Cleaning soda lines and removing flavor

Hey everyone,
I realize this is a beer brewing forum and I have a soda related question, but as I can't find any soda specific forums and beer dispensing seems to work in a similar way, I'm hoping you can point me in the right direction.

I bought a used 4 flavor soda fountain/dispenser to setup at home. It's the Bag-in-Box type like you'd see in a McDonald's. I put Coca Cola syrup on the head that used to have Diet Coke and several flushes and gallons of soda later, I can still taste something that's just off. Could be remnants of Diet Coke in the lines or some old Powerade that I hooked up to keep the pumps from cycling constantly while I cleaned the machine.

Anyway, I've hooked the syrup connector up to an old bag and pumped gallons of water through this valve. I also went to a local home brew store and bought some 5 star Liquid Line Cleaner that I pumped through. The taste remains.

Can anyone recommend any other cleaners/sanitizers that would remove built up sugar/flavoring in the lines? I'd like to avoid replacing the syrup line if possible, but I realize that may be the only solution.

Thanks for any ideas you all have

I've had extremely good results with National Chemicals' B*L*C (beverage line cleaner). How that might differ from the 5 Star product, I would only be guessing. The BLC is pumped into the line, then allowed to sit for 15 minutes before flushing.

i know the BLC has a mild acid in it that helps clean the line, rather than being 'just' a detergent. it might work.

otherwise I'd be trying oxyclean and soak it over night, then rinse well.

I find the best way to go is to use dedicated soda lines, kegs and tappers for soda and mark them as such (SODA ONLY)...especially for root beer.

also have u take apart what u are using for serving. what i mean is in places like McDonald's the nozzle comes off and there is a small plastic piece that diffuses the soda and syrup. it could be a build up of crud in there.

Thanks for all the replies,
If I'm remembering correctly, the LLC I used was a basic solution, so the acidic BLC may help. But I've got a tub of Oxyclean in the garage so I'll have to give that a shot first. Would 1Tbsp per gallon of water be appropriate?

And Notnice, yes I've taken the dispensing heads apart to scrub and clean them. They were pretty gunked up with black crud since it'd been 3 years since the machine was used.

hmm, you know, soda pop is fairly acidic...thus the LLC being basic to neutralize the acidic residue...

still BLC might do a better job of dissolving the crud.

malkore said:

hmm, you know, soda pop is fairly acidic...thus the LLC being basic to neutralize the acidic residue...

still BLC might do a better job of dissolving the crud.

Click to expand...

But is soda residue acidic? Isn't some of the acidity of soda due to carbonation (formation of carbonic acid)?

The particular line that has the flavor has Coke running on it now, which I guess does have some citric acid in the syrup. The carbonated water isn't mixed in until it comes out of the spout and pours into your glass.

Could be possible that I have the brix calibration off slightly. Some days I can notice the flavor and some days not. I might also try running water through the syrup line and tasting the carbonated water that it dispenses. If it's a flavor issue I should be able to still taste something off, otherwise it should taste like plain soda water.

Thanks again for the ideas all

I had a simular probelm witha spiced beer.

Oxicleaned and still had flavor problems. So I put bar keepers friend in keg of water , ran it thorugh the lines and let sit in the lines for a couple hours, then ran the rest of the keg through. Then I "rinsed" with some water mixed with baking soda.

Got rid of the clove taste.

any luck on this?

Hey everyone, just an update on the flavor issue.
I ran oxyclean through the line yesterday and let it sit for an hour. Still had a weird cherry flavor in the coke. As a last resort I pulled the syrup pump out of the line and opened it up. It smelled heavily like the aftertaste I've been getting, so I soaked some of the parts in LLC overnight.

There was still some smell this morning so I swapped in a different syrup pump and now the flavor is completely gone. I guess the rubber membranes inside the pumps really soaked in the flavoring when the system wasn't in use for a year.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. They'll definitely help me clean this thing with ease in the future.