CFC cleaning

So after seeing the how-to on building a CFC, I'm thinking I may go that route instead of the immersion chiller. The only reservation I have is the cleaning of it. I would think that flushing with water when cooling is done and then blasting with compressed air should do it, but I really have no clue. What have been your experiences with cleaning these things? Thanks!

As a side note, I saw something about star san eating copper...I assume this is only if left in contact with it for prolonged periods of time, not the 1-2 minutes of sanitizing.

I of course clean mine right after I use it, just flush some water through, but if I have not used my CFC in awhile, I will run some vinegar through to disolve the copper corrosion. After that, I will rinse with water then run a little star san through to sanitize before I hook it up to the keggle..

Tis is probably a little complicated, but it works for me.

Make sure it's dry when stored. After I sanitized my carboy I rack through it with the sanitizing solution into a bucket.

Remember there is a difference between cleaning and sanitizing.

You use different cleaners for different soil removal.

To CLEAN a CFC you want to remove organic soil. For this you want to run an alkaline cleaner through it. THEN rinse with water.

My routine is to first rinse with water, then run hot PBW through it. As you watch the discharge you will see the water change color as the PBW removes all the organic soils left behind. I then rinse with warm water before storing it.

Before I use it again, I circulate warm water through it. I normally clean the fermenter with PBW and move that through the chiller. Rinse both items with water. I sanitze the fermenter with SaniClean and set up a recirculation loop from the fermenter through the chiller and back to the fermenter. I keep the sanitizer moving through the loop for about 10 minutes. Overkill for time, but it won't hurt anything.

StarSan or SaniClean will NOT hurt copper. The phosphoric acid in both will remove some inorganic soils, but there really isn't a high enough concentration of acid in there to worry about.

After I've put a brew in the carboy and stuck the blowoff tube on, the first thing I clean is my CFC. My water heater is set pretty F-ing hot, and is only a couple feet away from my kitchen sink. I run HOT water through it for a few minutes and call it clean. Before the next brew session I run a bit of sanitizer through it (iodiphor or star san), and also run boiling hot wort through it before turning on the cooling water. A couple years ago, that wasn't an option, so I would set my kettle up on my stove, over two burners. I would boil three gallons of water in the kettle, hook the ball valve from my kettle to the CFC, then empty all three gallons of boiling water through the CFC into a stainless steel pot. It only takes a few seconds for the water to flow clear, and after all the water has flowed through, you know there is nothing alive left inside.

I rinse mine out with hot water after I use it. The when I brew I use the water that preheated my MLT and I boil it for 15 minutes then run it thru the cfc. Once that's done I use one of the little white caps from a carboy cap to cap it off so nothing gets in there while I'm brewing.
It stays hooked to the kettle the whole time.