Bottle Sanitiser design - Your thoughts please

[BrewStew]

Yep, but it wont restrict the flow from the pump. The sanitiser will go into the sprinkler, or into the tray, depending on how much you close the ball valve for the flow to the tray.

i'm not getting the jist of it :? do you mean a two way valve?


edited cos text picture didnt work

 

[BrewStew]

cutting the end of a 15mm copper to a rough point then squeezing it together rather than drilling holes everywhere.

/Phil

i thought about doing that originally but decided against it because the crimped ends are less likely to be the same across all sprinklers, causing different flow rates to each bottle.

I would be keen to see your version though :)

I'm revising my design to 20 bottles instead of 25 for three reasons. 1) less pressure requirements 2) slightly cheaper to make 3) if your bottling 40 at a time, then the second run of cleaning wont result in 10 uncovered sprinklers.

i'll start posting lots of pictures when i get home from work at 4:40

 

[Vossy1]

i thought about doing that originally but decided against it because the crimped ends are less likely to be the same across all sprinklers, causing different flow rates to each bottle.

If you have a pair of mole grips you could set the crush on the pipe to a certain size, alternatively you could jam something inside the copper pipe whilst crushing it to ensure they all have the same gap.

i'm not getting the jist of it do you mean a two way valve?

...probably my cack explanation :lol:

I might have a picture!

 

[Vossy1]

Something like this

Ignore some of the fittings on there.
It would actually be better if the ball valve and the out to bottles were swapped round.
That way the sanitiser would choose the path of least restistance, through the ball valve and as you shut the ball valve, you would divert more of the sanitiser to the bottles.
All you need would be a piece of hose on the tball valve exit returning spare sanitiser to the tray.

Does that make sense?

 

[BrewStew]

cant get clearer than that mate thanks!

what kind of cost is involved for all that metallic lovelyness there?

i might do something similar and cheaper using a hosepipe tee and cheap flow tap grabbed from somewhere... but then i guess there's the question of how sanitary that is.

 

[BrewStew]

:!: crazy idea alert :!: : what about somehow connecting a beer pump sparkler to act as a sprinkler nozzle?

 

[Vossy1]

i might do something similar and cheaper using a hosepipe tee and cheap flow tap grabbed from somewhere... but then i guess there's the question of how sanitary that is.

As your running sanitiser through it I don't think fittings are a problem.

 

[BrewStew]

ugh works dragging now as i'm itching to get home and tinker hehe

 

[Vossy1]

what kind of cost is involved for all that metallic lovelyness there?

10mm Comp fitting brass equal T

10mm speed fit equal T

ugh works dragging now as i'm itching to get home and tinker hehe

:lol:

 

[BrewStew]

I meant the ball valve :lol:

 

[Vossy1]

I reckon you'd have to get a 15mm ball valve and a set of 10mm reducers, or use a 10mm (gas) ball valve.

 

[BrewStew]

ok i'm now home, here's a pic of the bits i got:

it's started to chuck it down with rain but i've got the garage and gazebo for shelter... cant let the british weather stop me now D

......to work! i'll take regular pics, and keep you updated every couple of hours as to how i'm doing :)

 

[Phil]

i thought about doing that originally but decided against it because the crimped ends are less likely to be the same across all sprinklers, causing different flow rates to each bottle.

The question is, do they have to be the same so long as they flow enough?

/Phil.

 

[BrewStew]

Ok first things first i checked to make sure that the stop end fits the bottles i've got

success on the wine bottles!!! :)

not so good on the smaller magners bottle... this is a 300 and something ml bottle though, not the 568ml which is bigger.

in any case i'll be using it more for my wine bottling so we're still good to go for a prototype

I drilled a 1.5mm hole in the end of the cap... this was actually really easy as i thought the metal was harder than that... the downside is the bit snapped just as it got through the last bit of the end stop

here it is with the end stop drilled and hooked up to a pipe to the coupler for my cornie

i thought i'd try sanding the corners of the nut a little as it was everso slighty fouling the wine bottle neck at certain angles, i left enough flat edge to get my spanner on :) it still wont go into the magners bottle sadly though, but litterally only just... i reckon if i really had to i could sand some more off, but i shant for now

close up of the nut

and now for the first test..... get ready...... steady.........

look at it go!!! :lol: what a range on it it reached the footpath 20 feet away

i also tested it in a wine bottle... it made a good bit of hissing against the glass... but i fear that unless the stream hits the dimple square on... it's not going to be very effiecient as the stream is so thin. i'll either need to add more smaller holes, or widen the single hole.


i'll report back when i've tinkered some more

 

[BrewStew]

i thought about doing that originally but decided against it because the crimped ends are less likely to be the same across all sprinklers, causing different flow rates to each bottle.

The question is, do they have to be the same so long as they flow enough?

/Phil.

i guess minor difference wouldn't matter, but if you had one that let the water flow too much through it, the others will lose pressure just as vossy stated that the water finds the easiest route

 

[BrewStew]

ok i just widened the hole to 2.5mm... no snapping of bits this time

by god what a difference it had an extra 8 feet of water shooting range... but better yet no matter what angle the bottle sat at whilst on the sprinkler the water inside flowed over the entire inside surface... result

now i'm going to hook up another sprinkler and see if i'm losing any water shooting range, which would indicate less pressure.

i'll keep you posted :)

 

[ryan]

I think Ryan Manchester tried a quick steaming idea using a pan and modified lid...hopefully he'll be able to give you some feedback on your idea.

The bottles broke! I gave up after 3 bottles smashed apart on me. The steam just heats it up too quickly from the inside while the outside stays cooler.

If anyone wants to try using steam, make sure you keep the flow really slow till the outside of the bottle is hot. It'd probably be easier to use a liquid sterilizer anyway really... the last thing you'd want is 10 - 20 bottles breaking just before you want to bottle the beer.

 

[BrewStew]

right that's definitely out then :shock:

i'll stick with the liquid version.

more pics to follow in a sec :)

 

[BrewStew]

ok here we have it hooked up with two sprinklers:

and here shows the bottles on top

there was about a 4 feet drop in distance so already there's a pressure loss, but not much... it also helped when i re gassed the cornie :lol:

one thing to note though was that both streams were exactly even... you'd have expected the one closest to the inlet to have a slight lead... but nope.. so i'm putting that down to both holes being the same... either that or its because there's not alot of distance in between. it may get more noticeable with the three more sprinklers i'm about to put on.

lessons learned so far:
plastic would definitely not have stood up to the weight of the bottles leaning against the sprinklers.
the compression fittings have got to be tighter than i can tighten them to stop them spinning around.

conclusions so far:
soldered copper is the only way to go for a full set up, especially in regards to stop ends going into the smaller bottle varieties.

 

[Wez]

:shock: I'm loving this thread