Let me know how the fast washer works for you Tim. I bought one (FastWash 12) when the first came out and was disappointed. They specified to only use warm water (max 106°F (41°C)). OK for sanitizing but not washing. The water spouts that the bottles sit on were not all vertical, so in some bottles the liquid did not reach the edge on one side of the bottle. They stressed very strongly not to overtighten the screws so I did not. And it leaked like a sieve. So each use I would incrementally tighten the screws. It never stopped leaking, even when I tightened them enough to crack the plastic. After about a dozen uses I stopped using it. If they have improved the design, I may try another one.
Dunno when you got/had yours, but apparently they have indeed changed the design so that it no longer requires a gasket. There was a pretty big blurb in the instructions that pointed out the absence of the gasket. If yours had a gasket, then maybe you should. I think you can get the manifold without repurchasing the pump, which may save you a few bucks.
I didn't notice any leakage when I used it. I'm assuming you meant the jets from the nozzles didn't come out straight, as the nozzles are molded into the top half of the manifold and won't move. I did note that it looks like the nozzle holes were molded in rather than drilled after molding. I can see where that might cause some issues if there were any significant leakage in the mold. Mine weren't perfect, but for the most part, they did a pretty good job. I probably should have added a bit more Star-San, but I mixed for a 5 gallon solution, and it foamed up quite nicely from the splashing inside the bottles. Strangely, some bottles would foam up inside, some wouldn't. But, what I did notice as I removed the bottles from the rack in the drying tray is that ALL of them had a very nice looking light foam in them from the Star-San. Can't ask for a better distribution of the sanitizer.
The instructions give a pretty specific tightening sequence for the screws. The FW24 has LOT of screws in it, estimating nearly 50. That occupied a bit of my Christmas morning putting it together. The biggest thing is to tighten them sort of like tightening head bolts on an engine. I don't doubt that I didn't follow the sequence exactly, but a quick glance at the diagram reminded me of my days of owning a VW Baja and torquing the head studs on it. From the middle outward, and crisscrossing the pattern, basically forcing all the stresses to the outside of the manifolds. I used a regular screwdriver as the book said because I've destroyed my share of plastic parts using a drill-driver.
I don't think the jets are powerful enough to actually clean the bottles if there's any significant deposits, and it says not to use it for that purpose right in the instructions. They are more meant to just splash the inside of the bottle with cleaning/sanitizing solution. I didn't run the pumps with no bottles on because the missus would probably be a little disappointed with me if I did that in her kitchen. When warmer weather prevails, I'll try it outside. My water temperature was probably forward of 110F, as hot as I could get from the kitchen sink spray nozzle. I don't put Star-San in water much hotter because it reacts with the calcium in our water and clouds up, and the efficacy of the Star-San is reduced when that happens. According to Star-San's label, it works best between 70F and 110F, IIRC.
My normal washing method was with a brush in one sink with PBW in it, rinse in the next sink, then spray inside with Star-San after draining the rinse. I'd use the hottest water I could stick my bare hands in for some cleaning solvency. If I were going to use water hot enough to pasteurize, I'd just boil them and be done with it, then put them in the oven to bake them dry. I always wipe down the outsides of the bottles with a cloth soaked in Star-San solution just to make them nice and shiny after bottling. That seems to keep critters away from the storage. I'm slowly replacing all the cardboard boxes with wooden crates, too, or may just go to the FastRack trays. They're only about $12 each and take up even less space than the cardboard boxes because they stack tighter. They store the bottles upside down, so once clean, nothing's going in there and they should STAY clean because the mouth of the bottle doesn't touch anything. But, they're not ideal for storing filled bottles, so I'll have to keep enough wooden crates around for storing my inventory.
