Hands on Review Mark’s Keg & Carboy Washer

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Limited Time Deal, Review Continues Below:

MoreBeer has this on sale for just $79. That’s nearly $22 in savings.

This is one of the best deals we’ve seen on this great homebrewing tool. As far as MoreBeer deals, this ties a sale we featured back in 2013 and is $5 shy of the only lower price we’ve seen also back in 2013.

we’ve seen on this great homebrewing tool. As far as MoreBeer deals, this ties a sale we featured back in 2013 and is $5 shy of the only lower price we’ve seen also back in 2013. To sweeten the deal, shipping is also free to many US addresses.

Check the product page, to see if you can still get in on this deal

Keg & Carboy Washer KEG300 at MoreBeer

The front of the box. “Clean and Sanitize Carboys, Corny Kegs, Brew Pails and Hoses” and “1 Year Guarantee”

Side of the box. It says: •Clean and Sanitize Carboys. No need for a bottle brush. Clean every square inch of the inside of a carboy in minutes. •Clean and sanitize Corny Kegs. No need to disassemble the keg. Clean the inside of the keg and the dip tube. •Clean and Sanitize Brew Pails and Hoses. •Spend your time brewing beer, not cleaning your equipment.

Other side of the box. It recaps features and then let’s you know what’s in the box: 1.25 gallon high density polyethylene basin, center holding rack with powerful jet nozzle, 520 gallon-per-hour pump with three adapters, instruction manual and warranty.

The Keg and Carboy Washer unboxed.

A look at the individual components.

1.25 gallon basin.

A look at the four included nozzles/adapters. From left to right: 1. T for use with cleaning Corny kegs. The barb goes to tubing that feeds you keg’s dip tube, 2. Barb for cleaning 3/8″ ID tubing, 3. Jet nozzle for both carboys and kegs. For carboys it goes directly on the vertical pipe, for kegs the T goes on first followed by the jet nozzle, 4. Barb for cleaning 1/4″ ID tubing.

Top of the Pump

This is the back side of the pump. It has an adjustable louvre for regulating intake. You’re probably going to want to just always have this wide open. If you’re having flow issues, double check this to make sure it’s open.

Fully assembled and rigged to clean a carboy. The bottom part of the basin holds about 1 gallon of water, cleaning solution or sanitizer.

Fully assembled and rigged up to clean a ball lock keg. You provide the Ball Lock or Pin Lock QD along with tubing. When I originally got this, I thought that the barbed piece went at the top – like this. It should go at the bottom as pictured. This makes it easier to hook up the keg and allows you to have a shorter piece of tubing. Shorter tubing – higher flow rate.

Barb installed for keg cleaning

The Keg and Carboy Cleaner, cleaning a… Carboy

It also works with buckets

and of course… kegs Adventures in Homebrewing’s 5 gallon ball lock keg on the keg and carboy cleaner

and it can clean and sanitize tubing

and… it works with Speidel Fermenters. This is the 7.9 Gallon Size – Review. Originally I washed Speidels with the collar installed – photo. Since the openings on my 5.3 and 7.9 gallon size Speidels are about the same size as the collar, it required close attention to ensure that the fermenters did not move out of position. Someone pointed out that removing the keg/carboy collar makes this work a whole lot better. That’s the way to go. That causes the top of the fermenter to sit directly on the base and provides a lot more stability.

and… some kettles and keggles! Thanks to Twitter Follower Christian for this tip and photo!

and… as a draft line cleaning pump! A single fitting converts this to a recirculating draft line cleaning up. [See: Mark II Keg & Carboy Cleaner… As a Recirculating Draft Line Cleaning Pump]

One of the great things about this washer is that you do not need to disassemble your kegs to clean and sanitize them. I ran through 5 kegs the first night I used it. All were clean and sanitized when all was said and done. Of course, you do have to take the lid off. That, along with other small parts, can be tossed in the basin for cleaning and sanitizing.



This video shows the kind of flow rate you’re getting to the keg QD. Looks good to me.

For keg cleaning, the instructions say to run with the QD connected for about 15 minutes and then disconnect the QD. “This will maximize the pressure for cleaning the keg’s interior”.

One issue that I had with it when I first started using the washer for kegs was… the QD was a bit difficult to get on. There isn’t a lot of spare tubing (and you don’t want a lot for pressure purposes) and requirement to exert pressure up on the QD while trying to hold the keg down is an awkward set of motions. There isn’t a lot of leverage. This problem ended up being a poppet issue. I use universal poppets on nearly every keg. Those work great, but can be on the tight side with some kegs. I know that can be an issue. The fix for that is and has been… simply trim a bit of the spring with a wire cutter. I just hadn’t noticed it as a problem when trying to use the kegs in question in the typical orientation. Using a wire cutter to trim a bit off the poppet spring fixed the issue making it a lot easier to hook up to the carboy washer.



Here’s a video of the Keg and Carboy Cleaner cleaning a 6 Gallon PET Carboy from MoreBeer – Review Stainless Steel Spray Ball Modification – This Stainless CIP Spray Ball threads on to the top of the PVC pipe for a more vigorous spray pattern. See: Mark II Keg and Carboy Washer Mod – SS CIP Spray Ball for more information and a video of the spray ball in action.

Upgrades and Mods

Conclusions

I’ve owned this keg and carboy washer for quite a while now. The purpose built Mark’s Keg and Carboy Washer works extremely well. It saves on cleaning and sanitizing solution, it’s versatile, doesn’t take up a lot of space and it saves me time.

If you want to clean kegs, carboys, tubing, draft lines and more… After year’s of use, I can confidently recommend this to you.

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