Alternatives to vinyl tubing

[Pie_Man]

I'm curious if there are alternatives to using vinyl tubing for racking and transferring that make sense for a homebrewer. Although vinyl tubing is inexpensive, I don't find it to be a great material to work with. It's difficult to dry, it's difficult to clean the inside, and it gets stuck on racking canes and airlocks. I don't always trust the sanitization of vinyl tubing and find myself discarding tubing after several uses which seems wasteful and not very environmentally friendly. What are your thoughts and suggestions?

 

[shawnbou]

Silicone. It's more expensive than vinyl, but you can find it at most homebrew stores. It's safe to use for hot liquids (like mash runoff and hot wort) and it's easier to store and work with because it doesn't have memory.

 

[TyTanium]

And you can boil the snot out of it.

 

[DeafSmith]

I always use silicone with my autosiphon - easier to attach/detach, forms an airtight seal without needing a hose clamp, and I can boil it to sanitize.