How often to strip/clean threaded fittings?

[aangel]

Open question - I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but y'know, just to be sure:

"Do I need to fully disassemble, remove the tape, clean and sanitize all my pipe thread fittings (ie, street elbows, valves, camlock connectors, nipples, etc) after every brew day?"

It is a PITA to remove/apply plumber's tape and screw on every fitting. If the answer's truly yes, I'm considering moving to triclamp.

 

[Bobby_M]

No. Why would you do that? You'll want to clean it in place by running hot PBW through everything. Everything on the hot side of the operation does not need to be sanitary. Besides, if you use Triclamp to be sanitary, everything needs to be triclover with no threads at all.

 

[aangel]

What about the gunk that gets in valves and threads? Even with pbw and starsan it will mold eventually if solid chunks remain...I thought?

 

[doublehaul]

I do. I disassemble my pump , fittings, and 3 way valves every time post brew. I air dry and toss the 3 way valves into their own zip lock, then I reassemble and rewrap with tape the night before a Brew day. The first time I disassembled a 3 way valve I was surprised at how much **** was in there. I'm not as anal about my mash tun valve and I never mess with my HLT valves.

 

[khawk95]

I disassemble everything once a quarter. Too lazy to do it more often than that.

 

[whitehause]

I don't go out of my way to do any hot side fittings. I'll do the mash tun thermo probe "T" once in a while just to make sure I'm not getting build up that would effect the temp reading, but other than that, PBW with a 190 deg water flush. Good to go.