Cleaning kegerator lines

oliver

oliver

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2015
Messages
1,039
Reaction score
482
Points
83
Question for anyone who has a keezer/kegerator in my situation.

I would like to clean my lines with a plastic hand pump thingy, but I notice all of them for sale online have an attachment that looks like it fits on a large wingnut.

The passthroughs I bought have the nipple barb built in to the pass through, so I had no need for the tail piece and wing nut. And now there's beer line clamped down onto there with a black beer connector clamped down on the other side.

Any suggestions? I've already cleaned the line with a keg and some CO2, but I would prefer to not use CO2 and tie up my kegs with sanitizer.
 
Wait I might have a solution if anyone could validate. Here's what I'm looking at:
https://www.beveragefactory.com/dra...Fly2Qo0Kaf9AOaffo-SWYi6OXAfUKCLsaArQMEALw_wcB

That above looks like it has 1 inch male threads... On my lines, I could unscrew the black connectors and I am left with 1/4" female threads. If I just buy that pumper, snip off the large barbs there to a shorter line, and then replace it with one of those 1/4" barb to thread pieces, I could then screw my beer line female 1/4" thread into that. If that made any sense.


1. snip of piece on end of pumper line
2. replace with MFL barb to thread 1/4"
3. screw in line where black connector was to the pumper line
4. done? pump, clean.
5. clamp, clamp retrospectively
 
You need to clean your keg once it kicks, so why not take advantage of the cleaner in it to clean your lines and faucets? It really doesn't tie up any equipment and doesn't use enough CO2 to be of any consequence. I used a home made line cleaner until I read about this and found it to be much more practical.
 
I did the same as Bob. I bought one but I don't use it anymore. Just run the cleaner (pbw) in your keg through the line and let it sit for half an hour or so then run clean rinse water when rinsing the keg.
 
oh it totally worked though. OK. I'll walk through it for anyone who wants to know, as best I can explain it. The pumpers online for line cleaning come with a tail piece and a wing nut , which would work great if you have a passthrough that accepts that.. But if you don't have that, like mine, where the whole nipple is built into the passthrough shank, then go ahead and keep on reading.

I went to Home Depot and got one of those 1 gallon HDX pump sprayer for like $10, we use them at work all the time. My assumption was right, it's a 1/4" tube that attaches for spraying. It was easy to unscrew the sprayer end and have a blank tube end. I popped in a stainless 1/4" MFL threaded x 1/4" barb, (barb side in) and clamped it.

Now fill the HDX with 1 gallon of water and the corresponding amount of BLC solution. Take off your black poppets inside of the kegerator where your liquid lines are, and screw the female swivel barb on your beer line into the pumper hose's new male threads. done. start pumping and cleaning those lines. When the pumper is empty, rinse it out good and fill it back with clean water, and then flush out all the lines again with clean water.
 
I've used the carbonation cap in past for them pump sprayer line cleaner rigs. But now I do like Bob said and just clean lines when keg kicks. Whatever works best for you Oliver.
 
I just have keg of starsan I run through a line occasionally and then I have a bucket with oxyclean that i flush through with a pond pump twice a year.
 
The tubing is dirt cheap, you can get it on Amazon for 0.30 per foot if you buy 100'. After a number of regular cleanings, maybe just replace it.
Or not, just thinking out loud.
 
I expect I will after a while, but so far they aren't getting funky. I already replaced some siphon hoses.
 
anyway, here's some pics.

img_2395.jpg


img_2397.jpg
 
Oh cool, yeah that would work. I like using the pond pump cause I can just walk away and let it flush for half an hour.
 
I should go see what I'm using, cause they're like a year old and they look fine.
 
Since I have Intertap faucets, I use a balllock attachment on each faucet and a submersible pump in a bucket of PBW. I first rinse with clear water, then PBW, then Star-San. The beer line is attached to the pump, the solution flows to the tap, and into the bucket. It's perpetual, I let it run for 10 minutes on each line.
 
Ozarks Mountain Brew said:
I switched to bev-seal, never gets dirty I'm amazed
Click to expand...
What he said. I've used bev-seal since day one and it stays pretty clean. I've got BLC but have yet to use it. I have a 1.75 gal keg for cleaning but usually just use the keg I need to clean. I am the odd ball though in that I use my 4gal air compressor to save CO2. I know it's not the most sanitary but I figure when I finish by pushing through StarSan if I cut it off shortly after it hits air there's enough residue StarSan foam in there that the risk is low.
 
I keep a 2.5 gal keg pressurized with star san. When I kick a keg I hook up the sanitizer keg and flush the lines.
 
Starsan is a sanitizer, not a cleaner. Just as with the rest of your equipment, you can't sanitize your lines and faucets unless they are clean. Over time you'll get buildup in the lines that need a good soak with a cleaner that dissolves beer stone among other things. BLC, Bev-seal and PBW and work well for cleaning. Hope this prevents you from having problems in the future.
 
Good copy Bob. Would Oxyclean do the trick?

BOB357 said:
Starsan is a sanitizer, not a cleaner. Just as with the rest of your equipment, you can't sanitize your lines and faucets unless they are clean. Over time you'll get buildup in the lines that need a good soak with a cleaner that dissolves beer stone among other things. BLC, Bev-seal and PBW and work well for cleaning. Hope this prevents you from having problems in the future.
Click to expand...
 
Oxyclean does well on lots of brewery cleaning, but doesn't do very well at dissolving beer stone which is commonly found in beer lines. To be honest, I have used it to clean lines and faucets for some time without issue. I do let it soak for 15 minutes or so and then run more through and repeat until the output runs clear. Sometimes 4 or 5 times. The beer stone seems to form deposits where the lines go into the shanks. I cut off the discolored last few inches of the lines every 6 months or so and replace every couple of years.

Ironically, I have a quart of BLC that's been sitting for a couple of years and really should be using it. The main reason I have been using the oxyclean is that's what I use to clean kegs. Since it's in a keg it's easy to hook up to the CO2 and run through the lines. Quite simply, I'm lazy.
It would probably be best to use PBW for keg and line cleaning and the Oxyclean for everything else to save a few bucks. Since I just replaced all of my lines I'll probably start doing that as soon as the BLC is used up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Copyright © 2007-2024 Brewer's Friend, Inc. - Send Feedback - Terms - RSS Feed - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Back
Top