CIP Perlick Creamer Faucet?

[cswant88]

Hi all. I joined this forum about 8 or so years ago to ask a newb question, and regret that I have not been an active member over the years. I'd like to change that, and I want to start by asking another newb question, newb to kegging anyway.

I recently setup a new keezer, currently with only one keg, but with plans to add up to 4. I bought the Perlick 680ss creamer faucet. I saw somewhere that Perlick endorses cleaning in place for their forward sealing faucets, however I have not seen anything regarding the creamer faucet. I have not taken this faucet down to get a good look at the guts, but my understanding is that there is a piston with small holes that is exposed when you push the handle back.

I plan to pump cleaner through the QD, beer line, and faucet via the ball lock disconnect. With the standard faucet, I imagine it would be as simple as opening the faucet and pumping it through. With the push-back creamer, should one push back and hold the handle some while circulating the cleaner to clean the creamer components, or would those parts get cleaned just by having the faucet open normally?

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, this the creamer faucet lever that turns a 525ss into a 575ss. I have this only because a lifetime supply of the three 525ss O-rings didn't make the Perlick minimum order many years ago so I tossed in the creamer lever.

Anyway, the thing has a spring-loaded, delrin gasketed control valve that opens with the push-back. The valve slides on a hollow pin with the head capturing the black gasket and the other end is pressed into that semi-hemispherical element at the bottom in this pic (that normally seals against the front faucet O-ring). When you push-back the pin head and gasket move away from lever allowing beer to flow through the hollow pin and escape to the spout. That means the pin is cross-drilled somewhere along the way, so more tiny holes.

So, yes, you definitely need to do some recirculation with the push-back creamer "active" to clean out that skinny bore through the pin and get to anything trapped behind the plastic gasket/inside the faucet lever cavity...

Cheers!

 

[cswant88]

fwiw, this the creamer faucet lever that turns a 525ss into a 575ss. I have this only because a lifetime supply of the three 525ss O-rings didn't make the Perlick minimum order many years ago so I tossed in the creamer lever.

Anyway, the thing has a spring-loaded, delrin gasketed control valve that opens with the push-back. The valve slides on a hollow pin with the head capturing the black gasket and the other end is pressed into that semi-hemispherical element at the bottom in this pic (that normally seals against the front faucet O-ring). When you push-back the pin head and gasket move away from lever allowing beer to flow through the hollow pin and escape to the spout. That means the pin is cross-drilled somewhere along the way, so more tiny holes.

View attachment 625037

So, yes, you definitely need to do some recirculation with the push-back creamer "active" to clean out that skinny bore through the pin and get to anything trapped behind the plastic gasket/inside the faucet lever cavity...

Cheers!

Nice, that's just the info I was looking for to clean the creamer. I didn't think too hard about cleaning when I bought it, if I had to do it over I would have bought the 630ss, just because I don't find myself using the creamer function.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]because I don't find myself using the creamer function.

Yeah, that's pretty much normal. I always advise against it just for that reason, but now that you've brought it up there's the cleaning thing, too...

Cheers!