Home made wine filter?

[krakowmike]

I'm interested in making my own pump wine filter using water filters (1 micron for whites, 5 for reds).

I've read from other sites that people make this out of a vacuum pump but since I have only plastic buckets, that won't work since any vacuum will crush it. My idea is to have a under sink water filter inline (http://tinyurl.com/9jwuq5c) with a diaphragm pump (http://tinyurl.com/96yugng) using an appropriate pressure tubing in between. The pump would pull the wine from the giving bucket through the filter and push into the receiving bucket for either bottling or further aging.

The filters are cheap and the whole set up would be around 50GBP including the 12DC power supply to run the pump. Does an have any experience with a set up like this? Will the pressure generated by enough or not too much for the filter? Any consensus?

[Rich]

The water filter being just a filter, or activated charcoal?

The link you've put up is just for a housing.

I wouldn't want to use activated charcoal to filter it

[krakowmike]

No charcoal here- the filter in question is a sediment filter. Here's a link, http://tinyurl.com/8hn2bcs Its made from spun material and is food grade (water). Also, there are 5 micro models available as well. I think the idea is good, but would the pressure from the pump work with the filter or not. My gut feeling is yes since these types of pumps are used as caravan water pumps and the water filter is just that, instead we use wine.

If it works, its 1/3 price of a Mini-jet filter.

[NorthernWiner]

Are you talking about something like the setup in the photo below? This is how I filter most of my wines. I have a vacuum pump with an overflow rig that pulls wine from one carboy through a cartridge type filter and into a receiving carboy. It works like a charm, however, when using very tight filters (0.25, 0.45 micron), it can take some time to filter even 5 gallons.

vacuum_racking 010.jpg

[krakowmike]

Yes but instead of a vacuum pump distal to the receiving bucket, you have a diaphragm pump between the filter and receiving bucket. Do you think that will work?

[Cellar_Rat]

Sure would - the shure RV pumps are v good. but needs to pump into filter for best efficiency.

[NorthernWiner]

Yes but instead of a vacuum pump distal to the receiving bucket, you have a diaphragm pump between the filter and receiving bucket. Do you think that will work?

I'm sure that will work. Mini-Jet filters work much that way, the exception being that the impeller pushes the wine through the filter, rather than pulls it.

[krakowmike]

Got it-

Input-> pump-> filter-> output

Do you use reinforced tubing?

[krakowmike]

Bought pump The rest after GF!

[krakowmike]

Pump came today- box says outlet size 1/2inch/ 10mm. Not sure what size tubing I need, and does it need to be reinforced- any ideas? How are ya'll powering your pumps?

[fatbloke]

I wouldn't have thought you'd need any special tubing, but my minijet uses standard tubing -6mm.

I'd have thought that your biggest consideration would be the design of the actual filter section. After all, a minijet is basically a small plate filter so if one area of the filers clogs up it still moves the liquid.

my enolmatic and tandem housing uses bigger tubing (8 or is it 10mm ?). the difference in the filter surface area is considerable.

maybe there's some flow adjustment on the pump ? as you wouldn't want the pump to blow a hole in whatever filter media you chose.......

[Cellar_Rat]

I have to say this is a cracking alternative to the enolmatic tandem filter which is about £100

[robwrx]

I quite like the look of Steves filter setup. I've seen similar on the Winepress forum and looked into sourcing the parts to use with my vacuum pump. The only thing is that having seen the colour of the filter pads in my gravity filter after just 5 gallons of wine, I've gone off the idea of filtering altogether.

Time and careful racking seems to work as a fairly good filter and doesn't strip the colour and god knows what else out of the wine.

[Cellar_Rat]

I quite like the look of Steves filter setup. I've seen similar on the Winepress forum and looked into sourcing the parts to use with my vacuum pump. The only thing is that having seen the colour of the filter pads in my gravity filter after just 5 gallons of wine, I've gone off the idea of filtering altogether.

Time and careful racking seems to work as a fairly good filter and doesn't strip the colour and god knows what else out of the wine.

1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000% agree.
Filters may or may not be good for white wine. I have never filtered a red wine in 10 years exactly for this reason

[robwrx]

Filters may or may not be good for white wine.

I haven't filtered any of my vinegar lately either