How do I .......?

rain · Post by **rain** » Sunday Oct 17, 2004 4:23 pm

From water source to brewing bench is a long distance (and I suffer severe arthritis of the knees) so I am planning to use 'food quality' plastic tubing as a transport medium. I'm thinking of using standard garden-hose fittings at each end but that is where my plan stops.
The problem is cleaning/sterilization. How do I introduce pressure to the line-cleaner/sterilizer? First thought (duh) "fill a length of tube and blow with mouth", nah! Don't like that idea ............. and yes, I'm no plumber.
Ideas most welcome from the inventive members, and even the non-inventive 'cause the idea may strike a light.

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Monday Oct 18, 2004 3:32 am

I use a self priming food grade pump to move my liquids around when syphoning isn't an option, mind you I don't have to move it far

Dogger

Franky · Post by **Franky** » Monday Oct 18, 2004 3:33 pm

if you look in the gardening water systems section in K-mart, there are usually all sorts of attachments and joints for hoses. My guess is there is probably a liquid fertiliser attachment that fits to a hose to introduce the fertiliser directly into the water stream as you're watering the graden. If you could somehow modify that to introduce sanitiser directly to your water stream, that may work.

Okay - that's all my inventiveness for today... could very well be a red herring.

thehipone · Post by **thehipone** » Monday Oct 18, 2004 4:09 pm

WHat if you just left the system filled with a dilute bleach solution between batches and then rinsed out before brewing?

As far as your pumping issues go, maybe you could find a peristaltic pump? I think they use them for some medical applications, and we have some in my lab. It's good because the pump bits never touch the liquid, the pump squeezes a piece of tubing periodically to force the water through. You can just hook up a piece of tubing to your hose connection and place the other end in a bucket of water/sterilizing solution/whatever and let the pump suck up the water and push it through.

Or a possibly more creative solution: You could maybe modify a bicycle pump (put a fitting on the end of the pump hose) and use that to pressurize a reservoir of sanitizer or water. Probably much more physical exertion to do the job...

Just a couple of ideas.

rain · Post by **rain** » Monday Oct 18, 2004 8:14 pm

Thanks for the replies, so far.

DD - This morning I began serching the web to check your suggestion. There's 'millions' of the bl**** things and I didn't actually have the concentration to plough through till I found anything small, or cheap.

Franky - I hadn't thought to look at your idea, but I'll peek tomorrow.

hip - I do intend leaving the line-cleaner in the pipes, if I can get it in. I can't even spell "peristaltic" but I promise to look - does this equipment 'suck' or 'blow'? It may be closer to what I'm after. Your bicycle pump idea is one I'd given thought to, but using a car-tyre pump (one of those upright ones) instead. Something like the pump I used as a kid to collect sandworms as bait for fishing.

Actually, sucking, blowing, or pumping will be a useful adjunct to my new exercise regime.

grabman · Post by **grabman** » Monday Oct 18, 2004 10:24 pm

How about a pressure sprayer as used in the garden for poisons etc. Fill it with the cleaner, pressurize it and place the nozzle in end of the hose. If you then insert a restricter bung in the other end to stop the cleaner just pouring out you can control amount of fluid entering and leaving the pipe. Any cleaner left in the sprayer can then be used to clean down your brewing area.

My "better half' still can't believe how much effort I go to keeping the brew area clean, she's hoping I will start on the rest of the house!!!!

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Tuesday Oct 19, 2004 8:45 am

Hey great ideas guys,

just a note from personal experience, you can't get much head on a peristalic pump, the best I saw was about 12 feet.

Some guy called Bernulli or some thing close to that proved that things just blow, never suck. I can attest to that in other ways but that is another story (Just a joke)

I like the idea of the venturi to drive it personally. These pieces of kit are available here so I am sure they are just about everywhere. You can trade out the sanitizer for fresh so you are drawing fresh to flush out the line.

Tell me, is there a drain near the brewbench? If not we will have to figure out a way to get the water and stuff away. (I hate it when i don't think that far in front).

Dogger

rain · Post by **rain** » Tuesday Oct 19, 2004 1:00 pm

Dogger - no there is no drainage, but I had the idea to empty into a wall-mounted waste bin and allow gravity to remove fluids to the garden via a length of old hose.

rain · Post by **rain** » Tuesday Oct 19, 2004 1:06 pm

grabman that is a good idea. I've got one of those doing nothing in my shed, but is thorough washing enough to ensure no residue of herbicides, etc?

grabman · Post by **grabman** » Tuesday Oct 19, 2004 8:37 pm

I'd say if you used your cleaner/sanitizer in it and let it soak for a while, making sure you pulled it all apart, repeated this and give it a rinse you should be pretty safe. Probably an idea to do this several times and make sure the soak is at least a day or so to allow for all nooks and cranny's to be got at!!!