Since my wife has been giving me grief about taking over the kitchen sink to I tested some hardware for an external keg & fermenter washer. This is simply a sump pump in a bucket with a riser, CIP spray ball, and a rack to sit the keg/fermenter on. Works great, except this requires manually filling and dumping the rinse and cleaning water.
So... I started to contemplate a simple automated cleaner. Right now the thinking for a simple design is a system like this, where the keg or fermenter is placed upside down over a CIP spray ball:
Operation would look like this:
Rinse cycle: The dump valve is opened to the reservoir. The feed valve is opened to the water feed line, then the pump is turned on and ran until the reservoir filled, determined by the float switch. Then the feed valve is opened to the reservoir and the liquid is circulated. After a determined time period, the dump valve is opened to the dump side and the reservoir drained. The feed valve is opened to the water feed line to bring in fresh water and flush out the old.
Clean cycle: The reservoir is again filled as above. PBW or other non-foaming cleaning agent is added. The heater is powered on to increase and maintain a set temperature... say 130 degrees F. The cleaning cycle is run for a determined time period, including running/soaking. Then the rinse cycle is repeated a few times to flush out the cleaning agent.
Sanitize cycle (for kegs): The reservoir is again filled as above. Star San or other sanitizing agent is recirculated for a determined amount of time. If a sanitizer which requires rinsing is used (such as bleach), a rinse cycle is then run.
Anyway, this is a simple concept. This could probably be built relatively easily and cheaply. The catch & reservoirs don't need to be massive in volume as the catch only needs to be a pan to collect liquid and the reservoir probably only needs to hold a gallon or two. This can be automated with a controller of choice... I have some ideas ;-)
Thoughts/feedback/improvements?
So... I started to contemplate a simple automated cleaner. Right now the thinking for a simple design is a system like this, where the keg or fermenter is placed upside down over a CIP spray ball:
Operation would look like this:
Rinse cycle: The dump valve is opened to the reservoir. The feed valve is opened to the water feed line, then the pump is turned on and ran until the reservoir filled, determined by the float switch. Then the feed valve is opened to the reservoir and the liquid is circulated. After a determined time period, the dump valve is opened to the dump side and the reservoir drained. The feed valve is opened to the water feed line to bring in fresh water and flush out the old.
Clean cycle: The reservoir is again filled as above. PBW or other non-foaming cleaning agent is added. The heater is powered on to increase and maintain a set temperature... say 130 degrees F. The cleaning cycle is run for a determined time period, including running/soaking. Then the rinse cycle is repeated a few times to flush out the cleaning agent.
Sanitize cycle (for kegs): The reservoir is again filled as above. Star San or other sanitizing agent is recirculated for a determined amount of time. If a sanitizer which requires rinsing is used (such as bleach), a rinse cycle is then run.
Anyway, this is a simple concept. This could probably be built relatively easily and cheaply. The catch & reservoirs don't need to be massive in volume as the catch only needs to be a pan to collect liquid and the reservoir probably only needs to hold a gallon or two. This can be automated with a controller of choice... I have some ideas ;-)
Thoughts/feedback/improvements?