draining carboys

Tired of the glub glub glub of water when emptying carboys?  stick a racking cane in it then lay it on its side and let the bottom of the siphon find the air pocket in the bottom of the carboy.  the water runs out much faster. 

I use a brush and a bottle washer. Never have enough water in there to glub glub glub out.

I thought maybe this trick was cool enough to change your evil ways ;D

It would also take some of the challenge out of chugging beer from a bottle if you use a soda straw and drink from the neck.  Lots of applications.

I've done exactly what you suggest before, but I'd rather not lug a full carboy around if I don't have to.

I put a quart or so of PBW in there, shake it up, and let the cleanser do its thing. Then I brush it, and when I can see it is clean I rinse it with the bottle washer.

I do it your way when sanitizing.  I guess I take the lazy road for cleaning.  I brew on a small ground level deck right outside the barn.  I fill em with water and add a dollop of bleach.  The crud falls away usually overnight without having to touch it.  I empty them where they stand, and refill for rinsing.

I never thought it would be as easy to just coat the inside with PBW solution, I wouldn't think it would be enough to loosen the krausen ring.  Evidently it does.  How long does it take? 

It doesn't make the stuff just fall away like an overnight soak. Still takes some elbow grease to loosen the ring, but the PBW makes it easier.

In my case it's just the nature of my brewery. I've got one big (seven gallons? never measured) glass carboy that is my primary (lucky score off newspaper classifieds), and then several five gallon ones that I use as secondaries. The primary is big enough that I don't need a blowoff tube. 

I try to reuse my yeast when possible, so I rack and brew on the same day when I can. I'll do a string of three to five brews off one packet of Safale/Saflager.

At some point during the brew day I will rack from the primary, reserve some sludge to seed the next batch, then I need to clean the primary since I will need it again soon.  I give it a rinse with the bottle washer to get all but the stuck stuff off, sprinkle in a spoon of PBW powder, add enough water to dissolve it, then shake it up whenever I walk past it, until it the boil is close to being over. I chill using the same spigot I use for the bottle washer, so I need a clean primary vessel before the boil is over.  Can't clean and chill at the same time. So I use the brush to clean, and the bottle washer to rinse. After that the spigot is free for chilling. Don't want to start cleaning when the chill is over. A clean vessel should be ready to go.

When cleaning secondary vessels, I sometimes do an overnight soak, and use a racking cane to aid in pouring the stuff out. But I've only got one big glass carb for a primary, so by necessity I have learned to clean it without filling it and letting it soak overnight.

Thanks I will try the PBW next time, rather THBW  (Tom_Hampton BW).  Its a fraction of the cost of the manufactured stuff.