Carboy/keg sprayball input wanted

[boat_eggs]

Hi all, just recently joined but have been reading for a while and with the help of this forum I have built a keezer (still more work to be done here until I am happy), a keggle HERMs setup (ironing out the bugs) and hopefully a keg/carboy cleaner.

I almost bought one of Marks carboy cleaning systems but I decided to say "Screw that! My single car garage has too much crap in it already and SWMBO is getting annoyed with everything out here" and started to build one that I could adapt some of the existing equipment I use.

I was off to a good start with the setup and with some luck solved the mounting problems. Then the spray ball was next to be ironed out. My first attempt was a failure: did too many holes and too large in diameter, also the copper was too large to fit into a carboy. This is my second try at it and I think it will work but wanted some more knowledgeable eyes to look it over and give some input.

The first clip is a side view so you can judge the side action. Second is just another view. First picture was supposed to be a video but apparently I just took a picture of the top instead of the top spray action and the last picture is the actual sprayball (when finished I will solder it, duct tape is only there incase I redo the spray cap again and when I choose my final shaft length).

[ame]http://youtu.be/wvRyqPwYcU0[/ame]

Will this work?

 

[boat_eggs]

I gave it a hot run tonight after kegging (still duct tape rather than solder) and it worked great! After doing a carboy rinse on the secondary, this setup got every off within only 10 minutes, still ran it for 20 minutes though to be sure. I'll wait until the carboy is dry to be sure.

What makes this better for me is that I, after starting this project, read that March/Chugger pumps do not work for this and I can hopefully say "Yes they do!"

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

Looks great! One thought - I find in my carboys, especially if I let the beer sit / settle for a while, is that I get a pretty decent krausen ring around the top of the carboy and it is a bit of a pain to get off. Do you get enough spray against the side to remove any build up?

 

[boat_eggs]

After talking to the engineer at work about my contraption, he said that I had the right idea: not worrying about the sprays hitting every part of the carboy and instead making sure that there is full sheeting so that the cleaning chemical (PBW) can do its job chemically rather than relying on physical power. I am a dairy processor and we use spray balls to clean everything, including the 100+ foot tall/50k gallon holding tanks and these only have one spray ball that sheets the entire inside.

BadNewsBrewery: There was a slight krausen ring to begin with (it was the secondary) and it was gone before my 10 minute check. Like I said, I ran it for 20 minutes total just to be sure.

I wont do a final solder until the next brew and I decide that it works on my primary grime. I'm stoked that I don't have to buy another pump and I can use my MLT dual purpose!