Kegerator cleaning kit help

[bradsul]

With the great sale at Austin Homebrew this weekend I'm prowling the site looking for goodies.

I don't have any spare kegs I can dedicate to cleaning purposes (they're $55CAD up here) so I've been looking for some good ways to clean my kegerator lines and faucets. I found this on the AHS site and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with it? There is no picture so I'm not entirely sure what I'm getting and how I'd go about using it.

I also added a 3/16" nylon tube brush (as recommended) and also a dip tube brush to my cart to go with it.

I found this on kegworks.com, is it similar?

 

[bradsul]

*bumpity bump*

(I'm not actually this impatient, it's just that the sale is tomorrow )

 

[Soulive]

I heard that, depending on how many taps you have (2 right?), it can be a PITA to keep refilling the bottle. Supposedly each tap needs 2+ bottles worth of solution...

 

[wildwest450]

I have a similar kit and I think it's ok. You do have to run one bottle of cleaner followed by a bottle of water to rinse, per tap. I don't find that to be a big deal, I run half the solution through, then clean my faucets and taps (sanke) while the solution soaks for 10 minutes then pump the rest through and rinse. The cleaner that came with my kit works well, so one time through is sufficient.

 

[SuperiorBrew]

Not what you are asking but good info on the subject

[YOUTUBE]hC7MDb0IuLs[/YOUTUBE]

 

[bradsul]

Those are some great videos, won't work in my particular case, I rotate my kegs through the kegerator so it's always full (which is to say, a keg being filled isn't going into an open spot in the kegerator).

So does anyone have experience with the AHS kit? I'm leaning towards getting it, maybe there are other parts I should get to make it work with my corny keg setup? I have flared fittings on my beer lines, maybe I need an adapter or something?

 

[Professor Frink]

I have a similar kit that I got from beveragefactory.com when I first started kegging. It was crap, when I take the faucet up and hook it up to the shank, it doesn't seal so all it does is leak. I tried it a couple times then said f' it. Now, in between kegs I run iodophor through the line, and every once in a while I run some BLC through the line from the keg.

 

[bradsul]

I emailed AHS to get some information about how it works and this was their response.

The Kegerator Cleaning Kit actually attaches to the shank where the faucet sits. You remove the faucet and attach the cleaning kit. The cleaning solution is pumped back through the lines and into either a bucket or an open keg.

Sounds good to me and with the sale and some leftover Christmas money I think I'll give it a go.

Edit: Just saw Professor Frink's response. I think I'll go with it anyway, will report back on the success/failure once I've tried it out.