MichaelAtTCW

We sell the Mori Fillers so I'll just comment on the size & other fact-based aspects and leave comments/experiences to other folks. That said, there have been A LOT of threads on fillers over the years. Not much has changed, but there's a wealth of information here in the forum and a lot of ground has been covered! Here's a link to some past threads. Plenty of strong opinions/recommendations about fillers! For a gravity filler, it's unlikely to get smaller than either of the units you mention. I'm not aware of any 1, 2, or 3-head gravity fillers. Even if there were, gravity fillers need a reservoir that can hold a few bottles' worth of liquid, so there's kind of a minimum cost of entry with regard to size. There are some other non-gravity types of fillers we don't sell with fewer heads, though: the Enolmatic is a single-head vacuum filler, so it doesn't need a large reservoir above the filling nozzles. It's been mentioned a few times in the linked threads. XpressFill has some smaller 2-spout options as well. Both of the above use electric pumps, so you would not be able to use your in-house compressed air.

A few equipment vendors hang about here, including us. For high-proof pumps, our SimpleSpirits 12 or SimpleSpirits 49 AODD pumps are great, and in tons of distilleries. Here's an article on using pumps in distilleries, and some recommendations about how to move high-proof spirits safely. For hoses, GlideTech Distillery hose in 1" or 1.5" is a purpose-built, neutral industrial hose that's designed for moving high-proof spirits without leaching any odors or flavors, even after prolonged contact with high-proof. Beyond that, we sell a lot of filters, bottle fillers, bottle rinsers, etc. to distilleries. We've worked with tons of distilleries on equipment setups, so check out our site or give us a call on Monday. Good luck!

Yes you can. Sharp knife or box cutter.

Are you filling bottles with a carbonated product? If not, you probably don't need a counter-pressure filler. Most distilled products are flat and can use normal gravity fillers. The fillers you're referencing are on the homebrew scale, so you might get good mileage out of asking your question on a homebrewer form, or the /r/homebrewing sub-reddit or the like.

That's a 1.5" Definox butterfly valve. The "valve seat" is what you're looking for. Definox makes great (but very expensive) valves. That tank was likely sourced in the 90s, before the proliferation of cheaper valves from Asia, when there wasn't much choice but to spend a few hundo on a valve. As @adamOVD suggests, search "Definox butterfly valve seat" and see who comes up as a stocking distributor. You might need to call them and describe your valve or any markings on it to ensure that the valve seats they currently offer match the model you have, as I'm sure their parts have changed over the years. Here's one that we sell, if you'd prefer replace it, (and spare valve seats to keep on the shelf). As for the hose, sure, give us a call. The hose you're likely looking for is just GlideTech Distillery Hose. It's in tons of distilleries, and holds up very well to high-proof spirits. Sorry to hear that our website (TCW) wasn't beginner-friendly, but as others have suggested, don't be shy about calling us if you have any questions.

I wish customers would give us more feedback about exactly how many gallons they run through a filter before they need to change out, but we mostly just see buying patterns. Smaller craft facilities go many months without changing (or at least without reordering). Carbon lenticulars are used pretty heavily in cannabis processing. We saw a lot of this when ethanol extraction was booming a few years ago. The users would turn the green sludge into a clear, golden oil. Even the processors of "low-grade" cannabis oil, which is terrible stuff, get at least a few hundred gallons of usage out of a carbon lenticular before needing to swap out. Distillery usage needs are comparatively much lighter, so onstream life should be much higher. Edit: one of our cannabis ethanol extraction customers just came in, coincidentally. I asked him how many gallons he gets through a carbon filter. They're a pretty high-volume user processing stuff much dirtier product than spirits, and he says as long as they protect the carbon with a filter upstream, they can get 5,000-10,000 gallons through one before needing to change out. That's a sample size of one, though, so YMMV.

One tangible benefit that carbon cartridges have is a much lower hassle factor. Dealing with loose carbon can get messy. With a cartridge you pop it in, and pop it out when you're done. A lot of our small customers use carbon cartridges with great results in a loop with a little Flojet pump or the like. Larger customers tend to use carbon lenticular, or plate & frame filter sheets. Lenticular modules have been really popular with breweries making clear seltzers to remove colors/odors. Regardless of the form factor, lenticulars and sheets also require sufficient time in contact, but both offer much increased surface area over cartridges, so they tend to perform better even though the liquid's time in contact is about the same as with cartridges. Using plain old gravity with a cartridge might work and get you the best of both worlds. Dunno. There is usually some pressure differential to overcome in order to get through a cartridge, so it may be impractically slow. We sell small peristaltic pumps for dosing ingredients, adjuncts, etc. (think bentonite, enzymes, or sulphites). They're capable of going slow enough to reliably push in the milliliters per minute range. It would be possible to use one get gravity-like (or even slower) flow rates to reaallllly maximize time in contact, and get you "set it and forget it" results through a cartridge without having to use loose carbon.

We have Mori presses being used for herbal extraction, and even grain pressing. They're probably quite a bit larger and more expensive than the home fruit presses you're using, so will depend on your scale.

Most food-grade pumps operate with an oil-free air compressor to minimize the risk of contamination by oil in case of diaphragm rupture.

We're now making G57/G70 stands for those don't want to mess around with making one. It's more expensive than the one shown above — as long as your time has no value — but is made of stainless steel, which should make grounding more simple. People ask us pretty regularly if it's ok to use PVC hose & tubing for high-proof transfer. This has been discussed before on the forums at least a few times. Nothing much has changed. PVC still gets "fair" ratings for ethanol resistance, meaning it is at least somewhat reactive in prolonged contact with spirits. Compared to rubber-based compounds like UHMW, EPDM, and Butyl, PVC will degrade more rapidly. But there's no question it's cheaper. Usually about 1/4 the cost.

Sure. BTW, there was a thread a while back that went into further detail on this topic. You'll see that one user in particular did have some compelling reasons for preferring to pull through filters. As with many things, it can come down to personal preference, though I remain on the "always push through filters" side of the fence, myself — and if you ask people in the filtration industry, they will recommend the same except for specific circumstances.

I don't see or hear of many people using vacuum pumps in distilleries in place of positive displacement or centrifugal pumps. When cannabis was booming a couple of years ago there was a lot more interest in transferring/filtering via vacuum. Many cannabis extraction laboratory setups started off using vacuum filtration on very small scales. When they wanted to scale up, they assumed they just need to buy bigger vacuum pumps and bigger filters. It usually didn't turn out that way. Most found that it is much better to push through filters with positive displacement pumps than to try and pull through them. In terms of cons: since vacuum is just the absence of atmospheric pressure, there is a hard limit to how much vacuum you can pull without breaking the laws of physics. The maximum vacuum you can pull is 29.92 in. Hg (or 1 ATM, 1.01 bar, or 14.7 PSI), and a perfect vacuum is very difficult to pull. Most filters are considered clogged at 30-35 psi. So you'll always be leaving more than half a filter's lifespan on the table if you try to pull through it with vacuum. Conversely, even a little G70 pump can push up to 100 psi. Vacuum leaks are going to be much more difficult to detect than pressure leaks. You can see liquid squirting out of a pressure leak, or see a puddle that you can trace back to the source. Good luck finding a vacuum leak. In terms of pros: some people like that product never touches the pump when using vacuum, which may be beneficial for safety. Also, many fillers use vacuum, since viscous products will fill much quicker than with gravity, and overflow can be sucked into a secondary chamber to keep levels consistent.

This may or may not directly answer your question since I'm not sure if you got the Mori Filler. I can tell you in general that we use: 1. The Flojet Quad on our electronic Mori Fillers (not to be used with any products that have a flash point below 100 °F, which rules out many spirits) 2. The Flojet G70 on pneumatic Mori Fillers for spirits. But the pump alone may not do much, and the pump is not the expensive part of a level-control system on a filler anyway. The expensive part is the level-sensing controls that turn the pump on and off automatically. Most gravity fillers use a "toilet bowl float" to open and close against the pressure of gravity. The pressure they're designed to shut off against is, thus, usually just a few feet of head, or up to about 2-3 psi. Both of the pumps I link above (and, really, any positive displacement pump) will generate much, much more pressure. The net result is that even a puny pump will overpower the toilet bowl float and cause the reservoir to overflow unless you monitor it. You may be able to circumvent this by restricting the outlet of the pump, closely monitoring the level of liquid in the reservoir, and not leaving the filler unattended with the pump running. Or just leave the lid off and turn the pump on and off yourself, which will slow down your filling. All this sounds penny-wise, pound-foolish, IMHO. I will close this by saying that we've sold many, many, many Mori Fillers. While I've never talked to anyone who regretted getting an electric or pneumatic level control system, I've talked to plenty of people who regretted not getting the electronic or pneumatic level control. They're the ones who call back to ask us if it's possible to buy the level control system and retrofit it themselves.

Hopefully you got the groundable version of the pump, the Flojet G70. Not all of those little Flojet pumps are groundable. The non-groundable ones like the G57 will have big warning stickers on them indicating they shouldn't be used with fuel, or with any liquid that has a flash point below 100 °F. For hose, if you're using the plastic barbs we sell a light-duty distillery tubing that's been quite popular. It's polypropylene-lined, and very lightweight and flexible. It shouldn't be used for holding high pressure. We sell stainless port barbs for these pumps that will allow you to affix industrial hose like 3/4" GlideTech distillery. We've tried with the plastic barbs the pump comes with, and they'll crack or collapse when you use higher-pressure bands to affix real industrial hoses.

Enough people have asked us about this that we went ahead and made a little H-frame stand with air filter/regulator, 90° inlet/outlet barbs, and a flow control ball valve. This should make the G57 and G70 plug n' play. I'm guessing it will be overkill for many DIY'ers, but if you don't want to screw around with making your own, here it is. It keeps the inlet/outlet upright, as Flojet recommends, protects the air inlet with a filter/regulator, and lets you dial in the pump pressure/flow rate. Easy peasy. As far as grounding, what you propose will only work if the tote and barrel are conductive. A wooden barrel or plastic tote aren't conductive. You probably know that, but just saying for future readers who might not know. The barrel or tote must be connected to ground themselves, obviously. Some grounding wire from the vessel to a cold water pipe or a copper stake should do the trick. You can verify that the pump is grounded with a cheap ohmmeter/multimeter. Place one probe on the G70's ground bolt, and the other on the body of the metal barrel or tote that you have grounded. It should detect continuity between the two points.