At bottling time this bottle washer worked so well I thought other people should know about this. If you’re also using inert gas prior to bottling, you can use another sparging base for the gas, and just transfer the bottle rack from the washer to the gas set up, it works very well.

The washer itself is completely self contained, the sanitizer solution of your choice is held within the tub, and is circulated through the pump and into the bottles, and then back into the tub through holes in the lid, so no need to be near a sink.

Prior to using the bottle washer, the bottles should be free of debris and labels, ready for bottling.

Once all of the parts are obtained, the first step is to put a hole in the side of tub for the bulkhead fitting about 1” or so from the bottom.  Insert the bulkhead fitting with the flat side on the outside of the tub, and then construct the tube that will go from the bulkhead fitting to the water pump. Slide the tube over the barbed side of the threaded brass fitting, and apply the pipe clamp and the threaded end into the bulkhead fitting. The other end of the tube can be slid on to the barbed end of the garden hose fitting. A separate pipe clamp can be applied there too, to ensure a nice tight fit with no leaking. The garden hose fitting can now be screwed to the inlet port of the water pump.

Now you may drill a series of holes in the lid of the tub to allow the sanitizer solution to drain back into the tub after flushing the bottles. I affixed the rinsing base to the lid with zip ties through the newly drilled holes, so everything stays in place.