MalFet's bottle washer for lazy homebrewers

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joebab said:
More flow than spray. I did pinch the ends of the tubing to get more of a spray, and it did improve the cleaning action and did seem to improve coverage inside the bottles. By pinching, I was able to get the stream to about 8 to 10 inches high.
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Okay, cool. It's still strange to me that I'm getting so much more vertical height than everyone else (narrower copper?), but 8-10 inches is absolutely sufficient if you're getting good coverage on the inside.
 
Subscribed.


I'm going to hold off constructing mine until v 2.0 is released. I hear from industry insiders that plans include an upgrade which will simultaneously wash the crud from the inside and remove labels. :)
 
TrainSafe said:
Subscribed.


I'm going to hold off constructing mine until v 2.0 is released. I hear from industry insiders that plans include an upgrade which will simultaneously wash the crud from the inside and remove labels. :)
Click to expand...

Certainly there have been snags for early adopters, but mine washes crud from the inside just fine right now. :)
 
Joebab are you using just water at this point. If you are seeing the water not spreading to every point on the bottle, like dry spots or spots not being rinsed, it may improve once you add oxyclean, pbw or whatever soap you decide to use because it will reduce the surface tension of the water
 
Using Oxy. The volume of liquid seems sufficient but the force just isn't there. Works ok on bottles with moist sediment (but so does just a quick rinse from the faucet). Doesn't do much on several day old non rinsed bottles.
 
MalFet said:
If, on the other hand, you're not getting good spread on the bottom of the bottles, simply pinching the ends a bit with a pair of pliers should work too.
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Pinched the ends, and as you can see, the results are much more encouraging! Now when I put a bottle on it, it does cover all the sides. I am officially in business with this thing now! I have about 50 bottles that have been sitting in oxyclean for over a month because we just didn't want to have to do the actual work of cleaning. We will be using this soon to bottle that pumpkin ale we brewed back in october... Ya, kinda late, but it should be good next year... I have kegged a couple beers since then, but just haven't had the motivation to bottle. Looks like that's going to change.

I attached some pictures of it in action, including use in combo with my cheap beer crates I mentioned earlier. The summary of changes I made to the original design:
1)Used a T connector in place of corner piece for the hose connection, instead of a cross piece (only because Lowes did not have any cross pieces)
2)I used a copper with larger ID, and crimped the ends. (still 1/4" OD)
3)Reduced the total number of spigots to 24, which match up to my "custom" 24 bottle crates I already have.
4)I put the washer on TOP of the crate and flip the crate.
5) My hookup is a 3ft 5/8 hose with standard garden hose attachment on the pump end, and the other end jammed over a section of 1/2" CPVC (took some hot water to make it happen) which fits into the T section.
6) I used NO PVC glue or JB Weld to hold anything together.

In case I haven't said it yet, Thanks for the build MalFet! It will be nice to see some other people's versions, and see what type of results others are getting. I am going to get a garden hose adapter for my old pump, and I suspect it will work as well.

One last think I didn't mention: I have good water pressure at my house. When I hook this up to the hose I get very similar performance to being hooked up to the pump. So I can easily rinse with fresh water this way!

-micah

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micahshaw said:
Pinched the ends, and as you can see, the results are much more encouraging! Now when I put a bottle on it, it does cover all the sides. I am officially in business with this thing now! I have about 50 bottles that have been sitting in oxyclean for over a month because we just didn't want to have to do the actual work of cleaning. We will be using this soon to bottle that pumpkin ale we brewed back in october... Ya, kinda late, but it should be good next year... I have kegged a couple beers since then, but just haven't had the motivation to bottle. Looks like that's going to change.

I attached some pictures of it in action, including use in combo with my cheap beer crates I mentioned earlier. The summary of changes I made to the original design:
1)Used a T connector in place of corner piece for the hose connection, instead of a cross piece (only because Lowes did not have any cross pieces)
2)I used a copper with larger ID, and crimped the ends. (still 1/4" OD)
3)Reduced the total number of spigots to 24, which match up to my "custom" 24 bottle crates I already have.
4)I put the washer on TOP of the crate and flip the crate.
5) My hookup is a 3ft 5/8 hose with standard garden hose attachment on the pump end, and the other end jammed over a section of 1/2" CPVC (took some hot water to make it happen) which fits into the T section.
6) I used NO PVC glue or JB Weld to hold anything together.

In case I haven't said it yet, Thanks for the build MalFet! It will be nice to see some other people's versions, and see what type of results others are getting. I am going to get a garden hose adapter for my old pump, and I suspect it will work as well.

One last think I didn't mention: I have good water pressure at my house. When I hook this up to the hose I get very similar performance to being hooked up to the pump. So I can easily rinse with fresh water this way!

-micah
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Awesome!

I'm glad to see pinching the ends was enough to get you there. It looks like you've got all the flow and height you need now. I'm going to add a note about copper wall thickness to the original post. Thanks for keeping us posted; your experiments will help future builders who run into the same issues.

I like the wooden crates, too. Milk crates are one of those things that seem to be cheap and abundant in some places but very hard to come by in others. I guess I lucked out to have a manufactory just down the road that will sell them to me new for $6 a piece.

:mug:
 
joebab said:
Using Oxy. The volume of liquid seems sufficient but the force just isn't there. Works ok on bottles with moist sediment (but so does just a quick rinse from the faucet). Doesn't do much on several day old non rinsed bottles.
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If you're looking for force, this build won't provide it even under ideal circumstances. Even with a vastly larger pump, the stream would be hitting a just a single spot unless you go to the trouble of moving everything around methodically, which ultimately defeats the whole purpose.

How much time are you giving the washer to work on the really nasty bottles? I found a case of bottles in the back of a closet that had been left dirty for probably two years or more. I put them in the washer for about a half hour with hot and strong PBW, and when I came back they were pristine. I've never had a bottle that didn't get fully clean with good long soak, but then again perhaps I've only scratched the surface of how bad bottles can get. :mug:
 
Let it run for about 30 minutes with Oxyclean and hot water. The stream washes a hole in the crud where it hits, but does not seem to clean the rest of the bottle. Maybe these bottles were used to store concrete??
 
Finally got mine all put together last night... The idea of using a seperate T for each and evey vertical run seemed like a good idea, but the actual execution of it was BRUTAL. I must have spent 5+ hrs on this little project. Not that I mind, if I weren't working on this, I'd be tinkering with something else, but wow did it take longer than I'd have imagined.

Right now it's held together with friction, I thought I might be able to get away with that, but since I'm doing an upside down design, it has to be able to support the weight of the bottles. When I tried it out last night, there was SIGNIFICANT bowing in the middle of each run. Guess I'll have to glue it all up afterall...

Just recently picked up a kegging system, so I decided to make a Keg/Carboy washer to work with the same pump as this, and Harbor Freight was having a sale, so I went with the 1 HP sump pump (http://www.harborfreight.com/1-horsepower-dirty-water-pump-with-float-69301.html). It has 2640 GPH capacity, but only 20 FT Headlift (didn't realize the headlift was so low till I got home,) which I was surprised considering it's a full 1 HP. Works brilliantly for the Keg/Carboy washing, but on the test run for the bottle washer, I was getting a paltry 3-4" clearance. I'm pretty sure I've got a few leaks considering I haven't used any glue, so we'll see how it plays out once everything is tightened up. From what I could tell though, even with the low clearance, I was getting full coverage in all the bottles, so I think it should be more than sufficient. Will post back with more as I progress.
 
BarrelheadBrew said:
I went with the 1 HP sump pump (http://www.harborfreight.com/1-horsepower-dirty-water-pump-with-float-69301.html). It has 2640 GPH capacity, but only 20 FT Headlift (didn't realize the headlift was so low till I got home,) which I was surprised considering it's a full 1 HP. Works brilliantly for the Keg/Carboy washing, but on the test run for the bottle washer, I was getting a paltry 3-4" clearance.
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I got the 3/5HP version of that pump, and had similar results. However, the pump the MelFet linked to is a 1/4 HP, and got me very similar results. I think MelFet is using copper with a much smaller ID. I found that crimping the ends to reduce the cross section was sufficient to get me a good 10" or so, plenty of force to ensure good even coverage of the bottles. Any easy (and cheap) fix.

I'll have to post a pic of my carboy washer without a carboy on it. It shoots water about 5 feet in the air with this same pump.

-micah
 
Spent several more hours over the course of last week messing with my concept. Found that what worked as a dry fit, wasn't as good when I pulled it apart and started trying to glue it all together. Nothing was lining up anymore. It was just a disaster. I got half way through then decided I was going to test it before I went further. Capped the ends and hooked it to the pump. Still got terrible results. I think the Inside Diameter issue is one that just cannot be over come. Being that it's CPVC, I Couldn't just Crimp the ends.

Saturday I stopped by the store, and ended up copying the original design almost exactly. Surprise surprise, it works perfectly. I did make some errors in the construction (namely, putting the 1/4" pipe too far into the CPVC and restricting flow,) but even my shortest streams are going 7-8" vertically now. Cleaned 4 cases of bottles during the down moments while brewing yesterday. WOW! So much easier.
 
BarrelheadBrew said:
Spent several more hours over the course of last week messing with my concept. Found that what worked as a dry fit, wasn't as good when I pulled it apart and started trying to glue it all together. Nothing was lining up anymore. It was just a disaster. I got half way through then decided I was going to test it before I went further. Capped the ends and hooked it to the pump. Still got terrible results. I think the Inside Diameter issue is one that just cannot be over come. Being that it's CPVC, I Couldn't just Crimp the ends.

Saturday I stopped by the store, and ended up copying the original design almost exactly. Surprise surprise, it works perfectly. I did make some errors in the construction (namely, putting the 1/4" pipe too far into the CPVC and restricting flow,) but even my shortest streams are going 7-8" vertically now. Cleaned 4 cases of bottles during the down moments while brewing yesterday. WOW! So much easier.
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Glad to hear you got it working!

I really liked your original concept, so I hope you can get it to work at some point. If the problem is simply the diameter of the spouts (and that does seem to be a major factor for many people) you could always plug the ends with epoxy and then drill a new, smaller hole.

Like many here, I've got mine friction assembled. I even have a bottle of joint compound, but I just never bothered to use it. If there are leaks, they're small enough not to matter.

One of these days I'll get around to building a copper version. That will be far and away the most durable. With a bit of machining knowledge, I suspect one could sweat together a frame and then thread the spouts so they screw in. I'm hoping someone talented in this direction will start manufacturing and selling these things. Bad things seem to happen every time I take out my torch, so I take that as a sign from the universe that I shouldn't try to join metal with fire.



----------
In other news, I've made a keg/carboy washer from some leftover CPVC and a CIP ball from brewershardware. The thing could chip enamel. It's a much simpler project, but it uses the same pump and hookups so it's cheap&easy once you've got a bottle washer going. I'll post pics if I remember.
 
Fordzilla said:
This pump was on HomeBrewFinds yesterday. Any chance it would work for this? It states a flow rating of 26 GPH @ 6' Lift, which is close to the one in the OP. The guy on HomeBrewFinds says it's not good for high temps, but the Amazon listing doesn't state operating temps anywhere that I can see.
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The pump I've used in the original build has 25' of lift. I strongly suspect that this one won't even come close to working, unfortunately.
 
MalFet said:
Glad to hear you got it working!

I really liked your original concept, so I hope you can get it to work at some point. If the problem is simply the diameter of the spouts (and that does seem to be a major factor for many people) you could always plug the ends with epoxy and then drill a new, smaller hole.

Like many here, I've got mine friction assembled. I even have a bottle of joint compound, but I just never bothered to use it. If there are leaks, they're small enough not to matter.

One of these days I'll get around to building a copper version. That will be far and away the most durable. With a bit of machining knowledge, I suspect one could sweat together a frame and then thread the spouts so they screw in. I'm hoping someone talented in this direction will start manufacturing and selling these things. Bad things seem to happen every time I take out my torch, so I take that as a sign from the universe that I shouldn't try to join metal with fire.



----------
In other news, I've made a keg/carboy washer from some leftover CPVC and a CIP ball from brewershardware. The thing could chip enamel. It's a much simpler project, but it uses the same pump and hookups so it's cheap&easy once you've got a bottle washer going. I'll post pics if I remember.
Click to expand...

Originally, I'd wanted to do an all copper version, I'm much better at cutting an sweating together Copper than CPVC. Seems counter intuitive, but true. It came down to cost in the end. When priced out, the frame and couplers were going to run in the $50-60 range. End the end, this is what I spent as I ended up buying the materials for this project twice, but I can't imagine there being enough of a demand for a product like this as it'd have to be $100 or more to be profittable. I may still go back and do a frame in copper at some point, just because I think it'd look really cool, and I could reuse the vertical 1/4" piping I already have.

When I returned to the hardware store for the second batch of materials, I also picked up some 1/2" PVC with a cap, and drilled holes in the top for a Keg/Carboy washer. It was another $5, put it together in a matter of minutes, and connected it to my existing setup for this. A buddy of mine also uses his pump to recirculate ice water through his wort chiller. He uses two gallons of tap water and adds 3 bags of ice as the water heats up, tosses in oxyclean afterwards to clean up, then does a load of laundry with that water afterwards. Seems like a much better use of water than hooking up a water hose and blowing it out into the yard, I just don't know if I want wort/hop residue in my laundry. :)
 
I'm considering making one of these and I want to run a couple thoughts by others. I'd like the thing to work properly, given that this is very much an experimental subject.

It's my opinion we've established that, obvious in hindsight, restricting the flow on the 1/4" risers has a direct impact on the height and strength of the overall stream. (Thicker pipe, crimping the ends...) I'm thinking about using 1/4" end-caps with small holes drilled into them on each vertical riser. I found a post somewhere of someone who did this and said a single hole worked best. I'll probably start with very small holes (1/16") and work my way up so I can adjust the overall backpressure of the system, if needed. Has anyone tried this? Is my thinking flawed? Any reason to think I wouldn't get a decent water column, capable of providing a bottle drenching stream?

Also, I'm considering the system's input and overall manifold design. Is anyone else inclined to think that restricting the input to the system to 1/2" right away could negatively affect performance? Is going through the trouble to increase the pump's input into the system, given the pump's original output of 1-1/4", worth it? The manual for the pump states, "Whenever possible, use the same or larger size pipe than the pump discharge for optimum performance. Reducing the pipe size will not harm your pump; it will just reduce the output." Is there any reason to think going through this effort would provide better results?

I'm thinking about building mine to fit in a rubbermaid container, like micahshaw, so a hard piped output from the pump is feasible. 1" would be easiest to standardize on, I think. I'd tee the 1" connection from the pump, then fork that input into two 1/2" segments of the manifold via bushings. Since I'm making mine to clean 24 bottles, that helps me get symmetry and, I think, would allow the system to perform closer to it's maximum potential.

Thanks! I realize no one really has expertise in this subject, but if anyone has any input, it's much appreciated!
 
I went even lazier. When my wife wanted a new dishwasher, I made sure it had a stainless steel tub with steam, high heat, and sanitize settings. As long as there is no gunk in the bottom, all the clean bottles I need.
 
revco said:
I'm considering making one of these and I want to run a couple thoughts by others. I'd like the thing to work properly, given that this is very much an experimental subject.
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Great! Just promise to keep us appraised as you progress. :mug:

revco said:
It's my opinion we've established that, obvious in hindsight, restricting the flow on the 1/4" risers has a direct impact on the height and strength of the overall stream. (Thicker pipe, crimping the ends...) I'm thinking about using 1/4" end-caps with small holes drilled into them on each vertical riser. I found a post somewhere of someone who did this and said a single hole worked best. I'll probably start with very small holes (1/16") and work my way up so I can adjust the overall backpressure of the system, if needed. Has anyone tried this? Is my thinking flawed? Any reason to think I wouldn't get a decent water column, capable of providing a bottle drenching stream?
Click to expand...

Riser diameter is very important, as we've been discovering. I don't see any reason why drilled caps wouldn't work, though to be honest it's more work than I'd probably be willing to do. I was surprised to learn how much variation there is in refrigerator coil, but pinching the ends seems like a cheap-n-easy solution. If you want to go with caps, though, I suspect it would work but I can't say for sure.

revco said:
Also, I'm considering the system's input and overall manifold design. Is anyone else inclined to think that restricting the input to the system to 1/2" right away could negatively affect performance? Is going through the trouble to increase the pump's input into the system, given the pump's original output of 1-1/4", worth it? The manual for the pump states, "Whenever possible, use the same or larger size pipe than the pump discharge for optimum performance. Reducing the pipe size will not harm your pump; it will just reduce the output." Is there any reason to think going through this effort would provide better results?

I'm thinking about building mine to fit in a rubbermaid container, like micahshaw, so a hard piped output from the pump is feasible. 1" would be easiest to standardize on, I think. I'd tee the 1" connection from the pump, then fork that input into two 1/2" segments of the manifold via bushings. Since I'm making mine to clean 24 bottles, that helps me get symmetry and, I think, would allow the system to perform closer to it's maximum potential.
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I've been thinking about this a lot too. I think there's no question that the 1/2" piping is constricting flow significantly. A larger manifold of some sort would almost certainly increase overall throughput. I haven't gone that route because I didn't need to, but those who can

The reason I went with 1/2" was simply that it fit perfectly into the milk crate. As far as I'm concerned, that's my "discovery" here. The idea of pumping water into a bunch of bottles at the same time is not exactly innovation, but what I was thrilled to discover was just how easily cheap parts fit together. Five standard cpvc joints take up exactly the width of a standard milk crate, and the whole thing can be powered by an inexpensive pump. For those with more design and build flexibility, I have no doubt that there are better options, and I'm thrilled that people are using this as motivation to experiment.

That's why I really like your idea of using two different inputs to the manifold. It could work with virtually no change to the original design, and I suspect it would significantly increase flow (though hopefully the engineers will chime in to correct me if I'm wrong!). Simply having two inlets rather than one is smart.

If you go this route, let us know how it goes! If I get a chance to swing by the hardware store this week, I'll pick up some extra plumbing to see if I can increase my power this way.
 
Thanks for the input Malfet. I'm an engineer...just an electrical one...so clearly I know more about the flow of electrons than I do water!

In light of the fact that I couldn't find any absolute info on this, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the fittings and pump late last night. Worst case, it'll be an expensive, over-engineered mistake, but I've certainly made worse decisions! So, fairly soon here, I should have some data about the increased input size and whether it makes a significant impact on the performance of the system.

Upping the input to 1"+ via a hose style connection, like in your design, is difficult, if only because it's difficult to source 1" silicone food grade hose. It's not really difficult with hard pipe, however, and simply involves a 1-1/4" coupler, a 1-1/4" to 1" bushing and a 1" CPVC MIPS to Slip adapter.

And yes, I promise to post my design, bill of materials and results! I'm hoping to have a rough fit next weekend, but that'll depend on when the plumbing actually arrives and whether I've made any critical errors in the design.
 
revco said:
Thanks for the input Malfet. I'm an engineer...just an electrical one...so clearly I know more about the flow of electrons than I do water!

In light of the fact that I couldn't find any absolute info on this, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the fittings and pump late last night. Worst case, it'll be an expensive, over-engineered mistake, but I've certainly made worse decisions! So, fairly soon here, I should have some data about the increased input size and whether it makes a significant impact on the performance of the system.

Upping the input to 1"+ via a hose style connection, like in your design, is difficult, if only because it's difficult to source 1" silicone food grade hose. It's not really difficult with hard pipe, however, and simply involves a 1-1/4" coupler, a 1-1/4" to 1" bushing and a 1" CPVC MIPS to Slip adapter.

And yes, I promise to post my design, bill of materials and results! I'm hoping to have a rough fit next weekend, but that'll depend on when the plumbing actually arrives and whether I've made any critical errors in the design.
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Great!

I wasn't thinking to use a 1" silicon hose, but rather to feed the pump into a 1" or 1 1/4" fitting and then split that immediately into two 1/2" fittings. Then, I'd use two pieces of the same 1/2" hose, just like before. The actual manifold would be the same, it would just have two 1/2" inputs (one at each corner?) rather than one.

I never played with the design much because mine worked right off the bat, but it's nice to have as many options as possible if people are finding their flow underpowered.

:mug:
 
Sort of :off:, but you could use the submersible pump in conjunction with a wort chiller. For instance, if your tap water isn't cold enough to cut the mustard, you could fill the sink or other vessel with ice water (add salt if you really want to drive the temp down, but clean your pump after) and drop your submersible in that to feed your chiller.
 
GrizzAndFish said:
Sort of :off:, but you could use the submersible pump in conjunction with a wort chiller. For instance, if your tap water isn't cold enough to cut the mustard, you could fill the sink or other vessel with ice water (add salt if you really want to drive the temp down, but clean your pump after) and drop your submersible in that to feed your chiller.
Click to expand...

A buddy of mine does this.... I plan on trying it with my next batch... I'm thinking a 5 gallon bucket and a few bags of ice should do just fine... I believe he said he can get to pitching temps in 5-10 mins.
 
MalFet said:
Great!

I wasn't thinking to use a 1" silicon hose, but rather to feed the pump into a 1" or 1 1/4" fitting and then split that immediately into two 1/2" fittings. Then, I'd use two pieces of the same 1/2" hose, just like before. The actual manifold would be the same, it would just have two 1/2" inputs (one at each corner?) rather than one.

I never played with the design much because mine worked right off the bat, but it's nice to have as many options as possible if people are finding their flow underpowered.

:mug:
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Derp, I should have thought that one through! I had actually considered that design originally. That design did use tees at the corners instead of elbows, allowing me to make the two 1/2" connections. When thinking it through, though, I didn't know if there would be an impact from two opposing flows within the manifold. In my design, I'll still have opposing flows, but they will be almost exclusively at the rear of the manifold.

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about flow dynamics to even begin the estimations. It'll be interesting to compare results, nonetheless. I'm very curious if my decision to up the input size will make a darn bit of difference, so if you get a chance to experiment, I'll be paying attention!

Back order on some of the parts, so it looks like I'm two weeks out at this point.
 
Mal Fet,
That is so stupid simple I am amazed no one thought of this sooner. Definately on my ever growing project list now too.

Wheelchair Bob
 
MalFet said:
I ordered a CIP spray ball from brewershardware a few days ago with the intention of making a keg/carboy washer that hooks up to the same pump. I'll post pictures if I get it working.



Tried it; doesn't work. ;)

The first bottles fill up too fast and the last bottles fill up not at all.
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I've thought about doing a multi bottle filler. I would do it with hard tubing, because the challenge is to time all te bottles to fill at the same time, so you might want to restrict the flow of the tubes that fill first, by kinking the tubes.

There is some basis in reality for doin this, as I sell hardware that sometimes experiences this 'flow race'. We have devices that replicate this function (flow control). Slight, gentle kinking of hard tubing would work well.
 
I love this idea.

Going to work a few tweaks into it:
- use a pair of eductors (http://tankeductors.com/eductor1.htm) and soap/sanitation containers to allow for inline soap/sanitizer injection.
- use a pair of rotameters to allow for accurate proportion of soap/sanitizer to water (http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/KEY-INSTRUMENTS-Flowmeter-16X859?Pid=search)
- install actuated valves (http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/RED-HAT-Solenoid-Valve-3UK51?Pid=search) to automatically go from rinse->wash->rinse->sanitize
- connect everything up to a PLC for setting timers (http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/OMRON-Programmable-Relay-2REP3)


It might be cheaper to be a dishwasher, but then again where's the fun in that?
 
I made one similar to OP but because I use 16oz bottles the most mine washer holds is only 15 bottles at once. It does good job but I'm not fully satisfied
I wasn't able to use oxiclean in here, it just foamed too much. I had to soak number of bottles with gunk on the bottom before washing with water for 10-20min. It is helpful device but
 
MalFet said:
That's very strange. I've never tried oxiclean, but with PBW I get literally no foaming at all.
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Hym Pbw could be the solution I will try it next time.
But even with water alone it's helpful, I washed 100+ bottles on Wednesday and it saved me hours, just soaked them ON then wash/rinse on the washer
 
I've been thinking about this quite a bit and I will be definitely putting an effort into building once I get the funds.

Tonight I used Oxyclean for the first time and it does foam a lot. I was use PBW previously, and decided for this project, PBW is the way to go, but every thing else I would use OxyClean for as it's so much cheaper and seemed to work just as well if not a tad better.
 
Got mine somewhat built today. I have some parts on back order, so it's not totally finished at this point, but I got the unit to the point where I could do some basic performance testing and understand the mechanics a little bit.

Overall, I can say that yes, the input restriction has a definitive impact on the system. I played around with mine with a 1/2" input and a 1" input. While I can't say there was more pressure or force with a 1" input, and the water didn't necessarily go any higher that I could tell, there was *much* more water going into the bottles than with the 1/2" input.

Also, I tested the quantity of outputs to see how that affected the system overall. When I eliminated a single output with a cap, it would result in about 1.5" of overall height of cascading water across the remaining risers. Therefore, less quantities of risers will result in an overall stronger and higher stream.

Interestingly, I also tried my copper cap theory, which I anticipated would allow me to adjust the back pressure of each riser. It didn't quite work as I had planned, at least in my limited testing. As far as the openings, I tried several size holes to see how it affected the stream. 1/16" was not nearly enough water, 1/8" was a little better and 3/16 was just about perfect. Although it did cause the cascading water to rise a bit higher, as expected, it wasn't as dramatic as I expected and it also (obviously) resulted in less overall water flow from each riser. I think the height issue may be due to my initial test, where I was only restricting the flow of one riser. I suspect if I'm able to apply back pressure across every single riser, it will increase the overall system pressure and *should* result in a more powerful, higher stream. Instead, however, I think it was just causing the system to release greater water flow and therefore pressure out of the other, unrestricted risers.

I have also discovered that a 1" slip fitting will snuggling hold a bottle's neck. So, I'm planning on integrating a bottle holder on each riser, which will secure the bottles and also insure that I maintain a nice vertical stream into each bottle.

Anyhow, that's my current progress. Once I finish things up, I'll put together some pics so you all can see what my build looks like.
 
MalFet said:
Great! How much height are you getting?
Click to expand...

Right now, approximately 12" inches, give or take. But, there's a few variables on my system that aren't present on yours. I'm using the 1/3 HP version of the pump, which should provide greater flow but not necessarily greater height. Second, I'm using 3/8" copper instead of 1/4" so I can work with standard 1/4" fittings, thus the ID of my risers are much larger than yours.

I suspect when I cap all the risers, I'll be able to tweak the overall pressure of the system and achieve in the 2'-3' range like you. Or so I hope!
 

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