Carboy washer ... less power!

[ovjock]

I built one of the many DIY carboy washers (there are hundreds of videos on how to) and found out that you can have too large a motor. If you use a 1/4 horsepower motor, you will push water into the carboy faster than it can escape. After 10 minutes, you end up with a carboy full of liquid.


I had to build a diverter to reduce the flow to keep the whole thing from overflowing.

I can adjust the flow using the ball valve until it does it's thing without disaster.

Bigger is not always better...

 

[Ohio Bob]

My 1/6 HP pump will overfill a 1g jug with foam. I just unplug it, let it drain then plug it in again. I don’t think there is any danger of it filling with foam.

 

[David Violante]

I have a similar setup but I put the ball valve inline to throttle back the pump output. I also use the same setup for a bottle washer and so need the lower output for that too, but it’s lower than the carboy washer so I just adjust the valve based on which one I’m doing. As I understand it, a pump working to push against a pressure doesn’t harm it but you shouldn’t have a pump working to draw volume.

 

[ovjock]

My 1/6 HP pump will overfill a 1g jug with foam. I just unplug it, let it drain then plug it in again. I don’t think there is any danger of it filling with foam.

Thanks and I totally get it but I wanted a "set it and forget it" where I can go do other things while it is cleaning. I wonder if an intermittent timer would help. 5 minutes on, 1 minute off and repeat for 40 minutes.

 

[David Violante]

That’s a lot of work in my humble opinion. Move the valve over (or add another inline) and then set it to where the carboy doesn’t fill. Then you can just let it go. No timers or watching it to turn off and on.

 

[Ohio Bob]

I actually prefer a couple inches of foam in the carboy. I typically get a ring of crud where the wine liquid meets the headspace. So lots of churning foam in that area is a plus in my mind. I rarely do 1g jugs with this system unless I’m already doing 3’s, 5’s or 6’s too. I just take the leftover cleanser fluid and let it sit in my 1g jug overnight.