If you're like me, you want your beer to taste as good as it can. Keeping clean beer lines is the best way to deliver beer to your glass. So let's go over your options. I've been through most of them, and you may be shocked to find out what the most economical solution is. I'll try and keep this short, but I do have a tendency to ramble, let's get started.
The first way I tried to keep my beer lines clean was with one of those hand pump systems. They come in different quality builds, but you fill up your pump reservoir with cleaner, fill your lines, wait, and then flush. For me, this wasn't good enough. Recirculating cleaner is far better than letting cleaner sit in the lines. So for a time I chose to pump continuously for 15 minutes, filling and dumping as needed.
Next, I was onto a new system that used CO2 to push cleaner through the lines. While the hand pumping work was gone, this eats a lot of CO2. Remember I don't want the cleaner just to fill the lines and sit. I want the cleaning power of constant fluid motion.
Next, I decided to build a recirculating pump system. I think lot's of us end up here. It seems a natural progression. There are a several YouTube videos on how to build one of these systems. There are several threads on this forum with a few custom builds as well. What I will say is simply this. As far as I have seen them, these are all inadequate. The pumps used just don't deliver the flow rates needed. Heck, the hand pumps give you a better flow rate than you'll get from one of these cheap pond pumps. Pond pumps are also not generally food safe. If you take the impeller out, you'll see that it is coated with a lubricant. Do you want this in your beer lines?
So how do you get a recirculating system that will clean your lines right? You need to achieve a flow rate of 2 gallons per minute when recirculating your cleaning solution. This flow rate is twice the one gallon per minute flow that a system should be delivering beer. Achieving this flow rate is not as easy a task as it would sound. Most pumps are marketed with a GPH or Gallons per hour metric. The problem with this is that it does not indicate the actual flow rates you can obtain. Factors that impact your actual flow rates are line diameter, line length, and lifting height. These factors come together to give you a meaningful metric that you can use. This metric is known as feet of head.
Feet of head is what you need to know, not gallons per hour. You first need to calculate how man feet of head your system needs and then find a pump that is capable of delivering such. So how do you calculate feet of head? Well, we don't have time to get into that. Just Google, pump head calculator, total head calculator, etc.
What I found is that the first pump that I used, a commonly recommended eco-something was simply not up to the task. The pump is rated at 396 gallons per hour. However, I got nothing but a trickle out of it through 8 feet of 3/16" beer line. The problem, the pump is only capable of 6.5 feet of head.
Let's say your trying to clean 5' of 3/16" ID line. That's pretty standard. This task would require about 60' of head! If you have several taps, and you want to clean your lines all at the same time, you're in for a big surprise. 10' of 3/16" would require 120' of head. Good luck finding a pump that's capable of that at an economical price.
My last recirculating system consisted of a $65 Shurflo pump. This pump is NSF listed, so it's food safe. I used NSF listed drinking water hose so as not to impart any flavors into the system. This pump is capable of 100' of head. So it works great at delivering 2 gallons per minute to about 8' feet of 3/16" line. Still, if I want to clean multiple lines at once this just doesn't cut it.
So here is a solution that some of you may want to try. Use larger ID beer line. Try 1/4" or even 3/8" beer line. There is so little restriction that you can get fantastic flow rates even through long lengths of line. Cleaning long or multiple lengths of lines becomes very easy. As an example, 5' of 3/16" line would need 61' of head pressure. 5' of 3/8" line would only need 2' of head pressure! Your cheap pond pump shouldn't have a problem with that. By way of another example, a 100' foot capable pump could pump 2 gallons per minute through about 8' of 3/16" line. The same pump could pump 2 gallons per minute through about 230' of 3/8" line.
Now I know what you're thinking. You can't use larger ID beer line without creating a firehose at the faucet. Sure this is great for cleaning beer lines, but it also fills a pint glass full of nothing but foam in under 1 second. Well here is the trick. Use a flow control faucet or put an inline valve before the faucet. I can vouch for this method. It works fantastic. You can use 3/8" ID line even at 3' if you want. Then adjust the flow at the faucet for the perfect amount of head. Long lines, multiple lines, it doesn't matter. There won't be an issue.
So is the best way to go? No, I don't think so. For one thing, flow control faucets are expensive at about $60 each. That's quite an investment especially if you have multiple taps. You need to buy a pump, fittings, the send and return hose, adapters, etc. You need to wire up the pump, buy buckets, etc. Let's not forget that you need to purchase your favorite beer line cleaning chemical. Remember you still want to replace those beer lines once a year even though you're cleaning them every two weeks.
So what's the best way to keep your beer lines clean? Replace them. That's right, replace your beer lines every two weeks. You can get 100' of 3/16" beer line for about $12 from a popular website that offers free two-day shipping to most people. That's $0.12 per foot. You could go almost an entire year, replacing your lines every two weeks for just $12. How fast can you replace a beer line? I can do mine in less than 5 minutes. It takes me 30 - 45 minutes to set up my pump system, flush the lines, recirculate cleaner for 15 minutes, flush the lines again, and clean up. You won't have to buy the pump, the adapters, couplers, hoses, fittings, etc. You won't even have the recurring cost of beer line cleaner which itself costs more than 100' of line.
I now to some this seems wasteful. Still, where I live, the vinyl lines are recyclable. I'm not dumping the chemical into the water system. I'm not using electricity or water.
Why don't restaurants or bars do this? Because they don't use just 5' of line to deliver beer. They have long draw systems. Glycol chilled trunks, booster pumps, etc. Expensive in-wall tubing with a long life. They have to clean all of that. So they might just as well clean those small jumper lines along with the rest of the system during a recirculation cleaning. We home kegerator users are not bars or restaurants with these complexities. Replacing you lines is more economical, arguably more environmentally safe, faster and easier.
I can't see myself wasting the time or money again to do it any other way. Give it a shot, and get to drinking beer!
The first way I tried to keep my beer lines clean was with one of those hand pump systems. They come in different quality builds, but you fill up your pump reservoir with cleaner, fill your lines, wait, and then flush. For me, this wasn't good enough. Recirculating cleaner is far better than letting cleaner sit in the lines. So for a time I chose to pump continuously for 15 minutes, filling and dumping as needed.
Next, I was onto a new system that used CO2 to push cleaner through the lines. While the hand pumping work was gone, this eats a lot of CO2. Remember I don't want the cleaner just to fill the lines and sit. I want the cleaning power of constant fluid motion.
Next, I decided to build a recirculating pump system. I think lot's of us end up here. It seems a natural progression. There are a several YouTube videos on how to build one of these systems. There are several threads on this forum with a few custom builds as well. What I will say is simply this. As far as I have seen them, these are all inadequate. The pumps used just don't deliver the flow rates needed. Heck, the hand pumps give you a better flow rate than you'll get from one of these cheap pond pumps. Pond pumps are also not generally food safe. If you take the impeller out, you'll see that it is coated with a lubricant. Do you want this in your beer lines?
So how do you get a recirculating system that will clean your lines right? You need to achieve a flow rate of 2 gallons per minute when recirculating your cleaning solution. This flow rate is twice the one gallon per minute flow that a system should be delivering beer. Achieving this flow rate is not as easy a task as it would sound. Most pumps are marketed with a GPH or Gallons per hour metric. The problem with this is that it does not indicate the actual flow rates you can obtain. Factors that impact your actual flow rates are line diameter, line length, and lifting height. These factors come together to give you a meaningful metric that you can use. This metric is known as feet of head.
Feet of head is what you need to know, not gallons per hour. You first need to calculate how man feet of head your system needs and then find a pump that is capable of delivering such. So how do you calculate feet of head? Well, we don't have time to get into that. Just Google, pump head calculator, total head calculator, etc.
What I found is that the first pump that I used, a commonly recommended eco-something was simply not up to the task. The pump is rated at 396 gallons per hour. However, I got nothing but a trickle out of it through 8 feet of 3/16" beer line. The problem, the pump is only capable of 6.5 feet of head.
Let's say your trying to clean 5' of 3/16" ID line. That's pretty standard. This task would require about 60' of head! If you have several taps, and you want to clean your lines all at the same time, you're in for a big surprise. 10' of 3/16" would require 120' of head. Good luck finding a pump that's capable of that at an economical price.
My last recirculating system consisted of a $65 Shurflo pump. This pump is NSF listed, so it's food safe. I used NSF listed drinking water hose so as not to impart any flavors into the system. This pump is capable of 100' of head. So it works great at delivering 2 gallons per minute to about 8' feet of 3/16" line. Still, if I want to clean multiple lines at once this just doesn't cut it.
So here is a solution that some of you may want to try. Use larger ID beer line. Try 1/4" or even 3/8" beer line. There is so little restriction that you can get fantastic flow rates even through long lengths of line. Cleaning long or multiple lengths of lines becomes very easy. As an example, 5' of 3/16" line would need 61' of head pressure. 5' of 3/8" line would only need 2' of head pressure! Your cheap pond pump shouldn't have a problem with that. By way of another example, a 100' foot capable pump could pump 2 gallons per minute through about 8' of 3/16" line. The same pump could pump 2 gallons per minute through about 230' of 3/8" line.
Now I know what you're thinking. You can't use larger ID beer line without creating a firehose at the faucet. Sure this is great for cleaning beer lines, but it also fills a pint glass full of nothing but foam in under 1 second. Well here is the trick. Use a flow control faucet or put an inline valve before the faucet. I can vouch for this method. It works fantastic. You can use 3/8" ID line even at 3' if you want. Then adjust the flow at the faucet for the perfect amount of head. Long lines, multiple lines, it doesn't matter. There won't be an issue.
So is the best way to go? No, I don't think so. For one thing, flow control faucets are expensive at about $60 each. That's quite an investment especially if you have multiple taps. You need to buy a pump, fittings, the send and return hose, adapters, etc. You need to wire up the pump, buy buckets, etc. Let's not forget that you need to purchase your favorite beer line cleaning chemical. Remember you still want to replace those beer lines once a year even though you're cleaning them every two weeks.
So what's the best way to keep your beer lines clean? Replace them. That's right, replace your beer lines every two weeks. You can get 100' of 3/16" beer line for about $12 from a popular website that offers free two-day shipping to most people. That's $0.12 per foot. You could go almost an entire year, replacing your lines every two weeks for just $12. How fast can you replace a beer line? I can do mine in less than 5 minutes. It takes me 30 - 45 minutes to set up my pump system, flush the lines, recirculate cleaner for 15 minutes, flush the lines again, and clean up. You won't have to buy the pump, the adapters, couplers, hoses, fittings, etc. You won't even have the recurring cost of beer line cleaner which itself costs more than 100' of line.
I now to some this seems wasteful. Still, where I live, the vinyl lines are recyclable. I'm not dumping the chemical into the water system. I'm not using electricity or water.
Why don't restaurants or bars do this? Because they don't use just 5' of line to deliver beer. They have long draw systems. Glycol chilled trunks, booster pumps, etc. Expensive in-wall tubing with a long life. They have to clean all of that. So they might just as well clean those small jumper lines along with the rest of the system during a recirculation cleaning. We home kegerator users are not bars or restaurants with these complexities. Replacing you lines is more economical, arguably more environmentally safe, faster and easier.
I can't see myself wasting the time or money again to do it any other way. Give it a shot, and get to drinking beer!