non-circulation techniques for sanitizing a CFC?

I'm getting ready to use my counter flow chiller for the first time, but haven't given much thought as to how I'm going to sanitize it before use, and before/after each repeated use. I use bleach and/or One Step as my sanitizer for all my other equipment. But if I'm correct, neither should be used on copper.... Right? I'll be flowing wort through the chiller via gravity, thus no pump to circulate boiling wort as a means of sanitation. So what good options am I left with?

Thanks,

Jeff

Your goal should be clean first, sanitary second. Since you don't have a pump, you'll need to circulate at least ~3 gallons of warm (~140F) cleaning solution (PBW, oxyclean, etc.) through the copper to achieve an adequate clean.

To sanitize, you can:

1. Circulate near boiling water. Just boil 2 gallons of water and circulate it through your empty CFC while you're mashing.
2. Recirculate a few gallons back into your boil tun before chilling (difficult without a pump).
3. Use an acid/chemical sanitizer (as you mentioned). Diluted bleach will not harm copper if at the correct concentration and not allowed to sit for long periods. With that said, I recommend an acid (starsan) or quat sanitizer for copper.

You'll probably have to disconnect the chiller, grab a funnel, and pour sanitizer in, catching the output with a bucket.....lather, rinse, repeat.

Alternatively, you could flow a bit of boiling wort through it (with chill water OFF), and just add that back to the BK. This would "pasteurize" the chiller, and will probably work fine.

Yeah, send about 3 gallons of boiling wort through it and collect in a bucket and dump it back into the kettle as scuba said.