How To Unblock My New Stainless Steel Air Stone

[Brewman_]

2um is generally fine for wort aeration. Finer one's may get blocked quicker, and don't really provide any advantage.


Like mentioned don't get it wet until gas is flowing. Clean it off while gas is flowing to and let dry.

 

[stux]

I use mine with pure oxygen. Never have a problem blowing it out with that...

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

I hope so. It's an ebay special but they claim its 210L/h which is pretty good. Maybe it's my punishment for looking for the cheapest way to an aeration kit.

Sadly that flow capacity is quoted at the lowest output head (pressure). Sounds to me like the pump is not strong enough to overcome the back pressure of the stone which is higher in higher density fluid.

 

[DigitalGiraffe]

Sadly that flow capacity is quoted at the lowest output head (pressure). Sounds to me like the pump is not strong enough to overcome the back pressure of the stone which is higher in higher density fluid.

It's working now so all good.

 

[kaiserben]

Like mentioned don't get it wet until gas is flowing. Clean it off while gas is flowing to and let dry.

I've got a 2 micron stone and I store it in no-rinse solution, with the tubes attached and ready to go.

I start the O2 flow while it's still submerged in no-rinse. Then move over to the wort. Then dunk in tap water in kitchen sink to rinse wort off. Then back to no-rinse solution. Then stop the O2 flow. Seems to work. I'd be happy to hear better methods (maybe ways that don't waste as much O2).

 

[MaltyHops]

I'd be happy to hear better methods (maybe ways that don't waste as much O2).

This is my setup ... my view is it's much easier to get CO2 refills so trying to waste as little O2 as possible.

I used straight out beer line for the hosing (the hose bought with the kit is just a pain to work with) and a JG Y-splitter for a very simple setup. I wrapped the beer line pushed onto the hose tail with aluminium tape to buildup the diameter so I could use an o-clamp to secure it.

My procedure is to pump cooled wort from the chiller into 10L cubes (much easier to handle) and the air stone & hose can be quite short, just enough to reach the bottom of the cube.

So turn on CO2, dip into sanitiser, into wort, turn on O2, turn off CO2, aerate, turn on CO2, turn off 02, dip into sanitiser again to clean, remove and keep CO2 going for a bit to dry out air stone.

I also use a short length of silicon hose (split lengthways) to protect the airstone from finger prints.