First Cleaning Run

Finespirit

HI, just wondering what everyone uses to do a cleaning run. First time on the 200L pot belly. thanks

olddog

Vinegar/water 50/50

Finespirit

So with vinegar, do you actually bring it to a boil or just a good scrub? Thanks

olddog

Boil it just like your doing a stripping run, it will clean the crap out of your column and condensor

Finespirit

Thanks!

punkin

One thing to be aware of that a customer told me yesterday is the surge breaker often has some hidden gunk up in the parts that can't be reached with a polisher. He got some machining gunk out by boiling it in a caustic solution. He didn't say what the solution was but i'd guess any base like sodium bicarb or carbonate at 5% or so.

FullySilenced

Caustic soda.... lye or sodium / potassium hydroxide... would be my guess not bicarb

punkin

Good to know, thanks FS.

TheMechWarrior

Yes it was Sodium Hydroxide I used, readily available in the cleaning isle of your local supermarket.

I bathed it in an acetic acid bath for a week and it didn't shift so I boiled in the sodium hydroxide solution for about 5 minutes and that removed the lot.

Strength wise at a guess I would say 1-2% w/v was what I used.

Please be aware that sodium hydroxide is a very strong alkali and that it will readily cause permenant damage to the soft tissue of the eye.

SAFETY NOTICE:

ALWAYS wear protection when handling this stuff especially when used as I have described above.

ALWAYS add caustic to COLD water (slowly) as it will form an exothermic reaction (it will generate heat!).

Trying to add it to hot water to "save time" will likely result in an explosion spraying hot caustic all over you.

Remember this simple rhyme to stay safe: "Do what you outa, add acid to water." (it's also true for alkali ;) )

If you try and add water directly to concentrated acid or alkali you will create an exothermic explosion.

FullySilenced

And don't get it on your nads....

Spazsquatch

@TheMechWarrior said: "Do what you outa, add acid to water."

...on that topic, I've seen it mentioned that you should add alcohol to water or vice versa. Can anyone clarify which it is, and if there is any truth to it?

crystal_skull

So is vinegar much better than alcohol? Got lots of junkohol at home and vinegar cost 10 dollar/liter.

Lloyd

$10 a liter?? Sounds like a good business opportunity for you. But surely you can get a gallon of white vinegar cheaper than that.

Vinegar is acidic and a really good cleaner, especially for copper. I see no reason why your junkohol won't work.

Vinegar is probably a throwback to cleaning the solder residue from copper joints anyway.

crystal_skull

Great to hear that @Lloyd. The hole rig is new, all SD gear, so no soldered parts. Maby a mix of vinegar/alcohol/wather?

Lloyd

A good scrubbing before assembly, a junkahol run and you are good to go.

I have done less than that, I admit, because I test so many different configurations so often with so many different parts so often.

But don't be like me, be safe. Scrub all the parts, vinegar run, break it all down and neutralize, do a good scrubbing again followed by a junkohol run and another scrub and cleaning and then repeat the whole process - twice or three times.

Me? I wash any new parts with hot soapy water and rinse and put everything into total reflux for 15 to 20 minutes, but that's because I'm lazy and don't plan to live past 100 years old (I'm over half way there now but young folks with immune problems should disregard this post completely and scrub, neutralize, scrub, acid wash, scrub, neutralize, scrub, acid wash, scrub, neutralize and then do a junkohol run).

Or figure it ain't all that necessary on SS stuff. Best to be safe so scrub till you are satisfied. Its a personal choice of how far to take cleanliness. (Almost all the shit goes back to the boiler and is drained away with the tails - I KNOW I'll take heat from that statement! but its true).

Mickiboi

Can I just load it all into my dishwasher? Put it on pot scrub for about 2 hours. Not the boiler of course.

irishman

If you've got stainless (and only stainless) and you want to remove reallllly stuck on stains, you can use citric acid. (available at any good homebrew store). Wine makers use it when balancing acidity in their wines and sometimes for sanitizing. Words of caution though, don't breath it, and don't get it on your skin.

However, a little rinse after a light scrub with citric acid and you've got brand spanking new stainless!

I use about a tablespoon or two for a regular windex bottle worth of water.

I use this method on my stainless pots for my homebrew. Works like a charm, and gets all the baked-on junk off the kettles really well. A pro-brewer friend turned me on to it.