[HopDen]

I have a 100L Marchisio variable capacity wine fermentor with a floating lid that uses a inflatable tube to seal the lid. The inflatable tube absolutely stinks! It is constantly in need of additional air (daily) from the attached hand pump. Obviously this is a nuisance and a waste of my time. With that being said, Does anyone use these for winemaking and secondly have you had a similar experience? If so, what is your solution? I searched for a heavy duty replacement tube but came up empty. I even thought of an bicycle inner tube but that obviously can't come into contact with the wine.

Any thoughts/ideas?
Thanks in advance!

[MNWayne]

Can you provide a constant source of pressure to the tube? Compressor or co2 tank with regulator set to 2 psi? 

[KellerBrauer]

Can you provide a constant source of pressure to the tube? Compressor or co2 tank with regulator set to 2 psi?

That would be my suggestion also.  They sell 12 volt electric tire pumps for emergency road needs.  Perhaps one could be used for your purpose?  You may need to incorporate a pressure switch of some kind, but that shouldn’t present any real concerns.

[mabrungard]

What about finding out where the tube is leaking and fix it?

[BrewBama]

What about finding out where the tube is leaking and fix it?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HopDen]

What about finding out where the tube is leaking and fix it?

For the life of me, I have inflated with the air hand pump that came with it, co2 tank at 1bar then 2, both times sprayed with starsan....nothing! Not one air bubble. Put in a sink of water and still nothing. Guess what? I have 2 100 liter SS wine fermentors for sale. What a colossal waste of money. Tanks are worthless! The junk man will love them come garbage night!

[HopDen]

What about finding out where the tube is leaking and fix it?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Whats to hurt right?/ 

[ynotbrusum]

I assume that this is not simply a pressure drop issue in the tube due to temperature changes, so maybe a gasket made from slicing a slit in the length of some silicone tubing might fill the bill?  I used that with a pizza pan to create a "mash cap" for low ox brewing a while back - the silicone tubing slipped over the rim of the pizza pan and was measured to fit pretty tightly end to end without a gap where the two ends came together (you cold use some type of overlap, if necessary for your application).

Good luck and Cheers.