Auto-Siphon Mishaps

[grapeman]

Am I the only one with an auto-siphon mishap or does anybody else have a funny story-disaster involving one of these benign little pieces of equipment? Tell us all you story here!




Here's Mine:


Today I pressed out 12 gallons of the darkest purple, best tasting red wine I have ever had the pleasure of making. I had crushed last weekend and left on the skins all week fermenting with Red Star. The color extraction was phenominal. I had combined 45 pounds of GR-7 and 80 pounds of St. Croix- both nice dark extracters. During ferment I had added 8 ounces of Dark Toast Oak Chips to the primary. Naturally I had to try the pressed juice and it is going to have great body, taste and mouthfeel. Anyway I racked to 2 carboys and really had to bring them up too far, but hey, it had fermented for a week so shouldn't foam much. I had decided since I lost the oak chips at pressing I would add 4 ounces to each carboy. All done and airlocks on. End of story.


Well not quite. 2 Hours later I went to check on them and the purple foam was streaming out the airlocks. How to get some juice out and into a small jug so It would stop. I know, the auto-siphon. So I got it out, sanitized and set to work. Drew out about a quart from the first carboy, all set. Now onto the second. Well it must have drawn in a small wood chip or something, cause no matter how hard I pushed nothing came out. OK, one, two, three, push harder. Well the hose blew off the cane and I sent the whole blast into my face where the purple juice bounced off all over the walls and floor and ran down my glasses and shirt. What a mess. An hour later I got it all cleaned up and finished. Seperate load of wash and I'm glad I had on old clothes. At least they all match now- nice and purple!


Moral of the story- If the cane gets stuck and won't siphon, take it out and clean it out!


OK. I have made an idiot of myself now, your turn. Tell us all what has happened to you......

 

[NorthernWinos]

Mine has never worked...So no stories to tell....think it is egg shaped or has a leak...it's in a box of extra items that I thought I needed.


We use the orange cap and a racking cane and hose...blow into the extra hole in the orange cap..... never a failure there.

 

[Wade E]

never had 1 and never will as I hear to many horror stories of them not working or not working correctly. Plain old racking cane works well for me until I get an Enol.

 

[smurfe]

I am notorious for pulling the hose out of the carboy when I pull up to start the siphon. Bought a piece of hose 3 foot longer and now no prob. Does slow down the racking though. Northern, have you tried a small hose clamp where the hose hooks on? I have one the same as you say. i put a small brass hose clamp on it and fixed me right up.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Mine isn't round and the plunger doesn't make good contact...or something.....will dig it out sometime and look at it again.

 

[geocorn]

I still have my very first one and have used it several hundred times without a hitch. They do work much better with just juice as oak and pulp will get in it and ruin it.

 

[Steve]

I had a few different ones. When I first got it I pushed it into the carboy and the wine overflowed. Another time I started pumping and the hose came out of my carboy and dumped wine all over the floor. Mine does leak air a bit but a hose clamp or zip tie solved that problem. Now I use the orange cap to rack from a carboy and use the auto-siphon for racking from mybuckets that do not have a spigot.


Did you get any picturesappleman???

 

[grapeman]

I have used mine dozens of times and have never had any problem with them. I transferred to the carboys with no problems today even, only got into trouble when I was in a hurry trying to stop the lava flow out the airlock. It wasn't the equipment's fault, just operator error

I just want to bring a little humor to some of the mishaps we all have, I know I've read some before and was hoping a few folks would step up and laugh at themselves over silly things along with the rest of us!

 

[Steve]

I read the post and busted out laughing...


My wife heard me and wanted to know what was going on.

 

[jobe05]

I use mine on many occassions, Like Smurf, the hose coming out of the carboy as I raise the plunger is the only problem I have has, well.......... other than the same problem that steve has had, but I have learned to over come both of these problems by raising the cane as I'm lowering it into the carboy. By doing this, I'm sucking the wine out of the carboy and into the siphon, equalizing the liquid level, and keeping the hose at somewhat an even height.

I (being a man) didn't read the directions if there were any to see what was the proper way to use this thing would be..................

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Thats as funny as the time I pitched the yeast into the sanitizing bucket, that was next to the primary of must, and didn't realize until I got home from work just what I had done. Was early and dark, and being a nice guy didn't want to wake anyone else up at 3:30 A.M....lesson learned, lights on from now on.