How far can I vacuum degas

[tonyt]

I have a freezer in my garage with a thermostat keeping carboy at 40 degrees to cold stabilize. Last time I racked to another carboy and roll into kitchen on dolly then vacuum up to counter for bottling. Could I vacuum rack 40 or so feet from garage freezer to kitchen counter with one long tube? Might even filter at the same time.

 

[robie]

Don't know why you couldn't as long as your vacuum can handle it. Will you have a way to recover all the wine in such long tubes? Recovering it should 't be a problem.

 

[cimbaliw]

Tony, if I read you right, you want the vacuum source 40' away from the carboy. Are you racking to degas or direct vacuum? If the latter, I find that if I'm in a situation with little headspace, I need to adjust the vacuum somewhat frequently, titrating up to 20 or so on the gauge. If you're bottling, I would think you'd be OK in theory but I sure like to have an eye on the sending carboy. It sounds to me like you'd be flying blind.

 

[tonyt]

Are you racking to degas or direct vacuum?

I will be vacuum racking to transfer to a carboy for gravity bottling later.

 

[cimbaliw]

Sorry for being silly:

 

[GreginND]

You should be able to vacuum transfer that far if you are transferring mostly horizontally. If you need to pull the wine up in elevation too much you may have some difficulty.

FYI the vacuum measurement (mn if Hg) refers to how much vacuum it takes to raise the level if liquid mercury in a tube that much. Water is much less dense but there is a limit to how high you can raise your wine in the tube.

 

[tonyt]

Not sure if anyone is interested in this but today was 40 foot racking day at Tunita Tortorici. Racked flawlessly from my small chest freezer in my garage, up and over garage shelving and my red winemaking tool chest, through the utility room, across the breakfast room table and up to the waiting carboy on my grandfather's 75 year old woodworking bench, now my winemaking bench. The Chardonnay is coming to room temp and will be bottled tomorrow after Church. Perhaps I should be in the Guinness Book of records for this. Yes I know that's the beer, yum.

 

[ibglowin]

Over the river and through the woods.......

Nice job Tony!

 

[Boatboy24]

Very nice Tony.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Very Nice Tony !

I just saw this thread now - I have also done the same exact thing as well - I hate pulling a full carboy straight out of the freezer like that. The 2nd option would be pull into a 3 gallon carboy and then combine them on the bench so it is easier to handle.

 

[FTC Wines]

Is the WHOLE site DEAD! Nothing seems to work! Roy