Spray ball washing the Keg.

[stux]

This is an interesting one.
The Brewtech unit looks a LOT more sturdy - the plastic on the Marks unit is reported to be quite flimsy vs metal parts on Brewtech
The Brewtech unit comes with fittings to clean both inlet and outlet ports. The Marks unit can only do one at a time and you have to purchase extra parts.
The bowl on the Marks unit is small and, (especially if using foaming cleaners such as Starsan) runs the risk of overflowing. The Brewtech unit doesn't have a reservoir at all, but it IS designed for a 5 gal bucket, minimising the mess, though you do have to supply your own bucket.
Brewtech has a smaller pump which could be an issue.
And the Brewtech is designed purley for Kegs, while Marks is kegs and Carboys. I don't use Carboys so not a big one for me, but worth noting.
I especially like that the Brewtech unit attaches to the kg, so you can line up multiple buckets (wash, rinse, sanitise) and just jump the unit from one to the other. That's a LOT more efficient.

I think my personal preference would be for the more solid Brewtech Unit, possibly retrofitted with a larger pump (easy enough to do if it was necessary). The price for that unit is double the price your quoting for Marks though.
But for the added durability and convenience, I think it's a better option for me

So, I actually bought one of the Brewtech Keg Washer's last week and used it on the weekend.

I was super impressed with the apparent quality of it. I did try building a similar thing a few years ago, with a pond pump, and the results were ... bad.

Anyway, its super nice.

One thing that did catch me by surprise and probably shouldn't was that they say to use saniclean, not starsan... I guess the foaming would cause the pump to run dry.


Anyway, after using it to wash 6 kegs which still had dregs (or entire batches) in them from a few years ago, I found it turned keg washing into a joy.

Does what it says on the tin.

If you want to clean kegs and you don’t mind the $275, then I can strongly recommend.

Don’t forget the sanclean.

You need 8-9L or so in a 20L Handy pail to use effectively. And the bucket based system means you can set up 3 buckets so that you can PBW, Rinse then Sanitize one keg by simply moving it between the buckets, then you connect the next one and start the next cycle.

A good video which explains and demos:

 

[Josh Dodd]

You need 8-9L or so in a 20L Handy pail to use effectively. And the bucket based system means you can set up 3 buckets so that you can PBW, Rinse then Sanitize one keg by simply moving it between the buckets, then you connect the next one and start the next cycle.

A good video which explains and demos:

That's what really tempts me about it. And that video was great, thanks.
Saniclean is like Starsan without the foaming action right?
I hadn't thought about it but given how much Starsan foams, it would be like a foam party if you ran it through a pump like this!!

I only have a few kegs at the moment and the rotation from one to the next is pretty slow for me so not sure I could justify the cost for one, but at the same time, moving from bottling to kegging took a lot of the drudgery out of the process and making keg cleaning even easier would take care of a lot of the rest of it. Even better if it can be used to clean fermentation vessels and such. If I can brew, ferment, crash, keg, carbonate without the chores, it's definitely tempting. It's why I'm tempted by the robobrew automated brewing setups, and why I bought a decent Kegerator setup. I enjoy making the beer, I love drinking the beer... but not a fan of all the other fiddly and messy parts of the process. Cleaning? It's a huge pain

 

[booyablack]

Cool!


Do you think either option would work for washing round plastic fermenters, cubes or jerry cans? I ferment in 20L Bunnings jerry can's (slimmer more compact profile, I can cold crash two of them in my Kegerator and they take up a lot less space in the garage, plus they can fit about 22 litres so are the perfect volume for a 19L corny keg brew) Unfortunately they're kind of a pain to clean due to the small opening and being so narrow and cramped inside. A spray ball with decent pressure could help to scrub out the krausen and gunk inside?

I also use those 20L Bunnings jerry cans as fermenters due to the shape of my fermentation chamber (bar fridge). My concern with using a spray ball to clean them would be that there's no way a spray ball could effectively reach and clean inside the handle cavity. I fill them up with sodium perc solution to clean but this is not ideal due to the water wastage.

 

[Josh Dodd]

I also use those 20L Bunnings jerry cans as fermenters due to the shape of my fermentation chamber (bar fridge). My concern with using a spray ball to clean them would be that there's no way a spray ball could effectively reach and clean inside the handle cavity. I fill them up with sodium perc solution to clean but this is not ideal due to the water wastage.

Hmmn that's true. But the krausen ring is the bit that's really hard to get off and needs a lot of effort. I generally fill about a quarter with warm water and napisan, throw in a couple of clean chux washcloths, cap and then shake the can like mad for a few minutes to get the worst off. Then drain, pull out the clothes and multiple rinses and then hit with starsan. I'm just figuring the spray washer may help loosen the crud and therefore require less shaking?
I figure the triple - wash, rinse, sanitise route may be enough to break down the gunk and wash them clean. It would at least make it a little easier/

 

[stux]

That's what really tempts me about it. And that video was great, thanks.
Saniclean is like Starsan without the foaming action right?
I hadn't thought about it but given how much Starsan foams, it would be like a foam party if you ran it through a pump like this!!

neither had I, until I watched the manual video

Anyway, saniclean is like starsan, except without the foam. Because of that it needs to be made up at a stronger concentration, 2.5ml/L instead of 1.5ml/L. And also it needs a longer contact time (3 minutes), but that's why you have a CIP system. So it doesn't matter.

I only have a few kegs at the moment and the rotation from one to the next is pretty slow for me so not sure I could justify the cost for one, but at the same time, moving from bottling to kegging took a lot of the drudgery out of the process and making keg cleaning even easier would take care of a lot of the rest of it. Even better if it can be used to clean fermentation vessels and such. If I can brew, ferment, crash, keg, carbonate without the chores, it's definitely tempting. It's why I'm tempted by the robobrew automated brewing setups, and why I bought a decent Kegerator setup. I enjoy making the beer, I love drinking the beer... but not a fan of all the other fiddly and messy parts of the process. Cleaning? It's a huge pain

Well, it cleans homebrew kegs well. Maybe you could use it for other purposes, but it really is designed just for that. I'm planning on getting a much bigger CIP setup for SS unitanks etc when I eventually get that. This will be just for kegs.

 

[stux]

Keg King will have “Marks Keg Washer” available next month at a very affordable price. These make the whole thing very simple.

Looks like a nice system.

https://www.kegwasher.com/howitworks.html

Carboys, Kegs, Pails and a very efficient Bottlewasher too.

But I think the SS is the better keg washer. More efficient for batch cleaning multiple kegs.

I love more options on the market.

 

[Frothy Boi]

Finally got the spray ball and had chance to test it on a few cubes and my old fermenter. Works quite well with warm PBW solution. I don't have any QD attachments for cleaning keg posts in situ but i'm thinking about putting a screen/grid over the pump intake so I can throw all the loose posts and bits into the reservoir and the recirculating solution will clean them and they won't be sucked into pump.

 

[hefevice]

I was looking at these, but the flow rate is huge! You're talking 10x what the spray balls need, I thought this could burn out the pump. But then again ozito warranty is pretty good.

Instead I've gone with one of these hot water recirculation pumps. Rated to 110°c, stainless housing and plastic impeller and 3 speeds. Could almost use it for hot wort. Cost about $80 from nightingales superstore in Melbourne.

Will report back on how it works. View attachment 116585View attachment 116586

How did you go with this pump? What power supply is required? I need a pump suitable for the SS Brewtech spray ball for CIP of Grainfather fermenters. This one looks like it should fit the bill.

 

[camNZ]

How did you go with this pump? What power supply is required? I need a pump suitable for the SS Brewtech spray ball for CIP of Grainfather fermenters. This one looks like it should fit the bill.

Hi Hefevice,

Works great except not really designed to be prime all the time, to prime/bleed the air you have to unscrew that plug in the centre. The flat head screw driver slot is starting to get abit flogged out.

Otherwise I give my 64l ss unitank a blast with jet from the garden hose to remove the loose muck, then fill with about 20l hot water a scoop of sodium metasilicate and two scoops of oxyper run for 30mins and its spotless. No scrubbing required at all to remove dried krausen.

I also use it with regular old star san to sanitise, while it foams this works well to coat every surface. By the time the pump cavitates due to pumping foam the whole unitank is full of foam. I just turn it off, let the foam settle and drain. Brewing today so might get you a video and if I remember in 1-2weeks time once it's time to clean another video of that.

Oh and its just a standard 10a plug to power