Save your money. The older model was much better. This thing is flimsy. The base comes loose every time I put a different keg on it. I am afraid to use it for a carboy as I think it will tip and break the carboy. It has dropped a keg twice.
Sorry about the problems you are having with the kegwasher.
I remove the suction cups from the pump because they tend to keep you from being able to move the pump into position and the feet do like to come off when you adjust it. They are mainly there for shipping. If you pull the front and back covers off the pump, the feet will slide into the notches if you do want to keep them. The covers are held on by clips but do come off.
As far at the collar coming loose, make sure you have ALL THREE legs snapped in. I tend to do them one at a time. The feet kind of wedge in behind little towers in the horizontal part of the base and the clip they snap into. It is easy to miss one and the leg of the collar ends up in front of the little tower instead of being wedged in behind it. If this happens, the collar is definately vulnerable to coming off. You should be able to pick up the unit by the collar and wiggle it around a bit without it coming off. I have attached some pics of the clips and how the collar legs are snapped in.
Give the above a try.
If the clips do not hold the collar on firmly, it is possible that the base or the collar might have come out of the mold warped. If this happens, the clips might spread out and not engage the collar properly. If this is the case, let us know and we will replace the unit for you.
If the unit is warped, send it to me and I will replace it. If you want a refund, then send it back to More beer. They will credit you and then I will credit them.
In any case let me know what happens. This is a new product so you are the first to encounter this problem. We want to make sure everybody loves the keg washer and enjoy using it for years.
Quick question for those with the Mark II, what are the steps you use to clean and sanitize. Right now (without the Mark II) I rinse the keg or carboy with water, then use OxyClean, then StarSan. Would you follow the same process?
Starsan would foam too much.
I run one batch of pbw, 2-3 of water, then fill with starsan and pump out with co2 to my next corny.
Ah, didn't think about the problem that foaming would cause. So you just take the dirty keg/carboy, put it on the keg washer, and run PBW. Then, after ____ amount of time you rinse with water, remove from the keg washer, and fill with starsan?
I'm really leaning towards getting this, as I think it would just save me time. And, if I can catch this on sale at MoreBeer again, $90 is definitely worth the time it would save me. With a wife and two kids, being able to set the keg on the washer and then tend to other matters while it cleans would be a godsend.
Ah, didn't think about the problem that foaming would cause. So you just take the dirty keg/carboy, put it on the keg washer, and run PBW. Then, after ____ amount of time you rinse with water, remove from the keg washer, and fill with starsan?
I'm really leaning towards getting this, as I think it would just save me time. And, if I can catch this on sale at MoreBeer again, $90 is definitely worth the time it would save me. With a wife and two kids, being able to set the keg on the washer and then tend to other matters while it cleans would be a godsend.
Hey everyone, the Mark keg washer is up right now on morebeer for $79 shipped!
http://morebeer.com/
It''ll likely be sold out soon, so act fast if you want one.
Man, those went fast!!!!
Okay - after trying mine on a carboy, 8 cornys, 1 better bottle and 5 buckets, I have some feedback.
I am somewhat disappointed in this $70 (with discount) product.
A few thoughts:
1.) When attempting to attach the 3/16" hose to the tee that goes to the ball lock connector, without overt pressure, I twisted the connection off - see picture below. This resulted in a $10 home improvement store run even before getting started.
2.) SPLASHING. holy. splashing. Over the course of PBWing the above items, I lost 1/2 gallon of liquid. It got so bad that I had to place a large tupperware lid under the keg washer to catch all of the excess fluid. This device would be a lot better off if the lip was about an inch taller. Per the instructions I added the shrub sprinkler with no noticeable change.
3.) No drain? Seriously? You're right, it's not THAT difficult of a job to tilt the thing out into a bucket but after a few instances of spilling I found myself siphoning. I promptly ran to Lowes and installed my own drain solution.
In hindsight I wish I would have built my own, saved a fair amount of cash and got a product I was comfortable would do such a simple job.
I built my own keg washer with a 6.5 gallon bucket, a cheap 1HP sump pump from Harbor Freight, and a few PVC fittings. It works VERY well and I also added QD hookups for the gas and liquid dip tubes to blast them out while the wand is spraying. I cleaned out about 10 kegs with it the other day while I was doing some other stuff in the garage. Just a gallon of hot PBW solution and left them on there for maybe 5 minutes each, and they come out looking absolutely pristine no matter how grimy they were before.
Culas; I"d recommend you email Mark ASAP and I'm sure he will address your issues. I know your #1 is in the process of being remedied already. I had no such problem but I'm aware of a few others that have.
Regarding #2, I've never had mine spash. At all. Not with a carboy, not with a keg. Maybe you have the fill level too high?
Regarding #3, I also would like a drain. But Mark made the point that a drain means something could leak, which could damage something should a gallon of PBW drain out while unattended. Since its so easy to lift and dump I don't consider it to be much of an issue at all.
Thanks Kincade, I'll e-mail mark to get his feedback.
With regards to the spilling, it happened most often with the 6.5 gallon buckets. This wasn't a result of the fill level being too high (as I did experiment with various amounts of liquid), but can likely be attributed to too high pressure causing the water to flow around the lips of the container and out of the catch pan.
I didn't notice this before but now that I look at the pump, it seems I could adjust the flow by turning the front inlet closed?
This being said, I believe this issue could be resolved by increasing the height of the lip above the catch pan.
The heater is a great idea... I really like that.
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