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i tried the 1/4" OD Poly tubing in the dip tube and it caused a bunch of foam in the tube so i guess thats out. trying to decide between a SS spring or the epoxy mixers. I would just go with the mixers but the whole formaldehyde worries me
 
ekjohns said:
i tried the 1/4" OD Poly tubing in the dip tube and it caused a bunch of foam in the tube so i guess thats out. trying to decide between a SS spring or the epoxy mixers. I would just go with the mixers but the whole formaldehyde worries me
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I use the mixers in my setup for club soda. It's carbed at 40 psi at 40°. Works a charm and there is NO off taste and I have no worries about using them. Hell, I'm more worried about the crap food manufacturers put into the stuff we eat. :mad:
 
So, i tried everything except 10' hoses. I have a 4.4ft mini fridge so 10' coils would be a pain. I tried the water line,epoxy mixers in the dip tube,low pressure. the only thing i found that worked was 1/2 a mixer inserted in the shank. worked like a charm @40deg and 12psi with 2.5ft lines:mug: Thanks to all HBT posters who have got me this far.
 
i bought a 1/4" OD SS 20" compression spring from Mcmaster carr I will try when I get it. My thought is that it will work similar to the mixers by a) making the path of the beer more disrupted as it has to move around the springs and b) dramatically increase the surface area the beer touches thus adding a butt load of resistance. Ill report back when I get the results. Might be a good alternative to the epoxy mixers and the formaldehyde that comes with it
 
ekjohns said:
i bought a 1/4" OD SS 20" compression spring from Mcmaster carr I will try when I get it. My thought is that it will work similar to the mixers by a) making the path of the beer more disrupted as it has to move around the springs and b) dramatically increase the surface area the beer touches thus adding a butt load of resistance. Ill report back when I get the results. Might be a good alternative to the epoxy mixers and the formaldehyde that comes with it
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Thought about doing that... I'm curious how it works. Can you send a link to the item so I can see just what you went with...
 
i tried the spring and it slows the pour but im getting foaming in my lines. I also got foaming in the lines with the 1/4" OD Poly tubing. I am assuming its nucleation. Does anyone know of a good fix for the poly tubing to prevent the foaming in the beer lines? I aready tried hitting the ends with a lighter but it didnt help
 
ekjohns said:
i tried the spring and it slows the pour but im getting foaming in my lines. I also got foaming in the lines with the 1/4" OD Poly tubing. I am assuming its nucleation. Does anyone know of a good fix for the poly tubing to prevent the foaming in the beer lines? I aready tried hitting the ends with a lighter but it didnt help
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Were you getting the same foaming w/o the spring?... e.g. is the spring the cause of the foaming?
 
I get the same amount of foam with both but the flow rate is slower with the tubing or spring. However, I have a bunch of small bubbles in my 10' beer line that i didnt have without anything which leads me to believe the foam is coming from the diptube with the spring or poly tubing.
 
ekjohns said:
I get the same amount of foam with both but the flow rate is slower with the tubing or spring. However, I have a bunch of small bubbles in my 10' beer line that i didnt have without anything which leads me to believe the foam is coming from the diptube with the spring or poly tubing.
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If you let it sit for awhile, do you get bigger pockets of air forming in the tubing? If so, you could have a small leak somewhere that's causing air/co2 to build up in the tubing over time, usually in the "high spots" of the tubing. This causes major foaming.

EDIT: It might be better to move any debugging to a new thread. If you open a new thread in the Bottling/Kegging forum you'll probably be able to nail down the problem pretty quickly.
 
So why cant i just sanitize the epoxy mixers with some 70% rubbing alcohol, let them air dry in the protective outter casing, flush them with some sterlize water (from a pressure cooker) and drop them in? according to this chart delrin is great for beer and all types of alcohol. As far as phosphoric acid its pretty bad. Anyone see a problem with this logic

http://www.omsdive.com/delrin_chem_chart.html
 
does anyone have problems with my previous post about sanitizing these with 70% alcohol? I assume this will prevent all formaldehyde leaching making these that much safer and no need to worry about anything harmful leaching from them
 
awesome, now I have no reserves using these bad boys....yeah for getting on the bandwagon!
 
steel rod may constrict too much... I'll be cleaning mine this weekend... using 90% rubbing alcohol as suggested in earlier post as they don't leech anything in alcohol. will be completely removing the one from my keg as my next batch is going to be a low carbonation mild. will post how it cleans up.
 
ekjohns said:
sorry i ment 12.5' as in feet
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stonehenge_2.jpg
 
Has anyone using these things (or not) confirmed what material these are made out of? In the thread, i've seen them called out as Derlin or Polypropelene.

I've reached out to mcmaster but get nothing but a canned answer about how they don't know. I've even asked to be put in contact with the supplier so i can confirm myself. crickets.

I like the idea of this solution but I'm not the only person enjoying the homebrew sitting in my kegs.

JJ
 
No confirmation of matl, but, I've been using one in each of 5 kegs for about 6 months now. My beer belly has grown some......
 
I live in Cincinnati and I have a Grainger Industrial Supply a few miles from my place. Rather than buying them from McMaster-Carr and paying S&H I thought I could pick them up in the store. I checked Grainger's website and they seem to carry this same product. I was wondering if someone could verify that they are in fact the same thing though. I haven't bought the ones from McMaster-Carr so I don't know what to look for when I go into the store tomorrow to pick them up. Here's the website:

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/LOCTITE-Mix-Nozzle-3NVL6

Thanks for the help. I'll edit this post later once I confirm these are in fact what McMaster-Carr sells.
 
looks like the same thing. I put 1 each keg, and plan to double up for a hefe. they seem to work great. I've cleaned with Rubbing alcohol, and avoided the starsan on these parts. haven't grown a third eye.
 
starrfish said:
I've cleaned with Rubbing alcohol, and avoided the starsan on these parts.
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Why no starsan? I was thinking about trying these ... or the plastic icemaker line. With standard 5' kegconnection lines and picnic taps my pour is WAY too fast at 12psi. One day I'll get some proper taps and go 10' of line. One day. :cross:
 
jb721 said:
Why no starsan? I was thinking about trying these ... or the plastic icemaker line. With standard 5' kegconnection lines and picnic taps my pour is WAY too fast at 12psi. One day I'll get some proper taps and go 10' of line. One day. :cross:
Click to expand...
This seems to be why:

repomanz said:
Has anyone using these things (or not) confirmed what material these are made out of? In the thread, i've seen them called out as Derlin or Polypropelene.

I've reached out to mcmaster but get nothing but a canned answer about how they don't know. I've even asked to be put in contact with the supplier so i can confirm myself. crickets.

I like the idea of this solution but I'm not the only person enjoying the homebrew sitting in my kegs.

JJ
Click to expand...

dinokath said:
I am missing the part on formaldehyde in the MSDS for Star San:

Link to MSDS

I looked at McMastercarr as well for an MSDS for the swizzles and see nothing listed. What's your source for the MSDS that clearly states the issue with leaching formaldehyde.

Thanks!

Dean
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mattd2 said:
AFAIK a "strong" acid is anything lower than pH 3 (and arn't you meant to keep starsan under 3 for it to be effective?), "strong" alkali was something like pH of 11+.
The MSDS doesn't seem to suggest it is an oxidiser but I might be wrong, but as with most things don't mix with sodium hypochlorite (bleach) or you will probably die from chlorine gas. MSDS
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WickedSoxFan said:
Hey all - first post, just wanted to try to give back to the community... great thread, and thanks to the OP for the suggestion - works like a champ!

Here's the Delrin MSDS from DuPont.

I'm no chemical engineer, but looks to me like you shouldn't burn it, or use with "strong" acids or bases, or oxidizers.

The last part got me - might not want to hose the swizzle down with Star-San without a good rinse afterward... I like preserving the flavor of my beer, but preferably not with formaldehyde. I'm pretty sure Star-San is considered an oxidizer, but it's definitely an acid-based cleaner: StarSan Tech Sheet. Whether or not it's "strong" enough in diluted form to affect the swizzle is anyone's guess.

With that said, I'll give them a good wash and rinse with bottled distilled water, then pop them in tonight to see how it goes... but I think I'll take my chances avoiding the StarSan...
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wouldnt rubbing alcohol also cause the chemicals to leach out? im thinking of just letting them sit in some cooled down boiled water for a few hours then poping them in the kegs. what you think?
 
So I was at home depot today for some living room remodeling supplies and decided to grab some 1/4" od tubing. Shut off CO2 bottle, closed cutoff valve, unhooked qd's and vented keg. Pulled keg out of kegerator and proceeded to unhook dip tube. (anybody know where this is going?) Loosened qd fitting and BAM beer geyser! Stuck my face in there like it was a water fountain before I thought to vent keg again and open the lid. Stuck some of that tubing in the dip tube and put it all back together. First pour was foam but I'm chalking that up to picnic tap line sitting out at room temp while I was putting water tubing inside the dip tube. Guess I'll just have to keep testing. Darn. :) hopefully this helps my crappy pour problems from 5' kegconnection.com 3/16" lines. Unfortunately I was drinking a proper drink at the time that I had poured rather heavy handedly so this first beer is taking a while to go down. It may take all night to complete the testing but I'm sure going to enjoy the ride. Cheers!
 
hafmpty said:
I live in Cincinnati and I have a Grainger Industrial Supply a few miles from my place. Rather than buying them from McMaster-Carr and paying S&H I thought I could pick them up in the store. I checked Grainger's website and they seem to carry this same product. I was wondering if someone could verify that they are in fact the same thing though. I haven't bought the ones from McMaster-Carr so I don't know what to look for when I go into the store tomorrow to pick them up. Here's the website:

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/LOCTITE-Mix-Nozzle-3NVL6

Thanks for the help. I'll edit this post later once I confirm these are in fact what McMaster-Carr sells.
Click to expand...

I can confirm that these are the same as what McMaster-Carr sells. Brought them home, vented the keg, sanitized them and threw them in. I've now got 3' of 3/16" ID tube and 2 sticks in each keg. Pour is great and my PSI is at 12.5. Thanks for the great idea.
 
Just read this entire thread and will be buying some of these swizzel sticks. As for leeching concerns with bases/acids, why not just drop them in boiling water for a few minutes? Isn't that the original sanitizer? Glad I came across this thread, I have 0.25" ID beverage tubing, and I would need about 38 feet to serve up a Heff at 4.0 vol CO2.
 
I tried the water tubing in the dip tube (5' kegconnection.com w/ picnic taps @ 38* F) and my pours were still all foam at 12psi. I turned the pressure down to about 10psi and it was good. At this point I'm good with slightly less carb to get a better pour until I can upgrade my taps and lines. Plus the difference in carb isn't noticeable to me anyway. My 2¢ :)
 
These devices, also known as in-line mixers or static mixers, I've seen for sale on ColeParmer.com (at a much higher price than those in the mixer tubes from McMaster Carr. I've noticed they are frequently made from Delrin, which is Dupont's trade name for Polyoxymethylene (POM), also known as polyacetal. This material is FDA approved for food storage. As other posters have mentioned, exposure to strong acids/bases will cause degradation of the material. You should avoid exposing it to oxidizers as well (bleach, One-step). Studies have shown the amount of chlorine in potable water supplies, especially when used in hot water supplies, is enough to cause the material to break down. I plan on giving them a quick boil to sanitize them before using. Just ordered 12 from McMaster.
 
Just poured first pint out of keg that I put two mixers in. Wow what a difference! I have 5' of 3/16" line set at 10 psi. I am actually bumping my psi to 12 now.
 
Damn McMasters is quick I ordered yesterday around 3 in the afternoon and the package is already here.
 

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