Cleaning Bottles with Oxi-Clean

[baseballstar4]

I recently cleaned some bottles with the generic Sun oxygen cleaner, free of perfumes and coloring. I have read on here that many prefer to use this type of cleaner for lable removal and such. I was very impressed with how easy the lables came off. But after rinsing and drying my bottles I have noticed a white film that has lined the bottle as well as the inside of the bottle where the water rested during soaking. It is like a soap scum that you see built up on shower doors.

What could this be? Anyone else get this?

 

[dwarven_stout]

A white gritty scum is expected when you use oxyclean on glass. I believe it's sodium carbonate residue, though I'm not positive. Any weak acid will take it right off.

My practice is an extended dip in an oxyclean solution followed by a short dip in starsan (don't add a lot of oxyclean solution to starsan though, or you'll neutralize it). This serves the dual purpose of cleaning + sanitizing, and removing that scum.

 

[Mike35673]

A white gritty scum is expected when you use oxyclean on glass. I believe it's sodium carbonate residue, though I'm not positive. Any weak acid will take it right off.

My practice is an extended dip in an oxyclean solution followed by a short dip in starsan. This serves the dual purpose of cleaning + sanitizing, and removing that scum.

Beat me to it. Exactly what I did. I had an ugly film on mine after an Oxy_clean bath but after a quick dip in a starsan bath, that came off with no effort at all and I had clean sanitized bottles.

 

[shawnbou]

I've never had a film like you describe, but I do often get little bits of gritty white deposit on the inside and outside of the bottles when I soak them too long (like 2+ days). IIRC that's just a mineral deposit that comes from the settling of sodium compounds in the OxiClean, and it usually rinses right off with hot water. A quick dunk in Star San takes care of any stubborn deposits that don't come off with water.

How strong was your mixture? Even the color-free, fragrance-free stuff usually has surfactants (sudsing agents) added to it ... I imagine it's possible that a very high ratio of cleaner to water might leave a film because of these additives.

I usually mix 1 oz of Oxiclean Free with 4 gal of tap water, and it rinses off nicely.

 

[shawnbou]

LOL, took me too long to type my reply. +1 to what dwarven_stout and Mike35673 said.

 

[MrInternet]

I always triple-rinse OxyClean off, and I've never seen this residue. It's a great cleaner, but it does need to be thoroughly rinsed off...

Plus, after you do the "initiation soak" with Oxy (old boxes of bottles that you're not sure of their cleanliness, bottles from friends or restaurants, de-labeling, etc), from then on out a good rinse with dish soap will keep them sparkling clean. Whenever I kill a bottle of homebrew, the bottle gets rinsed and cleaned out immediately, and I put a little tab of saran wrap over the mouth. That way, when it comes bottling day, all you're doing is "unwrapping" all your already clean bottles and dumping them in StarSan... I just did this last night as a matter of fact, and it cut a good hour and a half of time off of bottling day.

IME, Oxy's only REALLY necessary the first time... for bottles anyway.

 

[d510addict]

So far I've only soaked for about 3-4 hours tops to get rid of the labels then I run them through a dish washer rinse and dry cycle with no soap that plus the triple rinse of hot water after labels are off gets em super clean and sterile for storage.

 

[Mike35673]

I think the film I described is from the glue on the labels themselves. I will use my 6.5 gallon bottling bucket and fill it and remove a case or two of labels...That probably gets a little gummy in the solution.

 

[Revvy]

The scale is a residue that forms from a combination of oxyclean and certain water chemistry, it is pretty common.

To get rid of the "scale," you use a weak acid solution, Starsan works great, but you can also use a dillution of either vinegar or lemon juice is water.

 

[mrgstiffler]

I do the same thing that everyone else has said with Oxyclean, but dunk in an Iodophor solution before bottling instead of Starsan.

 

[Revvy]

I do the same thing that everyone else has said with Oxyclean, but dunk in an Iodophor solution before bottling instead of Starsan.

Does that really work to remove the scale? It's not an acid based sanitizer, so it's not a weak acid....it really shouldn't in theory dissolve the scale. But if it does cool.

 

[AnonyBrew]

To avoid the residue, use soft water with the sodium percarbonate.