Poly conical previous use concerns

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GC89

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So I have a chance to pick up a 15 gal plastic conical with a stand for next to nothing. It says ace roto mold, us plastics on it. The only issue I have is I am not sure what it was previously used for. I know it was agricultural, its from my university. So how effectively can these be cleaned/decontaminated? If it were stainless I would have no problem, plastic scares me a bit.
 
I'd do some research and ask some questions to try and find out what was in it. If you can't find out, I'd pass on it, but that's just me. Good luck.
 
As a farmer those plastic conicals are often used in mixing agricultural chemicals. If you can't be certain as to it previous life I would stay far away.
 
good advice, Ill ask around and see what I find out and if not pass on it. Hey maybe I can pick it up and use the stand with a new tank.
 
Those are pretty sweet, and they have a store about 30 minutes from here! Do you use these? There isn't a ton of info on them, like what they are made of.
Stands are pretty expensive, but I imagine I can make something for that.

I don't have the space for them yet.......
 
I use a couple that are made by Norwesco, not Ace, but I'm reasonably sure they are both HDPE thick walled white plastic. The place that I purchased the Norwesco conicals from also sold Ace as well.

In general, they work like a friggan' champ. You don't want to do super long term aging in them, as HDPE isn't completely vapor tight--and you have to futz with the lid to get it to seal correctly. But if you are planning on aging for two or three months in on of those, then transferring to kegs/bottles, they are *perfect*.

As for used ones? No way. Since they aren't completely vapor tight like stainless steel, they do retain some smell. If you are just putting beer in, it's not a problem. But I consider them single-job fermenters (aka the beer conicals hold beer, the wine conicals hold wine, etc.)

Oh, and the stands suck. Not worth the money, build your own out of plywood.
 
I bought mine from Tank-Depot.com. Look at inductor tanks on their site and you will find several. The also have more information and technical drawings of the tanks they sell. Shipping was about $40 though, so if you can find one locally it'll be a much better value.

If i had it to do again, I'd have bought the full drain model, as long as the outlet was threaded. I added a 2" threaded tri-clamp adapter, butterfly valve, and sight-glass/yeast harvester to the bottom. I have a 1" tri-clamp fitting that I'll add to the side of the cone for transferring wort/beer and sampling.

Moose
 
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