Mark II Corny Keg & Carboy Washer vs Bucket Blaster-anybody used?

[wasully]

I despise cleaning carboys, and I'm looking at getting one of these before my next racking/bottling day.

Anybody used these? Comments? Criticisms?

I'm leaning towards the bucket blaster, so I can use multiple buckets for multiple solutions(plain water to start, then a cleaning/sanitizing solution. That looks a bit more plug&play with the bucket blaster.

Pump strength for each?

Anybody know how thick the central rods are for each?

 

[day_trippr]

I can't recommend the Mark II for carboys - at least not 6.5 gallon ones.
The pump moves plenty of fluid but the design of the Mark II minimizes its effectivity for anything more than "skinny".
Like kegs. Love it for kegs, don't use it for carboys...

Cheers!

 

[TheBluePhantom]

I use the Mark II for kegs and carboys. It does cover the whole surface, so it gets them clean. I do brush out the gunk before washing to get multiple carboys washed. Really it is just running water of the surface, not a hard scrub. It has a Tee tap so you can connect QDs, you have to set up. I got out of the habit of using them, I think it was noot getting all the stuff around the dip tubes. I just pull those now.

And i got the bottle washer attachment for the Mark II. It only does 8 though. I put a coffee heater in to keep the solution at 110 to 120F, not rated for that, but i do it anyway. Only needs 5 liters to run. The tubes stay pretty straight. Mine did crack, I had to epoxy it, I still use it.

I think the tube is PVC 1/2 NPT, with a small nozzle on the end. You can fit with standard hardware though. I also use it to clean tap lines, mounted a liquid post to it.

I bought the 12 bottle washer from fastrack, doesn't come with a bucket, best fitting one I could find takes 2 gallons to run. The tubes warp and don't wash the bottles well. I like the racks, not in love with the washer.

 

[day_trippr]

The Mark II shoots the pump output straight up. There is no attempt to disperse the flow, it's a singular column of water that will scour the center of the carboy, then run down the sides in a random fashion. What tends to happen is the dripping water establishes a matrix of rivulet courses and will leave as much area untouched as that which makes contact with the fluid...

Cheers!

 

[TheBluePhantom]

Strange, I always get really good coverage. What are you using for cleaner? I use PBW. Maybe I can catch video next cleaning.

 

[day_trippr]

Warm-ish PBW - I won't subject my glass to thermal shock, so room temp + maybe 5°F.
I watched for many minutes and could see about half the sidewall area in between the little braids of run-off was not being touched.
I thought I had a video illustrating this phenomenon. Can't find it...

Cheers!

 

[shoengine]

I've cleaned carboys, cornies, full size kegs and a brew bucket with my Marks and no complaints so far.

 

[Lyonhill]

I have both. Go with the bucket blaster. More powerful pump that cleans my kegs in much less time and it's a lot easier to get the kegs to set on top straight.

 

[Golddiggie]

I picked up the bucket blaster along with a 1/2" NPT CIP ball. I've been using that to clean my fermentation kegs as well as carbonating/serving kegs since getting it. ~10 minutes with hot (faucet hot water) PBW solution does a solid job of cleaning what I put on it. Only issue I have is with the fermentation kegs not draining fast enough to keep the pump properly submerged. But, that's not the fault of the bucket blaster.

I've also set it up with a [male] QD connection recently in order to give my plate chiller a proper cleaning. It did a great job there too. I simply used the tubing setups I already have to go from the pump/QD to the chiller posts. I went both directions in the chiller then flushed with clean water. I ended up doing several cycles on the flush (two or three with PBW first) until I called it 'done'. I was also pumping the clear water through the chiller and into the sink for several of the rinse cycles. The pump pushes enough liquid that I had to stop the pump in order to let the bucket fill up again. The kitchen faucet simply couldn't keep up with it.

I need to see about getting something else setup to clean my brewing keggles with the blaster. Simply put, the opening on at least one of those is larger than the opening at the top of the bucket. So it doesn't work optimally. I might try using one of my [metal] 10 gallon buckets. Or I'll get a plastic one (if I can source one easily).

I plan to use the blaster setup to clean my plate chiller after each brew day now.

 

[TheBluePhantom]

Just a note, the 1/2 inch CIP I bought does not fit into a glass carboy. (5 or 6.5) Measure first. And the Mark II didn't have enough power to push it. Maybe the blaster with a 3/8" CIP would fit and work, check dimensions to be sure.

 

[eric19312]

The bucket blaster and the mark 2 share the only shooting straight up feature. Fine for kegs not great for carboys. Pumps from specs are about the same 520 GPH for mark and 2000 LPH (528 GPH) for BB.

The Mark II does not include the ball lock fittings and tubing needed for keg cleaning that I had to add to my Mark II. I'd also guess that duotight adapter the bucket blaster works diverts more juice to the disconnects than the little t fitting on the Mark 2.

The bigger difference is the bucket design vs the Mark II basin. I think that is what you are paying for on the Mark II. The nice thing about it is that you mix PBW based on volume. Mark II can keep that pump fully submerged with only about a gallon of cleaning fluid. So with the bucket blaster I'd expect you are going to need more PBW to clean same amount of carboys. Still between the two if I was buying today I'd be leaning toward the bucket blaster.