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DIY Beer Line Cleaner

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LBussy-

That def clears it up and thanks for breaking that down...appreciate it! Now I understand the entire wing nut "should" come off the top of the coupler and contain the barb still screwed inside.

My only question is if I unscrew the wing nut from the top of the coupler that will be a "female" end in which I would screw a "male" brass fitting as the one that eba3317 suggested correct?

http://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=348813&stc=1&d=1459786231

or possibly the one I found yesterday at HD:

http://s431.photobucket.com/user/michael-dd/media/20160404_125852_zps6e9gs7ha.jpg.html

Thanks again!

Yes the wing nut is the female side. It should work with the setup I posted as the thread type should be the same
 
Just wanted to follow up and post back a picture of my completed line cleaner:)

Special thanks to eba3317 and lubssy for all the assistance.

Only small issue I had was a leak where the beer line connects to newly installed adapter but a secondary washer took care of that. And then a leak where the newly installed line tubing connects to the sprayer was leaking but I cranked the hose clamp as tight as I could and it pretty much handled that.

 
Just wanted to follow up and post back a picture of my completed line cleaner:)

Special thanks to eba3317 and lubssy for all the assistance.

Only small issue I had was a leak where the beer line connects to newly installed adapter but a secondary washer took care of that. And then a leak where the newly installed line tubing connects to the sprayer was leaking but I cranked the hose clamp as tight as I could and it pretty much handled that.


Glad to see you got it working!
 
I think this has been posted before, but to give others who haven't seen it a low cost easy alternative, here is my beer beer line cleaner.

$15 for the carbonation cap and an empty 2 liter ginger ale bottle...

20160409_103710.jpg
 
I think this has been posted before, but to give others who haven't seen it a low cost easy alternative, here is my beer beer line cleaner.

$15 for the carbonation cap and an empty 2 liter ginger ale bottle...

View attachment 349626

I don't see how this works...there's no exhaust port so the bottle would just crush itself, am I wrong?

It reminds me of the cleaning kit that comes with some kegerators. For $15, I think you would have been better off building the pump sprayer. Just my 2 cents
 
I don't see how this works...there's no exhaust port so the bottle would just crush itself, am I wrong?

It reminds me of the cleaning kit that comes with some kegerators. For $15, I think you would have been better off building the pump sprayer. Just my 2 cents

It works just fine. It's the only thing I've used to clean, flush and sanitize the lines on my 3 tap keezer over the last year and I see no need or reason to change what I'm doing.

I'm in no way trying to dissuade anyone from making the pump sprayer nor trying to put it down. Just posted to provide an alternate.

:mug:


... you can get those carb caps in plastic for about $3 in some places.

That's true. You can get the plastic carb caps and it would work in the same way that I'm using mine for. But the plastic caps don't have the barb fitting. The barb allows you to add a semi rigid beer line and convert it to a counter pressure bottle filler. Even though I've never used it for that... ;)
 
It works just fine. It's the only thing I've used to clean, flush and sanitize the lines on my 3 tap keezer over the last year and I see no need or reason to change what I'm doing.

I'm in no way trying to dissuade anyone from making the pump sprayer nor trying to put it down. Just posted to provide an alternate.

:mug:

Do you just unscrew the cap to alleviate the pressure?
 
Do you just unscrew the cap to alleviate the pressure?

Yep. It's just that simple.

He's probably just squeezing the cleaner out...

Cheers

Trippr is right too.

Sometimes I'll squeeze the cleaner/water/sanitizer out. Sometimes I'll give a shot of CO2.

If I'm doing a big flush (full 2 liter bottle), I may use a shot of CO2 after I've squeezed out 1/4-1/3 the bottle. If I'm just filling the line with cleaner or sanitizer, I'll just squeeze it out. It doesn't take much to fill a 5' 3/16" beer line.

:mug:
 
I think this has been posted before, but to give others who haven't seen it a low cost easy alternative, here is my beer beer line cleaner.

$15 for the carbonation cap and an empty 2 liter ginger ale bottle...

View attachment 349626

These are cheap, easy and work really well!! Mine will fit both a gas and liquid QD. I charge my 2 liter bottle full of BLC with CO2. Then disconnect the gas QD, connect the liquid QD and open the tap to run BLC through. After running the BLC through and letting it sit in the lines/tap for 15 minutes I run fresh water through, again by charging with CO2. Then one final run through of Starsan. Easy peasy.
 
These are cheap, easy and work really well!! Mine will fit both a gas and liquid QD. I charge my 2 liter bottle full of BLC with CO2. Then disconnect the gas QD, connect the liquid QD and open the tap to run BLC through. After running the BLC through and letting it sit in the lines/tap for 15 minutes I run fresh water through, again by charging with CO2. Then one final run through of Starsan. Easy peasy.

Easy peasy...
 
I built this but it leaks where the adapter connects to the pump and where the post connects to the adapter. I've tried Teflon tape and tightening to no avail. Any tips?
 
I built this but it leaks where the adapter connects to the pump and where the post connects to the adapter. I've tried Teflon tape and tightening to no avail. Any tips?

Look at my post (#692) when I posted a picture of the one I just put together. I had some leaks too when I first put it together and had to add another rubber washer where the line connects to the new adapter. I also had some leaks coming out from where the tubing was connected via hose clamps but I tighten them as much as I could just shy of cracking the plastic most likely:) And the leaks stopped!
 
I just set this up myself. I had to Teflon tape the **** out of the sprayer and adapter so it would not leak. I like the idea of using silicon. Thanks for the great idea!!
 
I build one up with a 40oz flo-master sprayer. I took the white seal out of the green nozzle that usually sits against the sprayer and put it in my brass fitting. No leaks! Have not used it on lines but connected a spare liquid disconnect and all works great!

Sprayer: $5 (walmart)
Liquid Post: $16 shipped (brand new)
Connector: $5 (local hardware)

$26 well spent! If the sprayer has an issue, I can buy another :)
 
Has anyone else had this fail on them after a few months?
I built mine in March, it has worked well before. Today I pumped it up and barely got a trickle. It holds pressure. It may be that I stored it with the trigger depressed and locked.
 
Has anyone else had this fail on them after a few months?
I built mine in March, it has worked well before. Today I pumped it up and barely got a trickle. It holds pressure. It may be that I stored it with the trigger depressed and locked.



I'm not poo-pooing on this thread, but I got to the point that paying about $20-$25 more for a sump pump over this mod was worth it. I didn't like the idea of having to keep pumping the sprayer to maintain pressure. If I didn't, I'd get the trickle sometimes too, so maybe there was a leak in my line somewhere.

The sprayer pump is pretty much just for beer line cleaning. I can do that with the sump pump, plus clean my carboys, kegs, and it can recirculate water through my chiller to keep from wasting water out of the faucet. Also, the idea of just letting the pump recirculate cleaner while I was off doing something else.


I donated mine to my club so it's still definitely usable.
 
I'm going to start kegging soon and got a kegerator. When I'm cleaning the keg I'll clean that line it was just on so is there any reason why I couldn't pull the liquid post off the keg and connect it to this pump (as long as it fits)? Then just clean the post and reattach to keg?

Sorry if this question was already answered I didn't read through all 72 pages.
 
I'm going to start kegging soon and got a kegerator. When I'm cleaning the keg I'll clean that line it was just on so is there any reason why I couldn't pull the liquid post off the keg and connect it to this pump (as long as it fits)? Then just clean the post and reattach to keg?

Sorry if this question was already answered I didn't read through all 72 pages.

this is how I clean my lines, sort of. I made an adapter to connect my air compressor to the gas in post, and I just use the PBW and starsan I use to clean kegs and run it through my lines from the keg. Easy and it works well.
 
this is how I clean my lines, sort of. I made an adapter to connect my air compressor to the gas in post, and I just use the PBW and starsan I use to clean kegs and run it through my lines from the keg. Easy and it works well.

Out of curiosity what air compressor do you use? No reason to worry about oil/nasties?
 
Out of curiosity what air compressor do you use? No reason to worry about oil/nasties?

As long as you use a oiless compressor with an inline filter there's no problem. But you should be using a pretty good filter (HEPA). This is common in breweries.
 
I'm going to start kegging soon and got a kegerator. When I'm cleaning the keg I'll clean that line it was just on so is there any reason why I couldn't pull the liquid post off the keg and connect it to this pump (as long as it fits)? Then just clean the post and reattach to keg?

Sorry if this question was already answered I didn't read through all 72 pages.

I'm not following. Why take the post off the keg?
 
I'm not following. Why take the post off the keg?


The keg will be empty because it just kicked so why not just pull the liquid out post because I'm getting ready to clean the keg anyways. Clean the lines at the same time so they're good to go before you throw the next beer on.

As long as it fits it should be ok to use right? I'm just wondering if the Teflon tape will do anything to the thread inside the post.
 
I think it will be okay if you are threading the post onto a metal fitting. You can clean any teflon that remains in the post or leave it. Mine has a post threaded onto the plastic, I would not remove and re-install it very often for fear of wearing out the plastic part.
 
The post didn't thread all the way but doing a mock trial with just water it seems like it will work (it wasn't hooked up to lines though because my kegerator is not here yet). The only issue I could see having is the spring in the post not being compressed enough since the post doesn't thread all the way. It could effect a good flow maybe?
 
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