Preparing Used Gear

Used syrup pumps are a special deal. You will need to wash them out completely to remove any syrup residue before attempting to use them again. You may also find crimped on clamps holding on old bits of hose. I recommend that you toss any bits of old hose; use all new and fresh hose from the store.

As you can see in this picture, the guy who sold me the system just cut all the hoses and left them behind to be cleaned up by the contractor. You will find that on the syrup pumps, there are locking bits that you can slide out in order to remove each of the connection fittings quite easily. Your best bet is to remove the fitting, remove any remaining clamps or bit of hose, and clean it well.

After removing all the fittings and putting them into a cleaning solution, I was left with the problem of how to clean out the pump itself. I decided to hook up a single length of hose between the CO2 and the pump I was currently cleaning. I connected to the regulator for the syrup pumps. (See the next section on setting up the CO2 regulators). I turned on the gas just a little bit and let it expel the syrup it had inside it. I then poured some cleaning agent in, then water into the product "in" port and let it pump clean water for a few cycles.

When you clean your ice bin, be sure to break down the ice dispensing unit and the ice door. In my case, the front panel popped off revealing the plastic ice guide and behind that was the ice door. The manufacturer's instructions will help you figure out how to break the unit down for proper cleaning.

Your carbonator may or may not be fully empty and dry, so it never hurts to open up the holding tank and give it a decent rinse. Be sure that the tank is fully depressurized before doing so!

In my case, I just removed the three screws holding on the sensor (red round thing on the top-left of the tank), and was able to dump out all the old water and let the inside of the tank air-dry. Whatever you do, don't lose or damage the O-rings! Watch out if you remove the CO2 gas inlet; it may have a ball and spring to prevent backflow into the CO2 system. If you need to clean the outside of the tank, like I did, use a damp sponge and some degreaser. DO NOT dunk the unit in water or spray it. The water will get into the motor and cause damage. I also recommend that you do NOT mess with the pump, the motor, the connection between the motor and the tank, or the water feed line from the pump into the tank. The carbonator is made as a single unit and users aren't supposed to need to service any of that stuff.

The only thing you may want to do is contact the manufacturer of your carbonator and ask for a service manual, then follow the instructions in the manual for oiling the pump. Most of those pumps use standard SAE 20 motor oil or something similar. I only say this because your carbonator, if used, may be older and probably hasn't ever been oiled by the restaurant.

Here you can see the fountain heads. I took the front panel off my unit and cleaned all behind it. I also took the covers completely off the fountain heads and made sure they were relatively clean and free of debris. You may have to do a little bit of disassembly to get the unit where the covers and fountain heads can be taken off. I wouldn't get too much water on them though, as it tends to promote rust of the solenoids. I also gave the ice bin and drain tray a good washing and scrubbing. Your fountain heads may have bits of dried syrup and other stuff in them; that is somewhat normal, and I wouldn't kill myself trying to make them spotless.

There should be a power cord which you can disconnect. Then, there should be some mechanism to detach the fountain head from its base, which you can use to get better access to the fountain head itself. Again, watch out for the O-rings! Most manufacturers of these things have service manuals available, and may even have a copy of the manual on the internet.

Once you have removed all of the fountain heads, you can spray water or cleaning solution through the connections in the front to wash any extra syrup or debris out the back. Let it all air dry, then reassemble. You will also get a better feel for how your machine works by doing this. (Don't forget how it goes back together though.) You will also need this information should you ever wish to perform cleaning maintenance on the unit.

If you find that you are unable to clean any parts sufficiently, or you are missing parts (such as O-rings, splitters, etc), contact Sutherland Installations and they can sell you replacement parts. You can also call Bevcore; they have distributors all over the country and a huge catalog available in PDF format. But the best place near me that I've found is Hart & Price (see their phone number on the vendor's page).

Installing the CO2 tank

The wall behind the tank is a mirror, so don't get confused ;)  Before putting the tank in its place, be sure to put two eye-bolts into the wall on either side of where the tank will sit. Then, use a small length of chain and some fastener hooks or clips. Secure the tank to the wall tight enough that, no matter how you tip it, its center of gravity will cause it to stand back upright. The idea is that if anything knocks or hits the tank, it won't fall over and bust its tap, causing the tank to become a rocket (which is a very bad thing, and could cause injury/death.) If you need help with what is considered an appropriate fastening system, ask the welding people. As you can see in the picture below, that tank isn't going anywhere.

A word on regulators; they pass the "primary" pressure, usually hundreds or thousands of psi, through their primary ports. They also "tap" that primary pressure to send a lower amount of pressure to their secondary ports.

(Click the picture to see it without the red, blue, and yellow lines)

The gas exits the cylinder at way too high of a pressure; the regulator taps that high pressure to provide the lower pressure we need AND also passes the high pressure on to the other primary port. In a dual-regulator situation as shown in the picture (which is really just two regulators connected together with a threaded fitting), the high pressure gas (red) enters on the right-primary port of the first regulator. It is tapped to provide 100 psi to the carbonator feed (blue). BUT that high-pressure gas also simultaneously passes out the other primary port to the second regulator. That regulator taps the high-pressure feed to provide the syrup pumps with gas (55 psi). Finally, the high-pressure gas exits the primary port on the far left to hit the pressure gauge to give us a tank reading.

If you are unclear as to how regulators work, TALK to the people at the welding supply place. Admit up front that you don't know much about CO2 gas or regulators, and ask them for info. Also, look at your regulators. They will typically list on the back which are the primary and which are the secondary ports.

If you are going to setup a system with two single regulators, what you do is split the output of the first regulator with a brass T barb, then send one side to the carbonator, and the other to the second regulator, which steps the gas down yet again to the pressure needed by the syrup pumps. DO NOT use the primary pressure. The gas exiting the tank will burst the hose.

Here you can see the CO2 gas connectors that hook up the carbonator and syrup pumps

The carbonator input pressure should be 95 to 100 PSI.

For syrup kegs, the pressure should be about 30 PSI.

I have had conflicting reports about syrup pumps, however I looked at the system my local Pizza Hut was using and they run their syrup pumps at slightly less than 60 PSI, so that is the figure I am going to go with. Update: after getting my system working, I found that my pumps worked best at 55 psi. Whatever you do, look at the labels on the syrup pumps; they will list a maximum pressure. NEVER exceed this pressure.

When you are ready, turn the screws (or handles) on your regulators to cut the pressure off completely (the regulator will have it printed on the unit which direction decreases the pressure). Once you have the regulators set to OFF, slowly turn on the CO2 cylinder's main output. You should see the high pressure gauge show a reading of hundreds of psi. You can use a solution of soapy water to check for leaks. Or, turn the handle off again and let it sit overnight. If the regulators are truly shut off, the pressure gauge for the main tank should show the same reading in the morning as it did the day before. If it has moved visibly, then you have a small leak somewhere. This leak could drain your system of CO2 rather quickly over a period of days.

When you connect your lower pressure gas lines, be sure to test those with soapy water as well. Nothing will be more annoying than getting everything setup and going and coming back the next day to find that all of your CO2 has leaked out.

Mounting and Installing Syrup Pumps

One you have all the pumps mounted to the board, but before you put the board on the wall, take the time to hook up the gas lines between each of the pumps. If you don't already have them, you will need a number of brass barbed T junctions, and the worm clamps to attach them. You can also use plastic barbs (which are usually rated for 125 psi or more), or stainless steel ones (my syrup pumps came with these, so I used them).

This isn't a very good picture, but you get the idea. For some reason, my set of six pumps included five Flojet pumps and one Shurflo pump (pictured center.) At any rate, you can see the gas line (entering from the left side, lower bit of tubing.) It makes its way through each of the T junctions to the next, and also to the syrup pumps themselves.

Once that is done, mount the board on the wall. You do not need to have the pumps below the syrup, as they will "suck" on the bag.

Next, you need to run the syrup feed lines to the fountain. Be aware that a few flavors, like root beer, will leave any aftertaste in the tubes so you can't ever use them for another beverage; You'd have to replace the tubing for the syrup feed. This tubing is typically 1/4" ID reinforced hose, as the pumped syrup is at a decent pressure.

Last step is to run the syrup source lines. This is typically slightly larger 3/8" tube. Put the correct bag-in-box style connector for that flavor on one end, and connect the other to the syrup pump. This is a very low pressure connection, and can use standard non-reinforced tubing. I would recommend, however, that you use something slightly stout (not the really thin vinyl stuff), because the suction could collapse the hose.

See this picture:

As you can see, the CO2 gas input is marked with an arrow. You can't see it very well, but there is a blue spout that is the CO2 exit. If you want to vent the CO2 outside your house for some reason, you would connect all the blue vent ports together and run that line to the outside.

The larger product "in" hose is shown top, and the slightly smaller output hose is also indicated. You can also see the black tabs that can be slid out to remove the fitting completely. Watch out for the rubber O-rings! Without them, you won't get a good seal.

Here, you can see that I have hooked up the six syrup pumps to the back of the unit. Notice that one in the middle isn't hooked up - now is a really good time to be VERY familiar with the diagram on the back of your unit:

If your unit doesn't have one, contact the manufacturer and get the manual, or check their website. You definitely want to have this information. Pay attention to the cold plate (rectangular block at the bottom of the diagram that everything passes through.) As you can see, starting from the left, we have syrup 1-3, an "open" connector, syrup 4-6, plain water x2, and soda water x2**. Be sure to follow this layout correctly. I suggest labeling all your hoses, syrup pumps, etc so you don't get confused and hook the wrong thing up somewhere.

** Plain water vs carbonated water: Most of the time, what they really mean is "shared lines vs direct lines". The "carbonated water" inputs both feed a "common" tube that connects to all the fountain heads except for the ones that have direct lines (plain water). The labels have nothing to do with whether or not you use carbonated vs non-carbonated drinks in each line. You can very well hook up carbonated water to all four and use only carbonated beverages. Or you could hook up carbonated water to the soda water inputs, and to one of the plain water inputs, yielding five soda water heads. Then put plain water on the second plain water input, and hook up pink lemonade or orange juice to the sixth head.

Notice in this enhanced diagram what is happening. The blue lines are the ones on the back of the unit marked "CO2 water" or "soda water". They are feeding fountain heads (valves) 1, 2, 3, and 6. However heads 4 & 5 are NOT connected to these inputs at all. They have direct lines to the rear connections, marked as "plain water 1" and "plain water 2".

Installing the Carbonator

You can see that I am connecting using a flared fitting designed for sink/toilet connections, going through a set of fittings to get me to standard 3/8" waterline (similar to the kind of line used for a freezer ice maker.) That connects to a barb on the carbonator.

Notice: Carbonators have primary backflow preventers in them designed to keep the soda water from backing up into the water system when the pump isn't operating. But many cities and areas require a secondary backflow preventer, often made of stainless steel, to be installed somewhere before the freshwater line is connected to the carbonator's pump. This is in case the primary backups fail. The reason is that copper pipes and brass fittings are used with fresh water all over the place. If the soda water enters the water supply, it will react with this copper and brass producing toxic compounds. You should check and see whether a secondary backflow preventer is required in your area, or you can just install one for safety's sake.

Anyway, talk to the plumbing people at your local home improvement center. Tell them where you are starting (flared, male pipe, [garden hose?!?]), and where you want to get to. Also, be sure to ask them which connections are going to need Teflon tape and which won't. Typically, anything except a flared connection with a washer is going to need it.

Secondly, my carbonator had a flared water connection on the unit. But upon closer inspection, I found out that it was a simple male threaded pipe to flared fitting, 3/8" connector. By removing that piece, I was able to buy and put in a male threaded pipe to barb adapter and save myself some trouble. Once again, knowing where you start and where you want to get will help you describe the situation to the plumping department people, and they can sweat the details about exactly what you need.

In this pre-cleaned up shot, you can see the safety valve (upper right), CO2 gas inlet, and the two soda water outlets. The CO2 uses a CO2 gas fitting, and the soda water outlets use flared water fittings with washers. In my case, I just reused the existing fittings that were on the carbonator after removing the old bits of hose.

From the soda water exit valves to the point you drink the resultant product, never let it come into contact with copper, brass, or any alloy containing copper. When carbon dioxide enters water, it becomes carbonic acid. That acid will react with copper or the copper in an alloy and produce toxic compounds. These compounds taste very bad, and can cause nausea, vomiting, and other similar problems. The fittings on the carbonator, as well as every fitting on the soda line from thereafter should be aluminum, plastic, or some other non-copper alloy that is safe to use in potable water systems. In some areas, cities have mandated that Stainless Steel fittings must be used. Honestly, that's the safest bet. Contact Hart & Price Corp. Call them at 1-800-777-9129. They sell stainless steel fittings for about half as much as everyone else. They also sell and service McCann's Carbonators.

Also note that many carbonators have pressure limits, after which the safety valve will trigger, spewing soda water all over the place. On this carbonator, for example, it tells you right there the maximum input pressure. However you will want to set the regulator for 95 - 100 psi for the best operation and appropriately carbonated water. This assumes an indoor setting with the temperature between 68 deg F and 78 deg F. You may need to contact the manufacturer of the unit to get more details about operating under different pressure and temperature combinations.

Hook the soda lines from the output of your carbonator to the dispensing unit itself. You may need to use a T junction if your soda fountain has more inputs than your carbonator has outputs (Hart & Price, which I talked about earlier, carry Stainless Steel fittings designed for this purpose - they have a single 3/8" ID barb and two 1/4" ID barbs, perfect for connecting a carbonator to a soda fountain!). Do not turn on the fresh water or CO2 until the lines are hooked up, otherwise the water/CO2 will just make its way through the non-connected hoses and vent into your house.

Once everything is hooked up and ready to go, turn on the cold water line. Leave the emergency pressure release open so the air has somewhere to vent. When water starts coming out of this valve, close it. Turn on the main CO2 supply. Now slowly start turning the screw for the carbonator's regulator, until the CO2 gas reads 95-100 psi. You should hear bubbling as the CO2 starts entering the water. Once all this is done, plug in the carbonator.

Now, put a cup up to the dispenser. You will probably have to run a good 3-5 gallons out of the thing to get a decent mix coming out. Also note that if your machine doesn't have the syrup stuff hooked up yet, some of the pressure could push syrup out of the back of the machine, dripping all over the place! So be careful about all that. If you spot any leaks, turn off the cold water and CO2, fix the leak, and try again.

Note that the holding tank of the carbonator will keep a good 4-10 glasses of soda in it and pressurized even when the CO2 and cold water are turned off. Be sure to drain this before attempting to disconnect the line. Also, unplug the unit so it doesn't inadvertently come on and burn itself up.

Drainage

First of all, if you have two sources (ice bin & drip tray), you will need a T connector and drainage hose. Typically, this is 3/4" ID hose. You can use basic el-cheapo hose like I did, or get actual dishwasher rubber drainage hose. It doesn't really matter. Also, since these lines aren't under pressure, they typically don't need worm clamps.

Now you will need to figure out where that water and soda runoff is going to go. If you don't have a drain line handy, but you are on an external wall, you can just cut a hole. I'd recommend using an actual piece of PVC with two 90deg elbows, situated oppositely (one pointing up, the other down). Then fill the space around the pipe with spray insulating foam. If you are a  bit more handy, I'm sure you can devise a very nice looking setup.

However I was fortunate enough to have a drainage port already plumbed into the wall. A last-minute trip to Lowes got me the parts that I needed:

As you can see, I took a standard sink drain connector, with a metal screwring, and cut the top off. Then, I used a piece of flexible rubber drainline which already had two wormclamps built onto it. I used a PVC 1" to 3/4" threaded piece on the other end of the rubber, then screwed a 3/4" barb fitting into the PVC reducer. That gave me a watertight connection that doesn't look half-bad. It is also a lot better than just sticking the tubing into the pipe and hoping that you don't get to smell sewer gas when you go to get a drink.

You can't see it in the pictures, but the way my hose is looped over the table it forms a sort of trap so that sewer gas cannot get into the house. If you can't do that with your hose routing, then you need to plumb in an actual U-bend trap. Your nose will thank you.

Bringing it All Together

At this point you should have completed these tasks:

• Installed CO2 tank and regulator
• Mounted syrup pumps
• Placed carbonator and connected to fresh water supply
• Run your CO2 hoses to connect one regulator to the carbonator and the other to the syrup pumps
• Connected the syrup pumps to the dispenser
• Connected the soda water feeds to the dispenser
• Put the proper bag-in-box connectors on the syrup feed hoses, and connected them to the syrup pumps

First, follow the carbonator startup procedure if you haven't already: Turn on the fresh water, leaving the pressure release valve open to allow air to escape. (you will hear noise). When water comes out, close the valve. Turn on the CO2 and set the regulator for 100 psi. Plug in the carbonator. Vend plain soda water out of one of the other fountain heads until you get a nice fizz. This will probably take a couple of gallons of water to get it going right.

Now add ice to the ice bin (enough to cover the cold plate), and wait 15 minutes before attempting to vend soda. While you are waiting for the ice to cool everything down, work on the syrup pumps. Nothing will work right if the carbonated water isn't cold when vended, because it will lose its carbonation almost immediately.

For my particular dispenser, ten 8lb. bags of ice filled up the ice bin about half way.

As you start turning up the regulator for the syrup pumps, they will all start pumping immediately, and won't stop until they have pressurized the line between them and the dispenser! If you have enough bag-in-box units, hook them all up to a syrup pump. Turn the pressure on until it reads about 50 psi to start with. All hell is going to break loose. Don't worry. Start with the first pump. (It is easiest if you have a helper for this.) Have your helper vend out of the soda head connected to that syrup pump. You should see it start to suck syrup and send it to the fountain. When you see that the 1/4" feed line to the fountain coming from the pump is full of syrup, have your helper stop vending soda. (It helps to have a bucket nearby that they can dump the glasses into). You may need to massage the line a bit, or even hold the box of syrup above the pump at first to help it get going.

Now move on to the next pump, and the next, and so on until they have all stopped pumping. They make a "woosh-click-woosh-click" noise when they are operating. If you are having trouble getting a specific pump to operate, but it is making the "woosh-click-woosh-click" noise, then take the BIB connector off the end of the hose. Take a glass of water and pour it into the hose, while holding the hose above the syrup pump. While your assistant vends from that line, hold the hose up in the air while keeping the end dunked into your glass of water. The pump should be able to get started with the water, and you can reattach your connector.

Ultimately, if you have a pump that just won't do anything (just sits there hissing as the gas escapes), turn the gas off then disconnect it from the system and bypass that pump. (You can use a barbed splice piece to make this easy.) The pump may be defective. You can try disassembling it and cleaning it, but I have never done so myself. 

As with everything in the soda system, the syrup pumps operate based on pressure. They will continue to pump until they have pressurized the line between the fountain head and the output fitting. As soda is vended, the line gets depressurized, and the pump will trigger into action for one cycle, causing the line to be pressurized again, and so on. That's why as you vend soda, the pumps will make a "woosh-click" cycle every few seconds.

Don't get frustrated now! Just keep working at it.

Throughout all this process you may have found a fountain head that doesn't work, a busted syrup pump, etc. Try to combine all the defective items into a single line. Then, you can simply use five flavors instead of six (assuming a six-head unit). You can do this permanently, or until the new parts you need arrive.

Now you will need to make sure to vend enough soda from each fountain head to full clear out both the soda line and the syrup line feeding that head. It is better safe than sorry here - a bag has a LOT of syrup in it, the tank has plenty of CO2, and you aren't going to run out of fresh water.

When you are feeling confident, take a small taste and see what you think. If the water tastes funny, vend more to flush the system out further. If the drink tastes very sugary, the fountain head may be set too rich. If the drink tastes like mostly soda water, then it may be set too lean. Usually, there are two screws inside the fountain head. The further screw adjusts the water flow rate, and the closer one adjusts the syrup flow rate. Typically, screwing it in further increases the flow, but it should be obvious what does what. You can adjust to your liking to get things started.

To calibrate the fountain heads properly, you will need a brix cup. Update: I have gotten my brix cup and calibrated my fountain. You can see that page here, but don't forget to check out the Final Thoughts page.

Cheers!

Now check out the final thoughts page