Cleaning silicone tri-clamp gaskets

[slidingmike]

After my first fermentation in my unitank, a few of the white silicone gaskets (particularly in the dump valve area and the racking area) were stained pretty green. After scrubbing with PBW (and sanitizing with Star San), they are still greenish and even still giving off a hop odor. Is there a trick to doing a better job at cleaning these?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Vale71]

Is there a trick to doing a better job at cleaning these?

Thanks,
Mike

Yes, it's called throwing them in the trash and getting EPDM gaskets to replace them . Silicone is really the worst material possible because of its porosity which means it will stain awful easily, especially in the wet part of the fermenter. It will also let in tons of oxygen on top of that. EPDM gaskets have luckily started to become available from homebrew shops.

 

[slidingmike]

Thanks! Is there also a preferred tubing for beer and/or gas lines for the same reasons?

 

[Vale71]

Thanks! Is there also a preferred tubing for beer and/or gas lines for the same reasons?

Yes, it's called "EVA Barrier" tubing. You can find several threads on HBT discussing their merits.

 

[Advance]

EPDM is definitely the way to go. The silicone TC gaskets that came with my unitank where immediately discarded. Its a shame SSBT even ships the unitank with them. One thing I definitely recommend is to get 1" and 1.5" gaskets based on the port size. Many of the TC connections on SSBT unitank are 1" such as the sampling, carbstone, and racking arm port. Using the proper sized gasket on these ports will leave you will less space for crud to collect between the TC connections. I also highly recommend getting flanged gaskets for any port where the gasket can not be held in place with gravity. These gaskets hold themselves in place while you assemble the TC fittings. They make installing the carbstone and sampling valve much easier given the low clearances in this area (14 gal version). You also might want to get a 1" PTFE gasket for your racking arm port. This gaskets allows for much easier rotation of the racking arm.

 

[slidingmike]

Awesome, thank you. For the 1” gaskets, I can see how the ports themselves are smaller, but so the 1” gaskets really line up with the 1.5” tri-clamp flanges?

 

[Vale71]

1.5 - 1.25 - 1.0 - 0.75 inch ports all have the same 2.0" wide flange. The different sized gaskets differ only in the inner diameter.

 

[slidingmike]

Good to know, thank you!

 

[CodeSection]

@slidingmike, I bought my EPDM gaskets and my gasket for the racking arm from the following....

https://www.glaciertanks.com/tri-clamp-epdm-gaskets.html
https://www.morebeer.com/products/triclamp-gasket-teflon-15.html