Cleaning Carboy white visible residue?

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LS_Grimmy

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Howdy,

My Carboy's have a visible residue inside them . I have a small brush but can't get down to the lower half of the carboy to scrub it clean.

I Was wondering if I could use Oxyclean to get the residue off without scrubbing it or will I need to buy a longer bigger brush? Or Both?

Grimmy
 
Soak them in warm water and a little oxyclean overnight, you don't need much, maybe 1/2 tablespoon in a 5-6 gallon carboy. Rinse well, and the Oxy-Clean may leave a thin white film. This is no problem as then just soak with water and a little vinegar and rinse well again. Should get everything crystal clear. Might smell a little like vinegar, but the final rinse should get that out. Then you can sanitize before use and everything should be right with the world.
 
I use PBW with great success. Can't even remember the last time I used a bottle brush. Occassionaly I get something the PBW won't get rid of but an overnight soak with bleach usually does the trick then.

GT
 
I remember a member telling me in a post that acids work well to remove scale. They said that starsan would work well. Since then, anytime I've had any residue, I give a quick soak in starsan. Works well...
 
Ok I tried the soak with bleach and I got pretty much 90% of it off. So what I did is attach a sponge to the end of my spoon and wiped the rest off. Then I gave it a good rinse with water then starsan and now it looks like new. Now got a couple more to clean but it's all good.

Thanks for the input guys

Cheers
Grimmy
 
Try one with about 1/2 scoop of oxyclean in the bottom before you start adding water and let it sit overnight, just to see the difference.
 
Howdy fellas im back with my final result... I picked up some oxiclean and tried it on the other carboy I had. I did an overnight soak and damn it was crystal clear. So my final decision will be the 24 hour soak in oxiclean to clean out your carboys.

Thanks for the help fellas
Grimmy
 
Be sure and use some sort of a good rinse agent for the inside of the carboy. You can't feel the inside and it is slippery. I use a couple of ounces(2-3) of white vinegar per 5 gallons of water as a after water rinse soak. Then another quick rinse with water, then my no-rinse sanitizer. I cleaned my mason jars like this (experiment before doing a carboy) so I could feel the inside, and man it went from slick to stick. Also, the rinse after the soak in vinegar/water mix removes any vinegary smell, so no worries. Glad Oxy-clean worked out for you and don't forget PBW, it comes in handy and does work better than Oxy-clean in a shorter time (but does cost more). I feel like if I am in a hurry I use PBW, if I am soaking something for a day then Oxy-clean. It is whatever you choose though. I was truly amazed at Oxy-clean my first time to use it.
 
Soak them in warm water and a little oxyclean overnight, you don't need much, maybe 1/2 tablespoon in a 5-6 gallon carboy. Rinse well, and the Oxy-Clean may leave a thin white film. This is no problem as then just soak with water and a little vinegar and rinse well again. Should get everything crystal clear. Might smell a little like vinegar, but the final rinse should get that out. Then you can sanitize before use and everything should be right with the world.

Thanks for your answer, very useful. It seems that the deposit might be limescale, so I just tried soaking with a bit of citric acid (about 3 teaspoons) in one litre of hot water. Swirl it around in the carboy, white deposits go in a matter of seconds with non of that nasty vinegar smell and wasted water.
 
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