I also fill the hose with liquid by using my sanitizer solution. I just pull it out of the bucket and pinch one end to keep it in place. One trick I use is to siphon over the open door of the dishwasher. Place a pot under the door to support weight and siphon into whatever on the open door. I let the sanitizer run out into the dishwasher until I get beer and then continue as normal. Cleanup is a snap. Just close the door.
Thats about what I do
I get the siphin started then let it run into a cup , once the hose is filled I put the hose end back in the bucket I store the star-san in and let it sit a minute.
When I rack in the basement I just use two containers
One gets the sanitizer/funky first bit of beer-yeast
One gets the hydro-sample then its off to the secondary, bottling bucket or keg
+1
Did the full keg hookup a couple of times and quit for those reasons.
Nothing. Aspiring. ;D
I usually drink my hydro sample 
and use star-san for the siphon.
I use a carboy cap almost exclusively now for over a year, I’ve never had the siphon lost when using a carboy cap, I set the bottom of the racking cane so it is about 1/2 an inch above the yeast cake and use a wedge under one side of the carboy. Once the siphon is started there is no reason to move the cane so you shouldn’t lose the siphon and as far as I can tell thats the only way the siphon could be lost. Works great for me. On the other hand, I have had auto-siphons (2 now) that the seal went bad in. I liked them but after two… nah. I don’t like filling a racking cane and 5 or more feet of tubing with water etc… its a pita making sure it doesn’t have any pockets of air.
that’s actually why i don’t use co2 pressure and just let the carboy suck air through a sterile filter. i figure the co2 from fermentation will stay on top of the beer and filtered air from the basement will ride on the co2 minimizing any o2 contact with the beer. but this way if something gets clogged [which it never has] i don’t have a back pressure problem. the siphon simply stops.
Now that I’m intrigued by this I’m browsing McMaster-Carr to see if there’s a cheap & easy way to make a siphon starter that will work on any size carboy or bucket and does not render the whole racking assembly inoperable if the siphon starter bits fail. I’ll post back if I come up with anything.
Racking cane, tubing, turkey baster…
Vodka gargle and then suck,
whoo. this thread is getting sexay. ;D
I’m thinking more gizmodic and cooler than that. They have the cheap bellows-style siphon pumps for $5, but where’s the fun in that?
I’ve always used an auto-siphon, I dig it.
I used to use a thief to get a hydro sample and an autosiphon for the transfer. Now I just stick my autosiphon in without tubing and pump a couple times to squirt my hydro sample into a test jar. Then I attach a sanitized hose to the autosiphon and one more pump for the transfer. This saves me steralizing the thief and hydrometer.
Wow thanks guys.
The response is awesome!
I’ve been hearing a lot about using the kegging system and CO2 to push the beer over. That sounds like one of the best and most logical ideas. Unfortunately I don’t have the space for a kegging system so I’m forced to continue to rack beer from one place to another. At least, for now that is.
I suppose at some point I’ll move up in the world and get into the kegging portion of all this. I just like the idea that I can drink my beer sooner! However, there are some brews I just like to age in bottles.
I would have to agree that the autosiphon is cheap and easily breakable, but for the 10 bucks I spent on it, I feel it is completely worth it. For some reason I kept losing my siphons. I even used pipe clamps to clamp down where the racking cane goes into the tubing in hopes of preventing leaks. Obviously to no avail.
I still think I’ve got a leak, and I’m working on getting that fixed. Until then though, I like that if I lose my siphon its easy to start back up without taking things out of the beer and refilling them up and such.
Thanks for all the responses.
Janis-I’ll look into the Wiki! Thanks!
If you are losing your siphon try a smaller diameter tubing. I don’t know the dimensions, but I had the same problem with tubing that easily fit on the autosiphon and no problems at all with the tubing that just fits on.
as i said before, i use a similar setup to drew, but without the co2. i think pressurizing a carboy is unnecessary. i use this:
and this is how easy it is:
It is if you’re pushing beer “up hill”. 
The best thing about a co2 push system is not having to disturb the carboy to get the beer out of the freezer and into a keg. Especially if you’ve just spent 3 months lagering it.
yes, thats true, but also why i try to ferment on racks so that when it comes time to rack to the keg i don’t have to move it. i’m in the process of building a walk in refrigerator so that i can lager there too. ;D
Flawless time after time after time…Amazon.com
I bought one of these a few years ago, it was the fastest transfer I’ve ever seen… I can’t remember exactly how long it took, I’m guessing it would have taken maybe a minute to transfer five gallons from carboy to keg but I pinched the tube to slow it down. :o The reason I quit using it was because I wasn’t sure the tubing was food grade and might transfer flavors into the beer? It is the easiest and fastest siphon I’ve ever used that is for sure! I might try using it on one batch again to see if it picks up any flavors or not.