Cleaning plastic tubing?

[hammer1]

i would use a long piece of tie wire with a small cloth looped and smashed on the end. soak the hose in a bucket of cleaning solution first .

 

[Pilgarlic]

As I said earlier, I don't reuse the tubing. When I did, I did clean the tubing as well as soaking it. Didn't want to use wire, obviously, because I didn't want to scratch it. Here's what I devised:

I used a length of very heavy monofilament fishing line, like 40-100 lb test, a bit more than twice as long as the tubing. in the middle of the line I tied a small patch of cotton cloth, like a t-shirt cloth. I was able to thread the line through the tubing and pull the soaked (StarSan or Oxy) cloth through the tubing, and back and forth if I cared to. This allowed me to actually clean the tubing without scratching. By the way, this is the ONLY way I know to actually clean and not just soak an autosiphon.

 

[lschiavo]

Since we are on the tubing topic, Anyone use the high temp vinyl stuff? I use this from Northern Brewer:http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/3-8-clear-hi-temp-tubing.html.

I like to replace it when it starts to look stained but it's not really that cheap. Anyone have a source for a spool of this?

 

[najel]

Just a quick tip, if anyone has an air compressor, that is what I use to dry my tubing. I run hot water through it right after use, then blow it out with the air compressor. This dries it instantly, no chance for mold or anything else to get settled in there. And I don't have to wait for it to dry, this way I can put all my equipment away right away.
For those of you who don't reuse tubing, did you have any issues when you were reusing it, or is it just convenience?

 

[meadmazer]

I assume that jet pictured above can apply the most force to clean out a tube. I sometimes leave my tubes in Starsan too long and it winds up with a film on it. I tend to use my racking cane to blast a small piece of lightly snug paper towel through it that cleans off the interior of the tubing. It's not 100%, but gets most of it, usually takes a couple of times.

If there is mold, chunk it. Not worth the risk.

I also do the paper towel thing. I just hold it to the faucet to push the paper towel through, then soak in idophor. Then store dry in a sanitized bucket with other stuff that has been rinsed and idophor soaked. Bubblers, bottling wands, stoppers, etc all go in the bucket. Anything used next time gets a fresh idophor soak.

Though I have a pretty big issue with waste I agree about mold, I would huck it, tubing is cheap.

 

[logan3825]

Since we are on the tubing topic, Anyone use the high temp vinyl stuff? I use this from Northern Brewer:http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/3-8-clear-hi-temp-tubing.html.

I like to replace it when it starts to look stained but it's not really that cheap. Anyone have a source for a spool of this?

Home Depot, Menards, Lowe's, and probably any other home improvement/hardware store.

 

[zeg]

One more vote for "when in doubt, throw it out."

For my siphon tube, which is probably 6 feet long, I run hot water, then sanitizer, then water again through it immediately after use, drain it as much as possible, and leave it. (I rinse after the no-rinse sanitizer because I've had stability problems with my sanitizer.) Siphoning doesn't get it very dirty, so there's no need for anything more than a little hot water.

For my blow-off tubes, there is often significant gunk that's been there for a week. It's short enough that I can soak it in PBW or OxyClean and it comes right off. If it looks at me funny after that, though, I throw it out and replace it.

 

[Pilgarlic]

One more vote for "when in doubt, throw it out."

For my siphon tube, which is probably 6 feet long, I run hot water, then sanitizer, then water again through it immediately after use, drain it as much as possible, and leave it. (I rinse after the no-rinse sanitizer because I've had stability problems with my sanitizer.) Siphoning doesn't get it very dirty, so there's no need for anything more than a little hot water.

For my blow-off tubes, there is often significant gunk that's been there for a week. It's short enough that I can soak it in PBW or OxyClean and it comes right off. If it looks at me funny after that, though, I throw it out and replace it.

There's a real fallacy here. Visibility of contamination? We're talking microbes here. Tossing it when you see it is a bit late, no?

 

[zeg]

There's a real fallacy here. Visibility of contamination? We're talking microbes here. Tossing it when you see it is a bit late, no?

I don't see the fallacy. Sure, I can't see an individual mold spore, but when I've had trouble it's been obvious---macroscopic colonies growing after a week or two. If that happens, then I'm not going to rely on sanitizer to clean it out, I'm going to drop the $0.50 on a new hose.

If you mean the "looks at me funny" bit, that's just a phrase. I mean if I have any reason to suspect it's not entirely clean or has a scratch that may harbor bacteria and be difficult to sanitize. In other words, when in doubt, I'm going to replace the hose. But most of the time, washing and sanitizing is going to do the job.

So, no, I'm not just taking a look to make sure there aren't any bacteria hiding out in there.

 

[Pilgarlic]

I don't see the fallacy. Sure, I can't see an individual mold spore, but when I've had trouble it's been obvious---macroscopic colonies growing after a week or two. If that happens, then I'm not going to rely on sanitizer to clean it out, I'm going to drop the $0.50 on a new hose.

If you mean the "looks at me funny" bit, that's just a phrase. I mean if I have any reason to suspect it's not entirely clean or has a scratch that may harbor bacteria and be difficult to sanitize. In other words, when in doubt, I'm going to replace the hose. But most of the time, washing and sanitizing is going to do the job.

So, no, I'm not just taking a look to make sure there aren't any bacteria hiding out in there.

First, I didn't mean to single you out. I hear this all the time from many people.

Of course you should ditch the tubing if you see any kind of growth on it. But any implication that the visibility of the microbial growth is a reasonable benchmark is misleading. If you're not suggesting that, good. But, you seem to be. You see, you say "when I've had troubles it's been obvious," the implication SEEMS to be that if you DON'T see it you're unlikely to have troubles. And that's a fallacy. Wrong and misleading.

If that's NOT what you intended to imply, I'm sorry. But your words SEEM TO suggest otherwise.

 

[zeg]

Well, I'm not saying that a visual inspection will tell you with certainty whether there's a latent infection.

What I'm getting at is that if you've taken care of your tubing and have either washed it promptly and thoroughly after use, or have soaked it thoroughly in a good cleaner, it's probably fine to reuse. Making the (hopefully both reasonable and obvious) assumption that one is going to sanitize the tube again immediately before use, I think this is reasonable.

If there's a reason to think this isn't the case because of a scratch or some trub that's caked on and won't come off, then a surface sanitization before use isn't sufficient. It may not penetrate a scratch, or the trub may dissolve during racking and expose an unsanitized surface.

So if there's a reason to suspect that is the case, then replace the tube. If not, it's not much riskier than using fresh tube I wouldn't fault anyone for replacing tube more often than that, but I don't think it's necessary.

 

[lschiavo]

Home Depot, Menards, Lowe's, and probably any other home improvement/hardware store.

Really? They have the hi-temp stuff? I'm not real close to any of those stores but I'll check next time I'm there.

 

[benzy4010]

So is oxy clean good to use on pretty much all brewing equipment? Never tried it

 

[Unibrow]

It's an amazing cleaner...just mix with hot water for best results. Make sure to rinse a couple times after use...best with glass and plastic