Glass Rinser for Keezer--need ideas on water storage inside keezer

[mongoose33]

First, the rinser; bought it on Amazon, it's a beast. I attached it as shown in the pics, one line from a small keg filled with water and pressurized with CO2, the other a drain line into a 1-gallon jug.



It works well. However, the small keg holding the water is outside the keezer, and thus the water is room temp. I want it to be chilled water from inside the keezer. I have no nearby source of tap water, so this is it.

When I have six kegs in the keezer, I have no room for that keg. It can almost sit on top of one of the kegs inside the keezer, but it's an inch too high. Can't close the lid, though a buddy of mine says I should just trim the plastic underneath the lid until it fits. I don't want to do that until and unless I have to.

What I want is a tank for water that is about the size of a 2-liter soda bottle in diameter; larger capacity would be helpful. That'll fit in the keezer. I'll run bulkhead shanks through the keezer collar, one to feed gas in, the other to feed the chilled water out.

BUT.... I can't find the right fittings to do this. I can get a carbonation cap for 2-liter soda bottles, attach tubing as a dip tube and that's the water out, but I don't know what I could use to pressurize the bottle.

I could almost use one of these: https://spikebrewing.com/products/gas-post but I don't know how I could tighten the nut on the end from inside the bottle. Maybe a wrench would fit, not sure.

Any ideas as to A) a tank I could use in lieu of that 1.5-gallon keg that's standing in for now? And B: any other ideas as to how I could store and serve pressurized water to my rinser?

TIA!

 

[day_trippr]

How much water do you think you use for one rinse - and how much pressure do you need to do a good job?

Spit-balling...perhaps you could leave the mini-keg where it is and run a length of 1/4" ID (or maybe larger) thin wall tubing inside the keezer and back out to the rinser. Use the keezer as a big chill plate (kinda sorta )
With 1/4" ID tubing, if you need, say, two ounces per rinse, you'd need 72" per rinse. If you want to be able to chill more than one glass at a time, multiply accordingly, or use larger tubing.

Just a thought...

Cheers!

 

[mongoose33]

How much water do you think you use for one rinse - and how much pressure do you need to do a good job?

I did a test, to rinse a new glass, about 2-2.5 ounces is about normal. To rinse a glass clear of beer suds before trying something else, about double that.

FWIW, I have the pressure at about 18 psi. In the long run I expect to use an air compressor to supply pressure rather than burning up CO2, but this was mostly a test-of-concept. Now I start refining it.

Spit-balling...perhaps you could leave the mini-keg where it is and run a length of 1/4" ID (or maybe larger) thin wall tubing inside the keezer and back out to the rinser. Use the keezer as a big chill plate (kinda sorta )
With 1/4" ID tubing, if you need, say, two ounces per rinse, you'd need 72" per rinse. If you want to be able to chill more than one glass at a time, multiply accordingly, or use larger tubing.

Just a thought...

Cheers!

It's a good thought. My buddy and I were brainstorming--spitballing?--last night and he suggested a big reel of beverage tubing just laid inside the keezer on top of the kegs. We concluded that with the amount of tubing in there now--5 kegs on tap plus a sixth with a picnic tap attached--it would make moving kegs in and out a torture.

But this gets me thinking about another possible solution, though price-wise I'm not sure I want to go there. If I could get a reel of copper tubing, somehow get it curled down to a coil about 4" in diameter, submerge that in water or perhaps a glycol solution, and run the water through that, I'd have what would be like a little mini-jockey box. Sort of like the Lil 'Pillar from Jaded: https://jadedbrewing.com/collections/frontpage/products/lil-pillar

It would also allow me to use a larger corny keg to supply water (well, I could do that now).

 

[SCfb75]

Going off the copper suggestion. You could run a copper line along the interior of the collar all the way around the inside to feed the glass rinser. That should be enough to get it chilled for a few rinses depending on the size of copper tubing.

 

[BeerBaron1985]

You can get a 1.1GPM 12VDC pump instead to run the rinser like mine. Its not cold water, its room temp. 5 gallon for the supply, 7 gallon for the drain.

 

[Veets]

Might be cheaper and easier to call a plumber and have a cold water line run to near your keezer?

 

[day_trippr]

If the idea is to chill the glass I doubt using water right out of the plumbing will work, especially considering how little water is used thus the water will sit in the plumbing and warm to room temp...

Cheers!

 

[mongoose33]

Might be cheaper and easier to call a plumber and have a cold water line run to near your keezer?

As Day_Trippr noted, it doesn't address the issue of chilling the glass. I also would be reticent for this reason: I don't have a drain. If I ever had a leak from such a system....well, it could get bad. I only have a small jug for a drain, no way to channel any of that to a plumbing drain.

I could actually run such a line myself, but it just seemed this solution might work better. Of course, I could run a tap water line through a chiller inside the keezer too.

But that water would hard water--we draw local water from 1100 feet down. It's going to leave deposits. I've been using RO water so I don't leave behind such deposits.

 

[frodus17]

look up "bottle port cap" on google. Could do something like that, but it'd need low pressure I'm sure.

Otherwise, maybe a Drink Tanks apparatus with a co2 line, and liquid line you can interface. Or drill/thread some holes in a plastic growler lid. Get a 1 gallon growler or something (not glass).

maybe this?
https://www.williamsbrewing.com/Ultimate-Growler-Dispensing-Head-P3895.aspx

 

[Calfj60]

Link to the rinser please

 

[day_trippr]

Looks like a Krome Dispense unit...

Cheers!

 

[mongoose33]

Link to the rinser please

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0056HR7M6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Calfj60]

Thank you

 

[Paladin_91]

This may be a little crazy but here goes anyway....

How 'bout a 12V windshield washer assembly. The reservoir is small and can be tucked into the inside of the keezer for cold water. Runs off a mini pump so no C02. Output lines are small so running them through the collar should be easy.

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...VEtVkCh20dglhEAQYAiABEgKyXvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

There are a wide variety of them available and I'm sure some tweaking to it would be required.

I can say from first hand experience this works for dispensing whiskeys.

Like I said....probably crazy

 

[BeerBaron1985]

Possible, but would need to turn on based on drop of the water line pressure. Be better off with a 1.1gpm on demand pump. Oem they come with 35psi pressure switch, but you need 15psi max for a glass rinser or you blow out the seals. I put a 15psi pressure seitch that is adjustable to dial in pressure. Works absolutely perfect!

 

[FunkedOut]

Pretty much been said already, but look at using parts from a fridge that dispenses cold water.
It’s a small plastic reservoir, usually flat/skinny, some tubing. It probably not hold any pressure since it’s solenoid is upstream, so you’d have to go that route or the small pump route.

 

[Drewed]

You could keep the system you have and build a water tank out of schedule 80 pvc.