Is my auto siphon broken.

I got a bunch of hop leafs in my auto siphon last night and while trying to get them out I accidentally pushed the little insert thing that helps start the siphon out of it. Does anyone know how to get that thing back into place it seems damn near impossible. So do I need to buy a new auto siphon or is there a way to fix this thing?

Thanks

Pava

I had the exact same thing happen and am wondering this as well.

I did that the other night. I tried everything to get it back in there, with NO luck. I guess I will buy 2 more for when this happens again!

Can you be more specific which part? I have taken mine apart several times and can probably help if I know what you are referring to.

A wood dowel and some "fun tack" or double sided tape to hold the one way valve to the end of the dowel.

hmmm . . .that just might work . . . I don't have a wood dowel that long on hand, but maybe a wire clothes hanger could be stretched out and would work. I will definitely give this a try.

I had mine pop out and luckily had some copper pipe laying around.

I balanced the black button on the end of it and slid the siphon tube down over the pipe being careful not to bump it on the sides. Once I got the two tabs on the button lined up I pushed down gently until it clicked back in.

A wooden dowel and some corn syrup or other sticky water soluble substance would work too I suppose. I was just working with what I had.

Well Hot Damn it worked!!! Bobby you are a friggin' genius . . . that is so simple I really should have thought of it, thanks for the tip!!

If you don't have a wooden dowel laying around a metal clothes hanger works perfectly, all I did was cut a length long enough to reach the bottom of the siphon and then wrapped the end up with masking tape making sure that the 'ball of tape' ended up with the sticky side on the outside. Stuck the little piece to that tape and lined it up with the notches at the end of the siphon and pushed it right back into place. . .voila!!

Thanks again for the tip Bobby, this worked like a charm and saved me from having to go buy another siphon.

I've been trying to clean and sanitize my fermtech autosiphon as good as possible without taking it apart... There is hardened glue visible where the black "crown" piece attaches to the chamber... I've often wondered if this thing can be taken apart without destroying it... It works well, but it came with no instructions as to how to take it apart... Without proper dis-assembly I am scared it will eventually cause bacteria build up... Should I be trying harder to tear this thing down for cleaning/sanitization?

I think youre worrying too much. Just run star-san or whatever sanitizer you use through it and let is soak for a minute before you use it. It will kill anything it touches with that contact time.

For a while, I dropped a sanitized dime into my siphon. Eventually, I needed to replace my lines and I tried the three hoses and a tee trick. And when those had to be replaced, I bought a new siphon.

The dime trick to replace the black button valve worked great. Turns out one of the two notched arms on the black button bent in on me so it would go in but not stay in under pressure.

One Pump Start Auto siphon How To:
1) Begin with the auto siphon in the closed/collapsed position.
2) Place the auto siphon in the liquid.
3) While holding the outer part down pull up on the racking cane for about 15 inches until it is almost pulled out. This will draw the liquid into the chamber which should now be almost full of liquid.
4) While still holding the outer part plunge the racking cane part down firmly in one continuous motion which easily starts the siphon.

This has happened to me a few times. The stupid clip pops out each time after I so the dowel trick. I just stick them aside and buy a new one. It sucks... But oh well.

I think I'm alittle ruff with it.

Hey Bobby - your trick worked to fix my autosiphon as well! The clothes hanger didn't work but the deconstructed Swiffer handle sure did!

Cheers!

+1 on the wooden dowl. The double sided tape would have helped. Took me a few frustrating minutes.

Side note, this happened on another siphon but I must have thrown out the little black plastic butterfly valve. Can this be purchased by itself.

I did not have a dowel, but I did have a strong straw and two chopsticks which tapered slightly toward their points.
I pushed a chopstick into each end of the the straw until snug.
This created a dowel long enough to reach the bottom of the auto-siphon.
I stood the dowel straight up, put a dab of honey on the top end, and stuck the insert to the top of the dowel so that the two little snap-in prongs were pointing straight up.
Then I turned the tube for the siphon upside down and lowered it down onto the dowel, and snapped the insert into place.

I did not disassemble the straw and chopsticks. I wanted my family to be impressed with my brilliance . But they didn't even notice it, so I had to start leaving it in more prominent locations, like on my wife's pillow.

Eventually my wife did notice, and said "What the **** is this?", and threw it away. We had Japanese food that night and I had to eat it with a spoon.

The thing about being a genius is that your family doesn't always understand you, and you get lonely. Thank goodness I can come to homebrewtalk and connect with other precocious 40-year-old men, many of whom are sober.

There are sober people here? That's not fair, plus why ? We MAKE our own yeast pee why arent you using it regularly?

@BBBF Thank you so much for the dime trick. Spent an hour wrestling with my flutter valve, snapped a tine, and this saved me!