Bottling bucket mod

After a PITA transfer due to a floating hose stopping my siphon, I began to think about a more secure way to transfer to my bottling bucket from my carboy. Just leaving the hose to dangle into the bucket has been giving me trouble, especially when it's cold and the vinyl gets stiff. I tried the bucket-hose clamps on the sides, no dice, when the hose gets stiff it pulls off the clamp.

I came up with a solution, a 1/2" seal-tight cord connector and a 1/2" racking cane inserted through the wall of the bucket. I cut the cane to fit just to the bottom of the bucket and tilted it a little to the side to create a swirl for the sugar mix. Attach the hose to the end of the cane on the outside of the bucket, no worrying about the outside of my hose being super sanitized. No hose lifting out of the bucket and the ability to cover the top of the bucket during a transfer. The little white cap on a carboy cap works great to terminate it after the siphon is done. Tested it tonight, works beautifully. Pics....

Very nice mod. What type of bulkhead fitting did you use?

Very nice. It looks like a better way than the flimsy stuff we typically use.

JBoehman said:

Very nice mod. What type of bulkhead fitting did you use?

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I can post the part numbers in the morning. There is a separate nut from the compression fitting to form the bulkhead, the parts are cross-linked. I've yet to source a gasket, but I'm sure a 7/8" ID anything will work.

It should be noted that any volume of liquid over 5.5 gallons will overflow the placement of my bulkhead on a standard 6.5 gal. bottling bucket. One could find a way to cut/ground the ridges on the bucket to place the bulkhead higher and make for larger volumes. I never have more that 5 gal. to bottle so the nice wide space worked great.

I like silicon tubing.

Hex said:

I like silicon tubing.

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I went that route too, kept kinking up or flatting out on me and really slowed the transfer.

Clever idea. Thanks for posting.

It strikes me that there might be some some way to implement this in a fermentation bucket, but I can't quite flesh it out.

JBoehman said:

Very nice mod. What type of bulkhead fitting did you use?

Click to expand...

Connector:
http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=6505000

Lock nut:
http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=6505060

I found 7/8" ID rubber o-rings at Home Depot that fit nicely on the locknut side of the connector.

Thanks for the info. I do believe I am going to use your inovative idea now myself.