I was given a used variable speed diaphragm pump (0-3 gal/min). Once I cleaned the grape skins out of the screen filter, it worked very well. It looks like it would be useful for racking, degassing, filtering and possibly bottling. There seem to be a couple of ways of hooking these up, and I'm not sure what the best technique is.
For example, to rack from one carboy to another, it is possible to just put the pump between the two carboys and connect the input hose to a racking cane in the full carboy and the output hose to the empty one. The wine would go through the pump, so it would have to be sanitized, but otherwise that would be pretty straightforward.
However, some setups (online, YouTube etc) show the pump on the end, pulling suction from an empty carboy with two tubes coming out of a rubber bung. The second hole has a hose attached to a racking cane in the full carboy. In this setup, the wine does not go through the pump, so it's more sanitary, I guess, but the empty "closed" carboy needs to be glass to hold a vacuum and suction the wine.
Any significant reasons to prefer one method over the other?
Also could a vacuum pump be used to degas a plastic carboy? I've read elsewhere that they could not. However if the carboy were full to the neck or nearly so, there would not be much air space to worry about. Wouldn't it work in that case?
For example, to rack from one carboy to another, it is possible to just put the pump between the two carboys and connect the input hose to a racking cane in the full carboy and the output hose to the empty one. The wine would go through the pump, so it would have to be sanitized, but otherwise that would be pretty straightforward.
However, some setups (online, YouTube etc) show the pump on the end, pulling suction from an empty carboy with two tubes coming out of a rubber bung. The second hole has a hose attached to a racking cane in the full carboy. In this setup, the wine does not go through the pump, so it's more sanitary, I guess, but the empty "closed" carboy needs to be glass to hold a vacuum and suction the wine.
Any significant reasons to prefer one method over the other?
Also could a vacuum pump be used to degas a plastic carboy? I've read elsewhere that they could not. However if the carboy were full to the neck or nearly so, there would not be much air space to worry about. Wouldn't it work in that case?