Black stuff on immersion chiller

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earwig

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Is the black stuff on the immersion chiller harmful? This is my first time using one... I cleaned it with oxiclean but it didn't all come off. I'm now boiling it in clean water. I need to use it in about an hour and would rather not have to soak it in starsan since my bucket is already full of other stuff. Thanks!
 
I suspect that the black stuff is oxydation on your copper. Should not be a problem, just make sure to put it into your boil kettle when there is 15 minutes left in the boil to sanitize it and you should be fine.

when you chill and pull it out of the pot it will look like brand new copper!
 
I recommend a good scrub every now and then. I would never clean mine, then one day I used it to cool water. And the water turned out brown. Then I used green scrubby pads to clean the chiller, and got a TON of crap off it.

Try green scrubbys or even SOS pads. Get that thing glowing like new.
 
Thanks for the replies. I was just paranoid about putting something funky in the wort. I can't wait to use this thing... I finally never have to deal with ice baths again!
 
I put my fairly shiny IC in oxyclean and turned it dark, almost black. I don't think copper is meant to be cleaned that way. I won't try that again.
 
Vinegar is one of the best things to clean copper. Make sure you soak it in water and run water through the lines after a vinegar soak. You dont want to add that flavor to your beer.
 
I dip mine in StarSan (to sanitize it) for a few minutes before I put it in the wort and it comes out looking like new.
 
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