Bottle Washer Things

[Prawned]

Today i decided to buy one of them bottle washer things that go on the top of the bottle tree's.. problem is the thing that the lip of the bottle pushes down seems to be a little bit small for PET bottles.. works fine on glass bottles, but i dont brew in them :\ Has anyone made some sort of addapter for them to make it work on plastic bottles?

 

[Aaron]

I just wrapped a bunch of plumbers tape around it to bulk it out. Pretty low tech but it gets the job done and has been fine for about 18 months.

 

[InCider]

I'm starting to feel like PistolPatch and Baib when I comes to bottle cleaning...

High pressure hose, and crates that are similar to milk crates... easy, thorough and tough. If you can say to you kids "You will never see anybody with a better water pistol than your Daddy", you know you don't need to HTFU. Tough brewing.

InCider.

 

[Batz]

I just wrapped a bunch of plumbers tape around it to bulk it out. Pretty low tech but it gets the job done and has been fine for about 18 months.

 

[brother]

I just put brass washer over it.
Paul

 

[Tyred]

I had the same problem with my bottle washer. I couldn't find any washers so I used a part of a plastic tap fitting. It fits nicely over the spike and has the added bonus of allowing the thread of the bottle to be sanitized at the same time as the rest of the bottle.

 

[blackbock]

If this is the type of bottle washer I'm thinking of (spring-loaded orange plastic thingo) then a brass/stainless washer is a good start.

But you might find you also need to drill some holes around the outside of it so it works properly (drains and allows you to push down on it easily)

 

[Prawned]

If this is the type of bottle washer I'm thinking of (spring-loaded orange plastic thingo) then a brass/stainless washer is a good start.

But you might find you also need to drill some holes around the outside of it so it works properly (drains and allows you to push down on it easily)

Yeah thats the one ive got its washing good now.. but here is to another question..

After i steralize them with pink stuff, when i go to rinse the bottles back offf can i just put a litre of water in the washers bowl? i thought about doing it that way to save as much water as i can.. but now that i think about it wouldnt the bowl end up with lots of steralizer in it? then it will spray it all back up into the bottles as i try to rinse them out??

 

[mika]

That was my thinking and why I didn't do it.
I built a special bottle rinsing jig, otherwise you go to the laundry sink and start filling and emptying bottles.
Or better still, move to a no rinse sanitiser and simply drain them on the bottle tree once sanitised.

 

[kymba]

well this is my cherry busting post and i'm all nervous...so here goes

I made one of these after washing bottles for my 2nd brew (btw that is the brew in the background...31/10/2006 tooheys real ale - 9 days till it's first birthday!). after washing & sanatising all those bottles i knew there had to be an easier way.

This is mkI and is very ordinary. It's just 1/2" irrigation pipe with the low pressure, low water usage risers for your garden. Found out that i should have clamped the pipes properly when drilling the pilot holes for the risers as you can see by the wonkyness.

I rinse all of my bottles in a single barrel bottle blaster (this is just a 1 bottle version in one of the missus' altered tupperware containers) straight after decanting then leave upside down on the washer to drain. Once i've got 15 on there i put upside down in a crate and store.

When it comes to bottling i fill the blaster and turn the hot water on until i fill up a 10 litre bucket (trying to be an enviro conscios brewer - this is used on my wet fermenter towels for summer brewing). I figure that if any bugs survive a minute or so of hot water then i should already be sick / hospitalised / dead.

I ended up making another one (mkII) for my old man from a black tub from bunnies which seemed to work a lot better as they aren't as brittle.

I have also replaced the sprinklers with some red tipped fill circle sprayers which seem to work a lot better and were a lot cheaper than the ones in the photo.

-Kymba

 

[troydo]

nice work!!

 

[beernography]

That contraption is absolutely tops! Good job. I wonder if you could modify it to add a sanitiser in with the water?

 

[amita]

[looks like we have a handy new member who not only drinks but still can think!

well done Kymba!!

cheers amita

 

[amita]

well this is my cherry busting post and i'm all nervous...

Once i've got 15 on there i put upside down in a crate and store.



Kymba, I have had problems with roaches moving in when storing bottles upside down so I have gone back to normal way up.

cheers, amita

 

[kymba]

thanks guys

re: adding sanitiser.

I did contemplate adding a venturi port to slowly feed some sanitiser in there but decided it was too much effort and just went with hot water (have been using this almost a year and no infections). Another option would be to add a pump and a used water collection container outside of the washer and just keep reticulating sanitiser. you would have to discard the first few litres though to make sure all the gunks are gone. I wanted to do this but was prohibited by cost as the pump would need to be pretty big to put out enough pressure to have any cleaning use.


re: Roaches.

good point i could probably seal them some how. i do rinse them for a few minutes with hot water before i bottle. I'm not that worried though because i just bought a kegging operation.


-kymba

 

[WildaYeast]

I have been using the bottle washer thing to rinse after sanitising. I sanitise and then put them on the tree to drain (as the fumes from the sanitiser are what works, this should work well as they are upside down and fumes are trapped. When I am ready to bottle, I rinse in the washer thing (cold water) and then place upright on bench for filling. Right before I fill, I just tip any water out into the bucket I have under my bottle filler to catch any drips. I figure that the little bit of sanitiser residue in the bottles gets pretty diluted and I don't think I've got any flavour/odour problems.

After going by a u-brew-it place on the GC and seeing the bottle washer they had there (big tree, turn valve one way to push sanitiser through, then flip valve to flush wiht rinse water -- great) I was thinking you could rig the bottle tree with that black garden micro spray stuff. One riser and sprikler (like Kymba's) for each bottle, all hooked together. Shouldn't be too hard...

But, I haven't been washing lately (rinse well after emptying and dry) and I figure when I run out of sodium met I'll be getting some no rinse sanitiser. So, not sure the project is worth it. I did get one of those things that goes on the tap from More Beer to rinse/wash bottles. It is great. Only problem is that I have to go into the house as I don't have a sink outside...

Thanks for the tip on the washer. I mostly use glass, but have struggled with the same problem when I do plastic bottles.

Cheers, Brian

 

[danial]

Muahha need I say more?

I must update pics, I now have a manfolid with jets attached iinside the lids to wash the outsides of the bottles.

I cant beilve how easy this machine I built has made botling, by the time I have everything set out and bulk primed my bottles have been washed and sterilized and dried. Hardest thing is loading it up from my bottle tree.

New bottles I get I soak in 2 fish tanks with bottle washer, I fill my bottle with 60lts of bottle washer (mixed to directions). I then use the hose I use to empty the bottle washer onto the lawn to fill each bottle with the bottle washer. Simple as that then I let them soak over nite then just drop them in the bottle washer flush them out. Its so easy it should be criminal


Will work for all bottles, pet/crown tops/screw tops/stubbies.