Star San Melting Plastic?

[JayZeus]

Hi everyone. Long story short short, I left some vinyl tube in a mixture of Star San for a week and the results really surprised me. The tubing went from clear to milky-white and it feels like it started to decompose. It is slimy and sticky and nearly impossible to wash off. I decided to throw out everything that was in the mixture except for a ball lock valve.

I'm curious if anyone else has ran in to this and why it happens. Should I ditch the bucket too?

Thanks

 

[gunhaus]

It happened because star san eats vinyl. Don't toss the bucket it is fine.

 

[McMullan]

I think the instructions recommend soaking for 2 minutes.

I've experience similar issues when using a blowoff tube sitting in starsan solution.

 

[hotbeer]

I left a vinyl tube in boiling water for way too long and it turned milky white and was as limber as silicone tubing.

It took several days for it to turn clear again. But if your tubing is breaking down and coming apart, then toss it.

 

[MaxStout]

Your bucket's fine. I store 5 gallons of mixed Starsan in one for months at a time without any issues.

Replace your vinyl tubing, that's cheap.

 

[Beerstein]

I've moved mostly to silicon tubing because of this. And maybe a bit of PTFE tubing.

Edit: to add that I'm increasingly cautious around the plasticizers (phthalates) in vinyl tubing. Turns out phthalates are increasingly bad for you.

 

[PCABrewing]

Hi everyone. Long story short short, I left some vinyl tube in a mixture of Star San for a week and the results really surprised me. The tubing went from clear to milky-white and it feels like it started to decompose. It is slimy and sticky and nearly impossible to wash off. I decided to throw out everything that was in the mixture except for a ball lock valve.

I'm curious if anyone else has ran in to this and why it happens. Should I ditch the bucket too?

Thanks

I have experienced Vinyl tubing do that.
I have also had vinyl get slimy/sticky with no StarSan involved. It's a result of the plasticizer leaching out of the plastic.
HDPE (buckets) won't do that. UV will destroy HDPE over time though. It gets brittle and breaks.

 

[kevin58]

I think the instructions recommend soaking for 2 minutes.

I've experience similar issues when using a blowoff tube sitting in starsan solution.

Not two minutes of soaking... just two minutes of contact.

 

[McMullan]

Not two minutes of soaking... just two minutes of contact.

Contact with liquids is often referred to as 'soaking'. I'm not looking for a fight. Just saying

 

[tracer bullet]

Contact with liquids is often referred to as 'soaking'. I'm not looking for a fight. Just saying

I think he's trying to say you only need contact. As in you could spray it on and let it sit for 2 minutes. Many would think soaking = immersion.

 

[McMullan]

I think he's trying to say you only need contact. As in you could spray it on and let it sit for 2 minutes. Many would think soaking = immersion.

I often use a spray bottle to soak stuff

 

[hotbeer]

But in practical use, when you spray sanitizer on plastic or simply rinse the lines out, then the water/sanitizer solution beads up and is not in contact with a large percentage of the surface for the required 2 minutes.

So mincing words about contact vs soaking is just verbal jousting. Especially when no other useful information was giving for the OP.

 

[tracer bullet]

I often use a spray bottle to soak stuff

Congratulations?

 

[bwible]

Hi everyone. Long story short short, I left some vinyl tube in a mixture of Star San for a week and the results really surprised me. The tubing went from clear to milky-white and it feels like it started to decompose. It is slimy and sticky and nearly impossible to wash off. I decided to throw out everything that was in the mixture except for a ball lock valve.

I'm curious if anyone else has ran in to this and why it happens. Should I ditch the bucket too?

Thanks

Yet concentrated Star San comes in a plastic bottle?

 

[kevin58]

But in practical use, when you spray sanitizer on plastic or simply rinse the lines out, then the water/sanitizer solution beads up and is not in contact with a large percentage of the surface for the required 2 minutes.

So mincing words about contact vs soaking is just verbal jousting. Especially when no other useful information was giving for the OP.

You are not supposed to rinse off StarSan.

 

[hotbeer]

You are not supposed to rinse off StarSan.

English isn't your native language is it?

I would have assumed that someone would understand that rinse as I used it in that sentence, was that the lines are having star-san run through them as the rinse solution.

Not that they are being rinsed with water or some other liquid.

 

[mashpaddled]

Yet concentrated Star San comes in a plastic bottle?

Not all plastics are the same. HDPE holds up to acid and alcohol better than other plastics. Like some cheap spirits come in plastic jugs but you pour a high proof spirit into the wrong kind of plastic and it melts.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I think if Star Sans or phosphoric acid which is its most concentrated form eats anything you've mixed it too concentrated

 

[day_trippr]

Nope. It simply attacks some plastics at the prescribed concentration.

Like Delrin: someone discovered Delrin epoxy gun mixing sticks will dissolve in a standard Star San solution. And I have a spigot on my Star San reservoir bucket that is assembled from multiple plastic parts, and the body will dissolve over time while the other parts - mostly nylon - are untouched...

Cheers!

 

[kevin58]

English isn't your native language is it?

I would have assumed that someone would understand that rinse as I used it in that sentence, was that the lines are having star-san run through them as the rinse solution.

Not that they are being rinsed with water or some other liquid.

Here is what you said...
"when you spray sanitizer on plastic or simply rinse the lines out, then the water/sanitizer solution beads up"

The way that is written it looks like you are talking about two things.... spraying sanitizer and rinsing with water. There is not need to insult someone for interpreting what you wrote and not deciphering what you meant.

 

[Off Balance Brewing]

I've also had it eat through a pump sprayer bottle. Oddly enough my home Depot spray bottle seems to last more than a year.

 

[hotbeer]

Here is what you said...
"when you spray sanitizer on plastic or simply rinse the lines out, then the water/sanitizer solution beads up"

My apologies.

I guess I'll have to accept the fault for not realizing that people wouldn't understand that a "/" means "and".

"And" is mathematically and programmatically a union and that the two terms on either side must go together, as in this case are mixed together to form a solution. Not an "or" situation where I would be talking about one or the other.

I suppose just the use of "sanitizer solution" should have been good enough.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I think if Star Sans or phosphoric acid which is its most concentrated form eats anything you've mixed it too concentrated

ok let me revise that, for anyone complaining about star san, first read the directions, it requires a 1 to 2 minute contact to be effective, you should not soak anything in star san

 

[DavidWood2115]

My apologies.

I guess I'll have to accept the fault for not realizing that people wouldn't understand that a "/" means "and".

A “/“ is often used as shorthand for “and/or”.
https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/slash.html

 

[McMullan]

I think the instructions recommend soaking for 2 minutes.

 

[day_trippr]

 

[emac813]

View attachment 762783

Looks like theres a bunch of fugitives in here..

 

[McMullan]

 

[Ls7corvete]

So wait, which plastics will it 'eat'? I assume storing it in ABS and HDPE buckets is fine?

 

[hotbeer]

A “/“ is often used as shorthand for “and/or”.
https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/slash.html

You realize you haven't added anything to the OP's issue except just mincing words about something where you were probably the only one to misunderstand what I meant.

If you don't immerse the stuff in the sanitizer, then you probably won't have it in contact with the entire surface for the requisite time. Most of us will consider immersion for any amount of time the same as soaking.

If I spray sanitizer on a surface that it beads up on, then can I be certain that all the surface is in contact with some sanitizer?

This isn't a technical paper. IMO, colloquial language is allowed. And so too is the use of words in a loose way.

Don't be Sheldon Cooper!

Never mind, you aren't the same person.

In my case you shouldn't assume it as or. It's always been and and only and. Never or.

Were you too truly confused about the way I worded the original post in question?

 

[Smudgey]

Give it a rest already. Way to ruin a thread guys.

And on topic, yup, has happened to me more than once. They loose their opaqueness and go hard again if you wash and hang them but I've not used one again. I changed to all Eva Barrier and duotights and haven't thought about it since!

 

[McMullan]

Here's a duotight fitting that was exposed to starsan foam bubbling from a blowoff for a few days.

Nice chemical fracture. Never had this happen with John Guest fittings.

 

[JayZeus]

Yeah, it's been hanging"/"drying for days and the tubing still feels sticky... I'm throwing it out. Next time, I will heed the "2 minutes" instructions.

 

[kevin58]

Yeah, it's been hanging"/"drying for days and the tubing still feels sticky... I'm throwing it out. Next time, I will heed the "2 minutes" instructions.

Mostly likely a good call. Tubing is relatively cheap to replace.