Autosiphon Mishap

So I had my hefeweizen in the primary (bucket) for a week, open it tonight and took an FG reading, looked good 72.9% apparent attenuation and looks good except it is REALLY dark, so I decided to rack to secondary. On Saturday I went to my LHBS and bought a Better Bottle (5 gal) and an autosiphon.

Last night I filled the Better Bottle with water to try out the autosiohon. Followed the directions, everything seeded to work well.

Today I disconnected everything, sanitized, and proceeded to siphon. It took me a while to get the flow started, once started it quit about half way through. I could not get it restarted. After 10+ minutes of try i finally got it started and was able to get it all out.

In the process I introduced a lot of air into the carboy. How much air before I need to worry about oxidation? Oh well, we'll see what it is like in a week or so.

I think my problem is that I have the wrong size tubing (I guess it is 3/8, should have 5/16). When it worked last night I thought it was correct. After this happened, I searched here and there was a thread almost 2 years ago about this problem (wrong tube size). I bought it because I had heard all good things. Just though I would start this thread topic (again) for anyone that is about to get an autosiphon. Check the tube size!

My buddy had the same problem when he first bought one. We got to his house and ended up wrapping tape around it to try and seal it since we didnt have any other tubing there at the time.

Oh, what do you mean you took an OG reading after a week in the primary....Did you just mean you took a SG reading.

Tophe96 said:

My buddy had the same problem when he first bought one. We got to his house and ended up wrapping tape around it to try and seal it since we didnt have any other tubing there at the time.

Oh, what do you mean you took an OG reading after a week in the primary....Did you just mean you took a SG reading.

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I used some tape too, that's why I was finally able to get it going again.

Yes, I meant FG, thanks, I fixed it.

Yeah, they sell two sizes of that thing as well. I have one of each. the small one seemed to fit my hoses fine. The big one (I upgraded all hoses to a bigger size) fits some hoses snug and others a bit loose. Seems some manufactures version of 1/2" ID is not the same as others.
I use the thing walled tubing. Way less kinking.

Now I have acquired a buon vino filter. Don't use the filters, just the pump. Saves time and I can run it though my cartridge filters (house filter type) if I wish. Had ot buy some adpaters to go from the small hose back to the 1/2".