Cleaning the secondary, or carboy

After I bottled for the first time, it was time to clean out the secondary. I had heard about this on another forum, so I tried it. Seemed to work OK. Rinse out the carboy with hot water. Then put 1/4 cup of automatic dishwasher detergent, the kind with enzymes, and fill with hot water. Let sit over night, then throughly rinse out the next day. Will or does this work?

Same works with just a little bleach...very little...

Use plain hot water for your plastic buckets...an overnight soak does wonders.

Hmmmm.............. I didn't think to add that to the buckets. I usually wash them by hand and rinse them out like a mad dog.

I go for the bleach and water soak in the carboys too. Let it sit one or two days, rinse it really well with the jet washer and hot water. I've been second-guessing my methods lately, because I've had some bad batches, but I'm not so sure it has anythign to do with cleaning/sanitizing.

As for the plastic, I also let the hot water sit in it, and every so often brush the sides with a carboy brush or something non abrasive. Seems to work.

I've heard that bleach and chlorine can really screw up the taste if it isn't 100% rinsed out.

Monk said:

...rinse it really well with the jet washer and hot water......brush the sides with a carboy brush or something non abrasive. Seems to work.

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The only scrubbing I do is with a wet sponge...more like a wiping off...

Ol' Grog said:

I've heard that bleach and chlorine can really screw up the taste if it isn't 100% rinsed out.

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It can. I've had a chlorine batch - and its really bad. That said - just make sure you wash it out all the way. I still use bleach for sanitizing - haven't had any further problems, although rinsing is a bit of a pain.

After fermentation I hose out my carboy with hot water & soak 1 scoop of oxyclean in the carboy and top it off. It really only needs to soak for like 15 minutes to rinse perfectly clean.

Actually cleaning the outside with a sponge is a bigger pain that the inside. In extreme cases I gently wipe the inside of the carboy with a brush.

Oxyclean should be fine for plastic too.

I've been using oxyclean and it works wonders on glass and plastic. I just fill em up, let em soak, and rinse em out and they're good to go.

I would be really careful with bleach - that could do horrible things to a batch.

Has anyone tried using vinegar (not that vinegar won't screw up a batch if its not cleaned out entirely). Vinegar can do some pretty amazing things when cleaning - especially apple cider vinegar.

What ever your cleaning medium, I find that micro-fiber cloths are great for cleaning plastic fermenters, they work as well as plastic scrubbys but dont scratch the plastic.