There have been a lot of good ideas posted recently and in the past.
If you have space, a automotive engine hoise will be the most
economical as far as hydraulics go at around 100-150 bucks. As for
pumps, I always reccomend using a vacumn displacement system. You seal
the recieving carboy off and use a pump to evacuate that carboy, then
there is a line that runs to the transfer carboy to the recieving
carboy.
The reason I say that is it can be difficult to find an economical food
grade liquid pump. the above setup can be done with a 20 dollar venturi
device found at www.wortwizard.com. the only change is that you will
want to run the line into the recieving carboy form the transfer carboy
all the way to the bottom of the recieving carboy to prevent splashing.
I think it only costs about 20 bucks.




Peter wrote:
I have been making wine for your and until recently never had problems
lifting 23L carboys from floor to table for bottleing etc. Now I have
put my back out twice in the last year and have 4 23l carbouys on the
floor. I either need to be able to pump to higher elevation or as I
saw purely bt perchance a Brew on Premses location that looked to have
a simple hand powered sort of fork lift that appeared to be lifting a
carboy as high as 7 feet. Does anyone know where one would be able to
purchase one of these or have Ideas for other solutions. Or do I have
to stop making wine and sell my gear.

Thanks in Advance
Peter in Nova Scotia Canada