Convert My RIMS Tube To A Keg Washer???

[Culln5]

Apparently Snowmageddon is the father of inspiration! While I had my RIMS tube and pump out plumbing them, I thought to myself, "Self, why couldn't you convert your RIMS tube to a sanke keg cleaner?"..... Well, I'm a couple parts short but I think I have a good start!

Now hold on tight and try to follow along!

* An air compressor and CO2 line will be attached to the left end of the RIMS tube via quick connects and a garden hose will be connected to the right end.

The keg will be attached to the exit port (center) of the RIMS tube and flushed with water, then purged with air.

Cleaner will enter the pump through lower 3 way valve, exit the pump and be directed to the left cam lock on the RIMS tube. It will exit the tube through the center cam lock (missing) and enter the keg via a modified sanke coupler and return from the keg to the cleaning tank.

The keg will again be flushed with water and purged with air.

Sanitizer will enter the lower 3 way valve, exit the pump and be directed to the right cam lock on the RIMS tube. It will follow the same path through the keg and return to the sanitizer tank.

The keg will then be purged with CO2 and closed off until it's ready to be filled!

So will it work? Suggestions? Too complicated? Overkill? I am concerned that the pressure gauge may not work with gas and liquid and how much CO2 I would be using to complete the final purge of sanitizer.

 

[maierhof]

Please see my post on this subject as it should help you understand what kind of HP you are going to need for your pump.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=511681

That chugger is just not going to do it if you want to invert the keg to clean it.
You can do the cleaner(pbw) portion of the clean when it is sitting on the floor the regular way, then invert it to rinse it. Normal pressure for a house is all over the place - depending on where you live - mine is enough to get a full stream out the top for a rinse and then some. Gravity is your friend for sanke cleaning and rinsing.
I am just not a fan of picking up a full keg and then using sooo much pbw though as it is expensive and quite frankly it wastes water too.
If you buy a utility or sump pump just make sure you get at least 1/2 HP. For a 15g keg.

 

[Culln5]

I use 5.16 gallon and 10l sankes exclusively for serving and have been cleaning them for sometime without opening them. I use a 1/3 HP clean water pump that pushes Oxyclean and starsan through an open coupler. I then drain and fill the headspace with CO2, store and bleed them off for filling. I think your cleaning time is overkill. I can complete a keg in under a half hour.

As far as the manifold I'm building, it is more for convenience and ease of automation when cleaning more than one keg. I'm not sold that my chugger pump won't get the job done. I think with heat, cascading cleaner, and time, they will come clean .

 

[maierhof]

Yes - the 1/3 hp pump is more than enough for a smaller than 15.5 keg which is what I use too, still.
You can clearly see from my tests that the chugger will just not get it all the way out the top of the tube enough to coat the entirety of the keg...

Open coupler? Not understanding that comment... can you elaborate please?

You can say that I am overkill on cleaning, but I am ok with that.
I would rather take the time and do something correctly than to rush and be mostly done.
This is how I operate in my life.

Let me know how it goes for you...

 

[Culln5]

Honestly, I don't know which of the pictures/videos in your post shows the chugger pump output (viewing on my phone).

I refer to a coupler without the gas and beverage check valves removed, as an open coupler. I'm sure it's what you are using also.

 

[Culln5]

I gave a dumbed down version of the RIMS tube conversion a go today and was quite impressed.

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[maierhof]

Nice - OK - it makes much more sense now... lol
Your first picture just threw me to thinking you were using a chugger pump to push into the keg.
However I can clearly see through this photo series you have a totally different setup.

How did you solve the oil leakage from the air compressor?
I looked hard at solutions for that and couldn't come up with one I could get comfortable with already owning a oil based compressor.
Instead I opted for two 20# co2 tanks for still less than the total of a good clean air compressor filter...

Did you pull your rims element before the pbw/cleaner event?
Do you own a stainless steel element yet?
So many pieces to this puzzle...

 

[Culln5]

The dumbed down version uses the chugger pump to push cleaner and sanitizer from the cleaning vessel to the modified RIMS into the keg and back to the cleaning vessel. Would I like the pump to have more umph? Certainly, but it performed adequately.

There is no heating element in the cleaning tube. However, the one I use for the RIMS tube is stainless steel. The tube now consists of an air in port (no issues with oil becuase my compressor is an oil-less compressor), a cleaner/sanitizer in port, an H2O in port, and a to keg (out) port. I plan to purchase/fabricate a divided container to hold both the cleaner and sanitizer to replace my current kettle. It will be controlled by a 3-way value at the in side of the chugger pump.

The kegs were flushed with water, purged with air, recirculated with 140° Oxyclean, flushed with water, purged with air, recirculated with 140° starsan, and purged with CO2.

The whole process took about a half hour per keg, but they are ready to fill now or a year from now with nothing other than filling it with beer!

 

[Culln5]

Here is the RIMS tube ready for brewing.....

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[cyberbackpacker]

As was mentioned, these 1/25hp pumps (March and/or Chugger) are not adequate to actually clean an inverted keg. The keg spear diameter creates less back pressure, resulting in the cleaner/rinse/what have you merely gurgling over the side of the spear, instead of shooting out and hitting the bottom of the keg and allowing the solution to run down the sides of the keg. The necessity of the cleaner hitting the bottom of the keg (top in the inverted position) and the subsequent cascade of solution down the sides IS critical-- without doing this, one is not truly cleaning/sanitizing their kegs. Otherwise you are just washing/rinsing/sanitizing the spear and a small portion of the top of the keg (bottom when inverted).

The reality is, the March/Chugger is incapable of this. Search youtube, there are plenty of videos that show the flow from a March/Chugger through a sanke spear-- or try it yourself. Hook up your cleaner to a spear that is out of the keg and judge if the force of liquid leaving the spear is sufficient to hit the bottom of the keg and the sides.