$60 Carboy and Bottle Washer

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resslerk

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Wanted a cheap and easy way to wash my bottles and my carboys. This setup can wash 1 carboy, 5 bottles, or 10 bottles based upon which valves are turned. Pump is a Barracuda and can output about 1500 gph. Cost came in just under $60 NOT including the container. The nice thing is that for storage I can simply put the top on the container and put it on a shelf. No need to break down the tubes or disconnect anything.


Basic Setup Not Installed in Rubbermaid Container
2010-01-16%2014.26.25.jpg

In Carboy Washing Mode
2010-01-16%2014.38.34.jpg

In Bottle Washing Mode (bottles are submerged about 1")
2010-01-16%2014.40.28.jpg

To aid in removing fermenting residue drill small holes near the bottom of the carboy washing tube. These will act as little jets to pressure wash the head space of the carboy.
2010-01-16%2014.46.42.jpg
 
i like it. it's a bit overkill just like everything else we see here. my 2 x 2 x 1.20 stainless stubing is overkill also. my question to you is in regards to the 1500 gph. that could lead to an enormous water bill, or could it? does it bring water in through a hose/faucet, or is recirculating a fixed amount of water dumped into the container. also, is there a need to hold the bottles down, as enough force could blow the bottles off the PVC tubing?

even though i dont bottle anymore, it could be good for anybody else that does bottle. sanitizing bottles was so much of a PITA that i started kegging. great innovation, great application, and what appears to be great results.

good job!
 
i like it. it's a bit overkill just like everything else we see here. my 2 x 2 x 1.20 stainless stubing is overkill also. my question to you is in regards to the 1500 gph. that could lead to an enormous water bill, or could it? does it bring water in through a hose/faucet, or is recirculating a fixed amount of water dumped into the container. also, is there a need to hold the bottles down, as enough force could blow the bottles off the PVC tubing?

even though i dont bottle anymore, it could be good for anybody else that does bottle. sanitizing bottles was so much of a PITA that i started kegging. great innovation, great application, and what appears to be great results.

good job!

I recirculate the water, so you don't need to worry about water usage. In fact, I think this setup saves water since I can put about 5 gallons in this setup with a sanitizer and use it to clean dozens of bottles (as opposed to a faucet with a bottle washer running down the drain for 30 minutes). Also, regarding the pressure you won't be blowing any bottles off. Doing 5 or 10 bottles with 1/2" CPVC tubing gives a good pressure without pushing the bottles off. For the carboy the single 3/4" CPVC works well.

So to wash a bunch of bottles you can imagine how you could alternate turning off and on the valves while loading and unloading 5 bottles at a time. This way there won't be any water running to the bottles you are unloading and reloading, and the other side is getting clean while you are loading and unloading.
 
i like it. it's a bit overkill just like everything else we see here. my 2 x 2 x 1.20 stainless stubing is overkill also. my question to you is in regards to the 1500 gph. that could lead to an enormous water bill, or could it? does it bring water in through a hose/faucet, or is recirculating a fixed amount of water dumped into the container. also, is there a need to hold the bottles down, as enough force could blow the bottles off the PVC tubing?

even though i dont bottle anymore, it could be good for anybody else that does bottle. sanitizing bottles was so much of a PITA that i started kegging. great innovation, great application, and what appears to be great results.

good job!


Looks to me like it's just re-circulating a couple gallons of whatever solution is in the tub.
 
I recirculate the water, so you don't need to worry about water usage. In fact, I think this setup saves water since I can put about 5 gallons in this setup with a sanitizer and use it to clean dozens of bottles (as opposed to a faucet with a bottle washer running down the drain for 30 minutes). Also, regarding the pressure you won't be blowing any bottles off. Doing 5 or 10 bottles with 1/2" CPVC tubing gives a good pressure without pushing the bottles off. For the carboy the single 3/4" CPVC works well.

So to wash a bunch of bottles you can imagine how you could alternate turning off and on the valves while loading and unloading 5 bottles at a time. This way there won't be any water running to the bottles you are unloading and reloading, and the other side is getting clean while you are loading and unloading.

the recirculating water makes this an awesome build.
 
I have a question, what is the valve for on the other side of the carboy stem?

Nice setup. I may have to something like that myself. I keg most of my beers, but there are times I want to bottle.

Rather than capping that end I put a valve so that I could essentially throttle the output to the carboy. By doing this I can wash different types and sizes of containers. You could imagine a pressure that is suitable for a 6ga carboy would be way too much for a 3 ga Better Bottle. One could argue that I could throttle with the first valve, but I was worried about building pressures and lack of circulation. Basically this way I can let the pump circulate the volume it wants to and keep cool, but control how much goes to the carboy washing tube by essentially wasting pressure out that end. Hope that makes sense.
 
Hmm have you blown any bottles into the air with this by using too much pressure? Bet it'd hit the ceiling with a PET bottle :D

This is an awesome idea and I believe I shall blatantly copy it.
 
There is a decent amount of pressure there, but I want to stress that you won't be bouncing any bottles off of the ceiling. Sorry to disappoint, but as long as you use the same size CPVC and number of outlets I have, everything will be well under control. Please post your setups once you get them done. Maybe I'll redo mine if others come up with better designs. The pump is the expensive part, CPVC is cheap.
 
Rather than capping that end I put a valve so that I could essentially throttle the output to the carboy. By doing this I can wash different types and sizes of containers. You could imagine a pressure that is suitable for a 6ga carboy would be way too much for a 3 ga Better Bottle. One could argue that I could throttle with the first valve, but I was worried about building pressures and lack of circulation. Basically this way I can let the pump circulate the volume it wants to and keep cool, but control how much goes to the carboy washing tube by essentially wasting pressure out that end. Hope that makes sense.


Yep, makes perfect sense to me. I didn't think about the cooling part of it. I wonder if you should do that on the bottle legs. Or is there enough outlets to keep the pressure where you need it?
 
This gets me thinking. We always see big, elaborate brew rigs that cost a fortune getting posted on a regular basis. What we never seem to see is a comprehensive bottling station that's capable of dealing with all the stages of bottling, including cleaning, removing labels, sanitizing, and bottling. When I look at this build, it makes me think that maybe it could be just one part of a larger system. I'm visualizing a system where you could just insert two dozen bottles, connect it to your sink with a hose, pour oxyclean and star-san into different chambers like you might pour bleach and detergent into a clothes washing machine, and press go. After 24 hours you would be able to remove the bottles in a completely clean, sanitized, and de-labeled state.
 
LOL ReeseAllen, is that a request? I suppose if you used a big enough rubbermaid so you could get a lid on there and a timer with a 10-15 min duty-sycle (so you don't overheat the pump) you might be able to do this. I'm trying to figure out how to clean 5 cases of used win bottles, so that will need some soak time and some serious waterflow!
 
This gets me thinking. We always see big, elaborate brew rigs that cost a fortune getting posted on a regular basis. What we never seem to see is a comprehensive bottling station that's capable of dealing with all the stages of bottling, including cleaning, removing labels, sanitizing, and bottling. When I look at this build, it makes me think that maybe it could be just one part of a larger system. I'm visualizing a system where you could just insert two dozen bottles, connect it to your sink with a hose, pour oxyclean and star-san into different chambers like you might pour bleach and detergent into a clothes washing machine, and press go. After 24 hours you would be able to remove the bottles in a completely clean, sanitized, and de-labeled state.

If you removed the taking the labels off of the bottles this would actually be pretty easy. BTW, if I'm just doing bottles I can actually put the top on my rubbermade container.

Imagine the following using the picture below. Two rubbermaid containers stacked up and then two 5 gallon buckets on top of those containers. Get the fluids and bottles loaded. Then your microcontroller takes over for you. It starts with just raw clean water in the bottle bin.

1. Run for 15 minutes and pump shuts off.
2. Sits and soaks for 15 minutes.
3. Runs for 15 minutes and pump shuts off.
4. Valve 3 opens for 15 minutes to let water drain out and then closes.
5. Valve 2 opens for 5 minutes.
6. Runs for 15 minutes and pump shuts off.
7. Sits and soaks for 15 minutes.
8. Runs for 15 minutes and pumps shuts off.
9. Do steps 4 thru 8 but for valve 1...
10. Valve 3 opens to leave bottles sitting to air dry.

You could even rig up a small fan to circulate air to aid in the drying.

Probably looking at under $200. Probably not worth it, but would be cool.

Automated_Bottle_Washer.jpg
 
Delabeling is not too difficult. You soak the bottles for 24 hours in a heavy oxyclean solution, then drain the chamber and rinse with fresh water. The labels fall off and float around freely, and when you drain the rinse water, they collect at the the bottom (if you design your bottle rack cleverly). What you'd need to do is add in a step in the process where you can easily lift up the bottle rack and scoop out the labels before the sanitizing step starts.
 
Wanted a cheap and easy way to wash my bottles and my carboys. This setup can wash 1 carboy, 5 bottles, or 10 bottles based upon which valves are turned. Pump is a Barracuda and can output about 1500 gph. Cost came in just under $60 NOT including the container. The nice thing is that for storage I can simply put the top on the container and put it on a shelf. No need to break down the tubes or disconnect anything.


Basic Setup Not Installed in Rubbermaid Container
2010-01-16%2014.26.25.jpg

Where did you get the pump?
 
Sorry for all the questions about the pump but could you shed some light? I can't find a Barracuda pump for anything close to under $60 bucks. I can't find any pump that pumps 1500gph for anything close to even $100.
 
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