Increasing Milk Machine Wash Effictiveness

aidank

Well-Known Member
I had the following pet project in mind to increase the effectiveness of the hot wash in my milking machine, however it seems a bit too easy for someone not to be using the process, I was wondering am I missing something.

Background: Simple Alfa Parlour, 10unit with ACRs. 2" milk and wash line, double diaphram milk pump.

Washup as follows
-Rinse with cold water, would put in 100L of cold water.
-Hotwash with Hydrosan detergent, in 75l of water, I use water from the mains, hot water starts at 75C and then I leave the whole lot circulating for 10mins.
-Then rinse the whole plant with 200L of water.

-Milk Filter removed for wash cycle, handwashed, and then put recycled for the evening wash and then dumped.

One thing Id like to change is - water always pools at the back two units in my parlour so they see most of the hot wash, was wondering is there a way of balancing that.


A little pet project I had in my head for the wash trough to make a more vigorous wash I was thinking about is as follows.

-Place a Tee on the suction pipe, thats the pipe which sucks the water from the wash trough, and put a solenoid valve on the Tee end of this fitting, and have it open to the fresh air. When the solenoid valve is open only air will be pulled into the wash line.
-Install a float switch same as on a submersible pump in the wash trough, the float switch will make when wash trough is 50% full and break when wash trough is empty.
-Have the float switch control the Solenoid valve such that when wash trough is 50% full solenoid valve closes, the suction line will now empty the wash trough rapidly giving a v vigorous wash. When wash trough is empty float switch breaks and solenoid valve opens. With the solenoid valve open, there will be no suction, and only air will be pulled through the wash line, chasing all the water out into the clusters. This will then allow the water to circulate through the plant and back to the wash trough, when wash trough fills up 50% then solenoid valve closes and the cycle repeats.

Am I missing something as my project is relatively easy & cheap ? indeed so easy and cheap everyone would be doing it if it is as good as it appears.
 
Will the vac drop too much when only air is being pulled through the plant

I dont think it should, my solenoid valve will act the same as taking the suction pipe out of the wash trough and letting the water flow back to the wash trough and then putting the scution pipe back in the wash trough.

Even if it does drop Does it matter, the purpose of the vac is to suck the water from the wash trough, up through the clusters, through the milk line and into the milk jar, after that its the pump does the rest.
 
Last edited:
I had the following pet project in mind to increase the effectiveness of the hot wash in my milking machine, however it seems a bit too easy for someone not to be using the process, I was wondering am I missing something.

Background: Simple Alfa Parlour, 10unit with ACRs. 2" milk and wash line, double diaphram milk pump.

Washup as follows
-Rinse with cold water, would put in 100L of cold water.
-Hotwash with Hydrosan detergent, in 75l of water, I use water from the mains, hot water starts at 75C and then I leave the whole lot circulating for 10mins.
-Then rinse the whole plant with 200L of water.

-Milk Filter removed for wash cycle, handwashed, and then put recycled for the evening wash and then dumped.

One thing Id like to change is - water always pools at the back two units in my parlour so they see most of the hot wash, was wondering is there a way of balancing that.


A little pet project I had in my head for the wash trough to make a more vigorous wash I was thinking about is as follows.

-Place a Tee on the suction pipe, thats the pipe which sucks the water from the wash trough, and put a solenoid valve on the Tee end of this fitting, and have it open to the fresh air. When the solenoid valve is open only air will be pulled into the wash line.
-Install a float switch same as on a submersible pump in the wash trough, the float switch will make when wash trough is 50% full and break when wash trough is empty.
-Have the float switch control the Solenoid valve such that when wash trough is 50% full solenoid valve closes, the suction line will now empty the wash trough rapidly giving a v vigorous wash. When wash trough is empty float switch breaks and solenoid valve opens. With the solenoid valve open, there will be no suction, and only air will be pulled through the wash line, chasing all the water out into the clusters. This will then allow the water to circulate through the plant and back to the wash trough, when wash trough fills up 50% then solenoid valve closes and the cycle repeats.

Am I missing something as my project is relatively easy & cheap ? indeed so easy and cheap everyone would be doing it if it is as good as it appears.
Vacuum is away lower when washing if ur going below 46 ur losing effective Ness water went be going fast enough.
 
After some thought, think I might update my project as follows.

-Place a solenoid valve on the suction pipe, thats the pipe which sucks the water from the wash trough. When the solenoid valve is open water will be sucked into the wash line.

-Install a float switch same as on a su
bmersible pump in the wash trough, the float switch will make when wash trough is 50% full and break when wash trough is empty.
-Have the float switch control the Solenoid valve such that when wash trough is 50% full solenoid valve opens, the suction line will now empty the wash trough rapidly giving a v vigorous wash. When wash trough is empty float switch breaks and solenoid valve closes.

I was wondering - What will happen to the detergent mix in the wash line and milk line if I close off the suction pipe for 20secs while waiting for the detergent mix to return to the wash trough


To those of you that use autowashers is that how it works ? - The wash trough is emptied out, the suction cut off until the detergent has returned to the wash trough and the cycle repeats. OR with an autowasher is there continuous suction from the wash trough during the wash cycle
 
After some thought, think I might update my project as follows.

-Place a solenoid valve on the suction pipe, thats the pipe which sucks the water from the wash trough. When the solenoid valve is open water will be sucked into the wash line.

-Install a float switch same as on a su
bmersible pump in the wash trough, the float switch will make when wash trough is 50% full and break when wash trough is empty.
-Have the float switch control the Solenoid valve such that when wash trough is 50% full solenoid valve opens, the suction line will now empty the wash trough rapidly giving a v vigorous wash. When wash trough is empty float switch breaks and solenoid valve closes.

I was wondering - What will happen to the detergent mix in the wash line and milk line if I close off the suction pipe for 20secs while waiting for the detergent mix to return to the wash trough


To those of you that use autowashers is that how it works ? - The wash trough is emptied out, the suction cut off until the detergent has returned to the wash trough and the cycle repeats. OR with an autowasher is there continuous suction from the wash trough during the wash cycle
its continuous on ours ,not a big fan of it
 
After some thought, think I might update my project as follows.

-Place a solenoid valve on the suction pipe, thats the pipe which sucks the water from the wash trough. When the solenoid valve is open water will be sucked into the wash line.

-Install a float switch same as on a su
bmersible pump in the wash trough, the float switch will make when wash trough is 50% full and break when wash trough is empty.
-Have the float switch control the Solenoid valve such that when wash trough is 50% full solenoid valve opens, the suction line will now empty the wash trough rapidly giving a v vigorous wash. When wash trough is empty float switch breaks and solenoid valve closes.

I was wondering - What will happen to the detergent mix in the wash line and milk line if I close off the suction pipe for 20secs while waiting for the detergent mix to return to the wash trough


To those of you that use autowashers is that how it works ? - The wash trough is emptied out, the suction cut off until the detergent has returned to the wash trough and the cycle repeats. OR with an autowasher is there continuous suction from the wash trough during the wash cycle

The detergent mix will still suck through the system due to the claws having vents.

The trouble with continuous suction is if the wash trough is empty your sucking up air,air cools your water.
 
If you experiment a bit with the amount of water in the trough you could get a similar result.
I found that if the trough empties and the machine draws air for 5 to 10 seconds it flushes the detergent through faster and won't loose much vacuum.I doubt if it would cool it down too fast.
 
The detergent mix will still suck through the system due to the claws having vents.

The trouble with continuous suction is if the wash trough is empty your sucking up air,air cools your water.

If you experiment a bit with the amount of water in the trough you could get a similar result.
I found that if the trough empties and the machine draws air for 5 to 10 seconds it flushes the detergent through faster and won't loose much vacuum.I doubt if it would cool it down too fast.

I agree on the negative effect of continuous air.
 
I ensure my plant only sucks air as it finishes the wash,think about blowing on hot food sucking in air is just the same.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Paw
We have an electric water here for bulk tank And milking machine together but like everyone else it’s coming under pressure now so was wondering what is the best route to go down ?
1.bigger water heater ?
2.these geaser boilers ?
3.water heater for just bulk tank,boiler for milking machine ?
Open to all options ?...
 
Gas/oil most cost effective at the moment for large volumes of hot water, but electric water heaters could quickly make a comeback if solar PV panels become common on farm buildings.

old rule of thumb was you need 2% of bulk tank capacity as hot water to wash the tank. Lately I have seen 1% quoted a lot. Also need 9 to 10 litres per unit to wash the machine.

personally I think the batch type water heaters need to be oversized as once you start drawing off hot water there is cold water entering the tank.

biggest thing to watch with the on demand type systems is the flow rate, no good having piping hot water if it takes you 30mins to fill the wash trough
 
Had a big issue with ours only sorted this yr .oil boiler and solar heating 2 300 ltr ss tanks .and still having trouble .coop wanted to sell a instant hot water type machine. Cost is outrageous tho .put in a 3rd 300 ltr tank and it sorted our issues.all the tanks have heater elements as well for connecting to pv cells in the future
 
Had a big issue with ours only sorted this yr .oil boiler and solar heating 2 300 ltr ss tanks .and still having trouble .coop wanted to sell a instant hot water type machine. Cost is outrageous tho .put in a 3rd 300 ltr tank and it sorted our issues.all the tanks have heater elements as well for connecting to pv cells in the future
With a large amount of cows would the gas option not have made more sense Geoff?
 
Are people making up fresh detergent often. I make it up every milking. Have no problem with thermo or tbc. Cant understand reusing detergent but some people get on fine using it for a few milkings. Use hot water very often too.
 
Are people making up fresh detergent often. I make it up every milking. Have no problem with thermo or tbc. Cant understand reusing detergent but some people get on fine using it for a few milkings. Use hot water very often too.
Every milking here too. 4 inch milk line is hard to wash tho
 
Every milking here too. 4 inch milk line is hard to wash tho
I’ve a homemade slug wash on my 4” milkline,I only use a hot wash in the morning and a quick rinse at night and have never had any bother,the slug rocks the vessel with some force it needs to as it’s washing 90’ of milkline.
 
I’ve a homemade slug wash on my 4” milkline,I only use a hot wash in the morning and a quick rinse at night and have never had any bother,the slug rocks the vessel with some force it needs to as it’s washing 90’ of milkline.

Ya that plunger yoke or trombone is a great job on wash line.
 
Back
Top