Complement your soda machine with this McCann's E400397 Big Mac Fastflow carbonator. Designed to provide the fizz for your carbonated drinks, this carbonator takes plain water and CO2 and combines them to create carbonated water. It uses a durable rotary-vane style brass water pump that delivers water in an atomized form to the carbonator tank. It includes an internal 100 micron strainer and a 180 psi pressure relief valve. Plus, it is made of stainless steel so it is easy to clean and durable. For ease of serviceability, this model has an exclusive two-piece probe design that helps reduce service times, improve diagnostics, and lower costs. With this probe, there's no need to turn of the CO2 or the water in order to service the unit. Also, the electronics package is fully-encapsulated so a service agent can easily remove it for testing and service without the need to depressurize the tank. The electronics even resist damage from spikes in amperage for greater reliability. The tank is made of durable stainless steel and has a capacity of 180 fl. oz. The liquid-level float assembly and heat sink probe cap help extend the product life and prevent issues down the road. This carbonator unit sits on an injection molded plastic base that helps to cushion the unit and reduce noise from vibration. It even comes equipped with a backflow prevention device to reduce the chances of contaminated water flowing back into the clean water supply. This model has a 1/3 hp, 1725 RPM motor and requires a 115V electrical connection for operation. Overall Dimensions: Length: 14" Width: 13" Height: 10 1/2"
Mccann Big Mac Carbonator Manual
Big Mac Fastflow carbonator features a 2-piece probe design that eliminates the need to turn off the CO2 or water supply allowing for easy serviceability. It improves diagnostics and reduces service time. To extend the ease of serviceability, it has a fully-encapsulated electronics package that can be easily removed for testing and service and prevents depressurizing the tank. It offers greater reliability with its damage-resistant spikes.
VENTED CHECK VALVE INSTALL ON E2000 MAC CARBONATORThis handy instructional sheet will help you to install a vented check valveon an older version E2000 MAC carbonator. This is free for you to print, read or download.
*CostsThe prices quoted are simply my costs in Canadian. Your mileage may vary as a lot of my equipment was bought off of Ebay; some used some new. Living in Vancouver offers the luxury of being able to take advantage of both the Canadian and US markets. Any US parcels are simply shipped to Blaine being only a 45 min drive away. As an example, the carbonator was bought unused for about $200 US. It usually retails for double this price even online. If you buy one used, you can save up to another $100.
Secure all connections and with the regulator off slowly pressurize the system for testing. You want to test for leaks first. This can be done easily enough with a squeeze bottle similar to Starbucks' caramel drizzle or generic ketchup or mustard bottles found at restaurants. Put a small amount of water in with a few drops of liquid soap and shake. Once it's all bubbly you can target the bubbles to the various connections around your regulator and your carbonator tank. Test everything including the gauge connections. If no new bubbles form then you're good to go and can wipe clean. As a precaution I also turned off the tank valve and let it sit overnight to see if the regulator's pressure dial decreased. Any slow leak will deplete your tank fairly quickly as it's constant. The good news is that it isn't poisonous or flammable. The bad news is if large amounts leak in an enclosed environment, co2 is heavier than air and will displace oxygen. You can suffocate and die. There are co2 detectors out there sold under air quality meters costing $100+. Please note this is not the same as CO or carbon monoxide detectors.
The RO tank serves 2 purposes. It accumulates the RO water created (being it's a slow process) and ensures that water can feed the tap/carbonator pump with pressure. Without this your water supply would be a mere trickle as the filtered water is created. This tank is included with the RO system.
The McCann's carbonator comes with a plastic base and a rigid stainless steel tube connecting the pump to the tank. I had to disassemble the tube and cut the base in half with an angle grinder so the tank can still sit properly. There are actually 2 welded bolts that stick out from the bottom of the tank which mount to the base. I was thinking about simply cutting the bolts but I figure cutting the base in half instead was better as the tank needs to be positioned correctly for the float sensor to work. I suppose you can use a table saw to complete this step but I ended up using a jawhorse to hold the base in position with an angle grinder to make the cut. The cut can be fairly deep so use a new cut off wheel and wear long heat resistant clothing, eye protection, etc as the ABS plastic can melt and spray everywhere. To finish the exposed cut I mashed the face of the wheel to the edge, melting and smoothing out the plastic.
I also had to extend the electrical connection from the float sensor to the motor thus I soldered and spliced in a spare computer extension cord. Use sealant to waterproof the connection since this is a water appliance after all. I still kept the original (and proprietary) connector so disconnection from the tank is possible. I ended up extending the carbonator tank end but extending the motor end would make more sense. This is simply because of the awkward positioning of the connection once the motor is mounted in the fridge.
Hooking up the carbonator is very straight forward. It has a water inlet at the pump and two soda outlets and a co2 inlet on the tank. Once those are all connected along with the power it's all ready to go. In the materials and cost spreadsheet I outlined the fittings I used and its purpose.
Now may be a good time to talk about the different plumbing standards used here. There are 2 primary types of threads encounter in this system. NPT is used in household plumbing and the RO system; MPT being male and FPT being female (also the same standard). These connections seal at the thread meaning you need to apply pipe dope or Teflon tape to ensure a proper seal otherwise it could leak. The carbonator, co2 cylinder and beer faucets use flare fittings. Flare fittings use a nylon gasket or washer compressed between the 2 mating surfaces to seal. As the seal is not in the thread, Teflon tape is not needed.
03.25.17 update - The system has served me quite well over the past 1.5 years. I'm glad I made it and I can't imagine going back to shaking 2L bottles of water with the carbonator caps. I also don't have to worry about throwing shade at the wife for drinking *my* water :P I've taken full advantage of the system by drinking at least a liter of water every day. I ended up installing the STC-1000 temperature controller but only because the fridge crapped out on me. It turned on and wouldn't turn off basically freezing all the lines. Luckily I caught it in time before any damage was done. With a problem like that the temperature controller resolves the problem nicely acting as a more precise digital on/off switch to the fridge. A thermometer is placed in the fridge and connected to the controller. You can adjust the controller to 1 C with a +/- 1.5 C allowing a 3 C spread so the compressor doesn't constantly cycle on and off while maintaining a narrow temperature range.
Nice! I didn't think it would fit in a 1.7cf cube fridge. It looks like you maximized space by getting a "freezerless" unit where the coil is flat on the back wall, instead of bent into a U shape in the top right corner. Piyoman mentions carefully unbending the coil on freezer types to achieve the same thing, but "freezerless" from the factory is probably best. Unfortunately it looks like either way you still need to defrost, so there is some maintenance involved.If you kept the shelf in, could you keep the carbonator in one piece sitting on top of the shelf? The tubing connections on top of the tank would seem tight against the top of the fridge, but maybe cutting out some of the plastic directly above the tank would get it to barely fit?Fitting the carbonator on top of the shelf might give enough room to include a refrigerated flat water tank in the bottom section below the shelf. The smallest charged diaphragm RO tank I can find is a 2.2 gallon with a diameter of 8" and 12" height. Is there 8" to the door in the bottom section below the shelf? Maybe if cutting out some of the door plastic at the deepest protrusion of the tank?Doing a miniature version of piyoman's original instructable with both a carbonated tank and a flat water tank that still fits under a sink would be pretty great. Installing a small hot/cold all-stainless faucet could give you two filtered and refrigerated outputs at the sink, one carbonated one flat. Do you think this could work?
I don't have any photos right now as I'm out of town, but I'll take some when I get back in a couple days. No issues for a year and a half, and then recently I have had some issues. The carbonator started making some weird noises and I saw that the co2 was just about empty, so I was hoping that was the problem. Got it refilled and all was fine for a few weeks. But then just recently, I looked and saw that the co2 was empty again. It had only been a month or so since I had filled it and we have barely been home to even use it! So something is wrong but I haven't had time to diagnose what. The small fridge worked out great though, it's in a cabinet under the counter and didn't seem like there were any issues with heat dissipation or anything like I was worried about.
Late reply, so not sure if you got answers to your questions yet, but here goes:I purchased a used Big Bac Carbonator and Wunder-bar gun back in 2017. So far, I've put several 5lb CO2 tanks through it, and everything has worked flawlessly. I have an RO system, and carbonator motor mounted inside the bottom of a cabinet, and the tank and gun inside a refrigerator. The gun has a breakout connector, but yes, it's basically direct mounted to one of the two carbonator outputs.For your second question(s), there isn't really a health hazard for beer in soda lines per se, it more has to do with the different pressures involved. Soda is typically dispensed at around 80-100psi. Beer is typically dispensed at around 8-15psi, or 1/10 the pressure of soda.As long as your gun has separate water, soda, and mix buttons, you should be able to dispense seltzer, RO water, and whatever soda mixes if you set them up.As for adding soda syrup, you will just need a bag-in-a-box setup: a secondary regulator set to 55psi, a Flojet or Shurflo syrup pump, a bag of syrup, and some additional hose and fittings to connect everything. The syrup pump is powered by the CO2 fed to it by the secondary regulator, and pumps the syrup from the syrup bag to the Wunderbar manifold to mix with the seltzer water from the carbonator. I thought about going this route over the years, but since we don't drink a ton of soda, the additional space and cost (about $100 used for the additional regulator and syrup pump), I never ended up adding it. 2ff7e9595c
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