psi. I know my water here at the house it about 45 psi.

Surprisingly they hold up just fine to the pressure. I cut the one side off of the sprinkler holding the top on and it still functioned fine. I was surprised it didn't spit the spinner out.

The one thing I did NOT do last night was use my hand to test the pressure of the stream coming out of it. It was pretty weak, felt like mist. So I took it out the spinner and the hole the water comes out of is a tiny little piss hole. So I drilled it out to 3/8" and the force of the stream improved. I am modifying one of the caps so it better utilizes the larger volume of water.

aubrey said:

I wonder how it would work if you put some PBX or OxyClean in a bus tub, made your super spinner thing stationary and pointing up vertially, and used a sump-pump to pump the PBW through it. Hold the BB upside down and move it up and down (in a suggestive manner) so the cleaner runs out and back in to the bus tub so you can recirculate the cleaner. Would be a great way to clean several of them at a time, and if you found a configuration that would fit in a beer bottle, that would be even awesomer.

Edit: Something like this pump might work, and its only $9. It has a max of 66GPH, not sure what the min is, but there's a switch.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=45303

Click to expand...

It will cost you an extra fifty dollars or so, but if you are going to use a pump I think something like this is a much better design:

http://www.aleiens.com/profiles/blogs/carboy-and-keg-washer