Has anybody used Star San to sanitize tubes?

[HowardR]

HowardR,
This is my first year with tubing for about 70 taps on 7-8 lines mostly 5/16, and a little 3/16. I’ve been readin up here on cleaning and sanatizing the tubing and purchased a drill pump for this but can’t get it to pump any fluid out of my 5-gallon bucket into the tubing. Im using a Dewalt 18v cordless and notnsure it’s spinning fast enough. It only moves an inch or two (in the tubing) of my water Star San solution. Called the vendor and they said this drill pump isn’t capable for this.

Your drill may not be the problem. My drill is a 20V Dewalt DCD777 with a maximum speed of 1750 RPM. The 18V Dewalt drills have a maximum speed of 1500 RPM, which is just a bit less. I just finished pouring Star San solution through all of my 680 spiles without problem.

Your description sounds like what happens to me when I have lost the priming and can't get it back because the bucket is nearly empty. You have air in the pump, and, as a result, the pump does not have the power to push much solution into the spile. (There are less likely explanations such as that you didn't tighten the chuck enough or that the drill is turning in the wrong direction.)

It is very easy to get the pump primed when the pump is only a few inches above the solution. Just hold the open end of the 5/16 tube as low as possible while you trigger the drill. Once the solution starts to pour out, the pump is primed and you just need to keep it primed. I try to do so, between spiles, by keeping the hose end in solution and the tube end plugged.

Also, you may have bought a pump that requires a very fast drill for self-priming. I bought the Milescraft 1314 drill pump from Amazon for $12.99. Before I bought it, I looked at claims, ratings and reviews of some of their other drill pumps. The Milescraft had a higher self-priming distance, higher user ratings and better reviews than the other drill pumps that I looked at. One of the $6 drill pumps has a 2.3 user rating, but the Milescraft has a 3.9 user rating.