I'm trying to build a wine filter using a cartridge filter. I ordered
a Flojet 2100 diaphragm pump which has 3/8" ports. Now the cartridge
housing - I can choose b/w 1/4" (smaller) or 1/2" (bigger) - any advice on
which should I take? also the tubing size - should it match the pump or the
housing?
Thanks, Raanan

"Raanan" > wrote in message
m...
> I'm trying to build a wine filter using a cartridge filter. I ordered
> a Flojet 2100 diaphragm pump which has 3/8" ports. Now the cartridge
> housing - I can choose b/w 1/4" (smaller) or 1/2" (bigger) - any advice on
> which should I take? also the tubing size - should it match the pump or
the
> housing?

Assuming you're going for a standard 10 inch housing, that'll take anything
up to 1 inch fittings.

That pump has 3/8" female pipe threads, and apparently comes with a pair of
½" hose barb fittings. I'd run ½" hose to and from the filter housing, and
in fact throughout. For couplings you could use plastic garden hose
fittings.

I'd recommend that you use a 10" housing (with adapters as required) because
the filters are cheap and readily available at hardware stores. Since
that's a diaphragm pump, you could do DE filtrations easily by just dumping
DE* into the wine and keeping it stirred while filtering through a $3
throwaway paper filter. That avoids the extra expense of depth filtration
media.

*You should rinse your DE before using it in your wine unless you're sure
that it's free of off odors and flavors. Some brands of DE have
cardboard-like character to them, but will clean up OK with a flushing with
dilute citric acid. Run them with dilute citric followed by clean water
through your filtration setup until the effluent water tastes and smells OK.
Then drain most of the moisture from the DE, dump it into the wine and
you're ready to go.

If you're going to use a depth cartridge instead of DE you should still run
dilute citric acid through it first. Cartridges tend to have a plastic
smell/flavor at first. You really don't want that to end up in your wine.

If you want to get _really_ fancy you could put a 0.45µ membrane (in a
separate housing) after the DE filter and do sterile filtration. Then you
could make sweet wines without having to use sorbate, or non-ML wines
without having to worry about corks shooting in the middle of the night.
:^)

BTW, I've been using DE filtration for ~15 years on my wines. Lately I've
been trying to get away from filtration altogether, but sometimes you don't
have that option.

Tom S

Thanks!
You also got me to learn what DE was, and I though I knew about winemaking...

"Tom S" > wrote in message om>...
> "Raanan" > wrote in message
> m...
> > I'm trying to build a wine filter using a cartridge filter. I ordered
> > a Flojet 2100 diaphragm pump which has 3/8" ports. Now the cartridge
> > housing - I can choose b/w 1/4" (smaller) or 1/2" (bigger) - any advice on
> > which should I take? also the tubing size - should it match the pump or
> the
> > housing?
>
> Assuming you're going for a standard 10 inch housing, that'll take anything
> up to 1 inch fittings.
>
> That pump has 3/8" female pipe threads, and apparently comes with a pair of
> ½" hose barb fittings. I'd run ½" hose to and from the filter housing, and
> in fact throughout. For couplings you could use plastic garden hose
> fittings.
>
> I'd recommend that you use a 10" housing (with adapters as required) because
> the filters are cheap and readily available at hardware stores. Since
> that's a diaphragm pump, you could do DE filtrations easily by just dumping
> DE* into the wine and keeping it stirred while filtering through a $3
> throwaway paper filter. That avoids the extra expense of depth filtration
> media.
>
> *You should rinse your DE before using it in your wine unless you're sure
> that it's free of off odors and flavors. Some brands of DE have
> cardboard-like character to them, but will clean up OK with a flushing with
> dilute citric acid. Run them with dilute citric followed by clean water
> through your filtration setup until the effluent water tastes and smells OK.
> Then drain most of the moisture from the DE, dump it into the wine and
> you're ready to go.
>
> If you're going to use a depth cartridge instead of DE you should still run
> dilute citric acid through it first. Cartridges tend to have a plastic
> smell/flavor at first. You really don't want that to end up in your wine.
>
> If you want to get _really_ fancy you could put a 0.45µ membrane (in a
> separate housing) after the DE filter and do sterile filtration. Then you
> could make sweet wines without having to use sorbate, or non-ML wines
> without having to worry about corks shooting in the middle of the night.
> :^)
>
> BTW, I've been using DE filtration for ~15 years on my wines. Lately I've
> been trying to get away from filtration altogether, but sometimes you don't
> have that option.
>
> Tom S