Old Copper Pipe

I have some old copper pipe left over from a project that has been stored in my garage for about 10 years. It has quite a bit of corrosion and nastiness inside an out. Can it be salvaged for use in a wort chiller? Maybe cut it to length and soak it in Oxy? Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated.

Soak a little piece in star san and see if it will clean up, or use some vinegar in water. Any type of acid will eat all that gunk out. Depending on how bad it is.

pipe is hard to bend. If you want to sweat all the fittings, you could build a square chiller.

It might be cheaper/easier to just get some tubing from sears. there's a thread here somewhere about the stuff.

B

bad coffee said:

pipe is hard to bend. If you want to sweat all the fittings, you could build a square chiller.

It might be cheaper/easier to just get some tubing from sears. there's a thread here somewhere about the stuff.

B

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I do not plan on bending it or sweating it. I just need to clean it.

Use a solution of muratic acid diluted about 50:1 with water... It will clean it right up

Although copper is a nutrient to the human body (especially the eyes), oxides of copper are poisonous. If the old pipe has a lot of green colored oxidation, it is probably wise not to use it. A dark amber color is normal and and safe if clean inside.

For a very valuable answer to the question, Please read this information from John Palmer in How to Brew:

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixB.html

That is a good article. Dark amber or bronze color oxide is fine. The problem with old copper pipe with green or blue oxides is that the those oxides can get trapped in minor pits or scratches. When this occurs, it is difficult to fully clean all the oxide from the copper especially on the inside of the pipe. So be very careful. If the green or blue oxides are not easily removed, I would not use it. That stuff can make you sick.

It's amazing how much starsan can clean old nasty copper, used some old copper I had out in the back yard for years, two hour soak in starsan, and bright and clean inside and out......course its for tower cooling (No beverage contact)

That's great to know. You've found another use for Star San. Of course Star San is acid based, so it makes sense that it would dissolve oxidation or corrosion on metal.

When I was a bartender and didn't have cleaning solution readily available, we would just use ketchup to clean all our copper piping. Same idea of course... Anything acidic does the trick.