Recirculating Keg Line Cleaner

Typically I'm pretty OCD about cleaning my kegerator lines/taps/faucets. I will fill a keg with 2 gallons of hot Oxiclean (a Base) and flush the lines, after which I'll fill the lines with a StarSan solution (an Acid) and flush again using that same keg. This Base/Acid rinse helps to break down the beerstone that can collect in your lines causing turbulence, foaming and off-flavors.

I thought to myself that there had to be a better way, so I let that roll through my brain for a few days. Then I realized that I had an unused pond/aquarium pump at home (Eheim 1250, 317gph). This coupled with some 1/2" silicone tubing and an extra Sanke keg spear (yes, I keg in Sanke kegs) from cutting a keggle could do the trick nicely! For those that use Corny kegs I'm sure you could do the same with a ball/pin lock liquid post and the appropriate adapter.

I cut most of the diptube on the Sanke spear off using a pipe cutter leaving only about 1" to slide the silicone tubing over. Then I attached the other end of the tubing to the output of the pump and dropped the whole thing in to a 5 gallon bucket filled with water for testing. With a length of tubing slid over one of the faucets on my kegerator and run back in to the bucket, and the keg coupler attached I turned on the pump and began to recirculate the water through the lines. Pics below...


The finished assembly.



Attached to the coupler



First run, it works!



The Money Shot.

Nice job!

Thanks! This should make cleaning my lines/couplers/faucets easier & keep my CO2 around for a bit longer.

Not gonna lie, I love this idea.

I could probably put the bucket inside and run the tube to the drain in the drip tray, keeping the doors closed.

I do something similar, but I daisy chain to faucets together with a short length of tube and do two lines at a time.

I couldn't do that with a Sanke tap, they have check valves built in.

wyzazz said:

I couldn't do that with a Sanke tap, they have check valves built in.

Click to expand...

Actually you can, it is easy to circumvent the check valve, you just need to stick a piece of wire in the beer inlet of the coupler and remove the wire when done, how the pros do it.

Nice job!

wyzazz said:

I couldn't do that with a Sanke tap, they have check valves built in.

Click to expand...

. I just unscrew the sanke connector On the output .

pickles said:

. I just unscrew the sanke connector On the output .

Click to expand...

I suppose I could do that, but then I wouldn't be flushing/cleaning that coupler. If I were just cleaning the lines though that would work well. I could probably daisy-chain all 8 faucets if I upgraded the pump!

I've been using this for around a month now and have to say it's working great! I've taken apart the faucets after cleaning them just to inspect them and couldn't be happier with how clean they are.

nice. now i need another pump!!! I to have been using a keg with co2, this would save some of that for sure.