DIY Beer Line Cleaner

[Lilrascal]

OK. So I went back, and decided to try a new poppet. Don't know if I needed to, but I also put a gas/liquid post o-ring between it and the adapter, figuring it would help to push the poppet tight against the end. Now it works fine. :rockin:

 

[alowell]

Yeah, I was going to tell you that I got a couple nylon washers and put them in against the legs of the poppet. Therefore, the fitting and washers would then be flush against the poppet. It worked great

 

[nestorlinks]

Does anyone know of an easier way to connect this to a sankey?

At first I was thinking that I could just unscrew the coupling hex nut and get an adapter to adapt that to the pump. But it looks like the thread for the coupling hex nut is an odd size (7/8"-14 (5/8" BSP) (U.S. Beer Industry Standard)) and I could not find an adapter at HD.

Looking at the picture above, I do not have the keg innards to just connect the whole coupler to.

Finished mine,

I had an extra ball valve, so I attached that to a quick disconnect and now I can do both sankey keg attachments and corneys.

 

[jafo28]

Just put this together yesterday, works great. Thanks.

 

[jaginger]

subscribed!

 

[doctorRobert]

Awesome idea thanks... building a keezer tomorrow, just tapped my 2nd batch via keg, and I was wondering how people cleaned the lines without taking everything apart...

I love it. Thanks

 

[gmoney51]

A nice easy build with idiot proof photos. It took me longer to find my Teflon tape then it did to build it. Thanks for sharing.

 

[rekoob]

Dang forum... now I have to adjust my projects to get this one going before one of my kegs goes empty. Great idea! Thanks.

 

[ultravista]

Awesome idea. I'll add this too to my list of projects.

 

[FSR402]

Put mine together last night.
Had a post from a keg I used to make my flash boiler. So all I needed was a sprayer and a way to hook it up.
Came up with this. Used a male to female 3/8 flare fitting and some thread tape to hook the post onto the sprayer wand.

 

[geniz]

Put mine together last night.
Had a post from a keg I used to make my flash boiler. So all I needed was a sprayer and a way to hook it up.
Came up with this. Used a male to female 3/8 flare fitting and some thread tape to hook the post onto the sprayer wand.

Looks great

 

[Jorgen]

I love this place. I log in tonight looking for line cleaning advice, this is exactly what I was hoping to find. Only wish I would have thought about it before picking up supplies this afternoon. I guess I will just have to make another trip to get the post.

 

[chemman14]

I went to home depot today to purchase all of the supplies and just my luck they were out of the flare coupling piece
the guy sold me this

it fits on the sprayer fine but when i screw on the liquid out post it doesnt screw on far enough, causing the poppet not to seal correctly. it seems like the same 3/8in flare on the brass one. Did I get the wrong liquid out post? Here is a picture of that as well.

 

[StMarcos]

Calentador de espacio. Teacher should have had us wander around hd in high school. I've added a lot to my Spanish vocab over the years from hardware stores.

Nice idea for cleaning. I prefer to disassemble all bits each time. Pisses me off that the plastic ball lock connectors aren't made to be repeatedly disassembled. I bought some from micromatic years ago that had metal 'whatever you call the little thingers inside that are normally plastic'. Are the all stainless ones any good? IMO the ventmatic faucets are much better than the normal ones. Wish there was a ball lock qd counterpart....

 

[FSR402]

I went to home depot today to purchase all of the supplies and just my luck they were out of the flare coupling piece
the guy sold me this

it fits on the sprayer fine but when i screw on the liquid out post it doesnt screw on far enough, causing the poppet not to seal correctly. it seems like the same 3/8in flare on the brass one. Did I get the wrong liquid out post? Here is a picture of that as well.

Put an O-ring in there to take up the extra space.

 

[chemman14]

Put an O-ring in there to take up the extra space.

ok will see if I have any spare post o-rings

 

[nunyafnb]

Was worried about how I was gonna clean kegerator lines, figured I probably wouldn't if it was hard. Then I built this. Works awesome! Thanks!

 

[geniz]

Was worried about how I was gonna clean kegerator lines, figured I probably wouldn't if it was hard. Then I built this. Works awesome! Thanks!

Glad you like it !

 

[Jorgen]

Was worried about how I was gonna clean kegerator lines, figured I probably wouldn't if it was hard. Then I built this. Works awesome! Thanks!

Have to agree, I got all the stuff I needed this week and tried it out before pushing my first (first two brews ever) 2 batches that had been carbing through my newly made kegerator. Worked great, the beer is great as well.

 

[Bigscience]

To take up the extra space and make the poppet seat, I used a stainless washer inside the post.

 

[chemman14]

To take up the extra space and make the poppet seat, I used a stainless washer inside the post.

so this is a problem everyone has had? I couldn't find an o-ring so I guess I will try the washer

 

[geniz]

I did not have a problem with the poppet seating. I don't know if people are using different types of posts, but I didn't have a problem. However it seems easily remedied.

 

[Jorgen]

I had no problem with the poppet either. I did get a Firestone post instead of Cornilius as it has a shorter threaded area. Maybe that is the way to avoid this possible problem.

 

[h22lude]

http://www.byo.com/component/resour...It Yourself/374-build-a-hose-cleaner-projects

http://www.byo.com/component/resource/article/117-Departments/569-draftline-cleaner-projects

 

[Bigscience]

I had no problem with the poppet either. I did get a Firestone post instead of Cornilius as it has a shorter threaded area. Maybe that is the way to avoid this possible problem.

The Firestone has the proper threads to work with the adapter while the Cornilius doesn't (fine vs course). The issue I was having was that the the flare fitting was bottoming out inside the post and not going in far enough for the poppet to seat on it. A single washer fixed this. I think the issue with leaking or not has more to do with the fittings we choose and not the post it self.

OR, if the poppet feet are splayed inside the post a washer may not be required. (you know how when you pull off a post you sometimes have to really push to get the poppet out?) If this is the case, I'd be concerned that it may get dislodged on down the road and leak later.

OR, it could be the style of poppet too. I'm no poppet expert but I've seen some longer ones out there.

 

[chemman14]

The Firestone has the proper threads to work with the adapter while the Cornilius doesn't (fine vs course). The issue I was having was that the the flare fitting was bottoming out inside the post and not going in far enough for the poppet to seat on it. A single washer fixed this. I think the issue with leaking or not has more to do with the fittings we choose and not the post it self.

OR, if the poppet feet are splayed inside the post a washer may not be required. (you know how when you pull off a post you sometimes have to really push to get the poppet out?) If this is the case, I'd be concerned that it may get dislodged on down the road and leak later.

OR, it could be the style of poppet too. I'm no poppet expert but I've seen some longer ones out there.

hmm, what size washer did you use?

 

[chemman14]

went to home depot and got some 5/16 neoprene washers and I am good to go!
there is a small leak where the sprayer connects to the adapter but it isnt a big issue

 

[Bigscience]

Not sure of the exact size off the top if my head but it fit inside the post up where the poppet goes. The flare fitting pushes up against it. I think that because the flare tip is sort of cone shaped, the poppet may fit around it. The washer gives it something flat to sit on. Take a post to the hardware store and just try little ones until one fits. I got a SS one for a few cents.

 

[chemman14]

Not sure of the exact size off the top if my head but it fit inside the post up where the poppet goes. The flare fitting pushes up against it. I think that because the flare tip is sort of cone shaped, the poppet may fit around it. The washer gives it something flat to sit on. Take a post to the hardware store and just try little ones until one fits. I got a SS one for a few cents.

Yeah thats what I ended up doing. Dont know why I didnt just do that the first time around... oh well it works now!!! time to clean my 3 picnic tap lines for the first time (its only been about 2 months for one of the lines)

 

[Bigscience]

Here is some great info about keg posts and thread sizes and other kegging parts (can somebody import it here into a Wiki/sticky?):

http://www.dresselbrew.com/Keg_Info.htm

You can see that there are 2 types of Firestone posts, one is longer that the other. There are also different poppet lengths as well. Maybe some people are using the shorter ones or longer poppets and it's working while others are using the others and require the washer. Either way, I'm Oh-fer 2 on the ones I've built with posts from 2 different sources.