Cleaning stainless steel

[Steveruch]

What's the best way?

 

[day_trippr]

Bar Keepers Friend

 

[Steveruch]

Bar Keepers Friend

If I don't have any?

 

[Deadalus]

Get some. Walmart will bring it out to your car.

Soaking in PBW works well, start out hot and adjust the amount of PBW higher if needed.

 

[Deadalus]

What are you wanting to clean specifically? I would be cautious with BKF on highly polished SS, but in general the acid in there works really well.

 

[Bobby_M]

Bar Keeper's Friend is especially effective because it has a mild abrasive combined with acidity. With a lot less elbow grease, a very hot PBW soak, rinse, then soak with 4% hot citric acid solution for an hour. Woah, better than brand new. Citric acid will liquify mineral deposits out of the metal surface, including iron.

 

[mac_1103]

a very hot PBW soak, rinse, then soak with 4% hot citric acid solution

How hot is very hot PBW? Heat the water on the stove hot, or is water heater hot good enough? Same question for the hot citric acid.

 

[Broken Crow]

Before I got my first can of BKF, I used slightly dampened powdered (scent-free) laundry soap and a white or blue scotch-brite with a lot of elbow gease and a lot of rinsing. The green one is far more abrasive and not really recommended and never use the dark brown/red ones..

 

[Steveruch]

Get some. Walmart will bring it out to your car.

Soaking in PBW works well, start out hot and adjust the amount of PBW higher if needed.

Oxiclean?

 

[Steveruch]

What are you wanting to clean specifically? I would be cautious with BKF on highly polished SS, but in general the acid in there works really well.

My brewpot.

 

[Deadalus]

Oxiclean?

I use homemade, and it has added TSP to the all free and clear oxi. I get the recipe mixed up at times as far as the alternatives to TSP so I use the TSP in mine lately. Some do just use oxiclean (unscented). I use BKF on pots all the time, but the outside of my keggles are polished so I don't use it there. Inside I do a 20-30 minute hot PBW (homemade). On my BK it's 30 minutes pumped through the system, MT just a soak. I also use a green scrubby on the inside, or the blue ones which are somewhat softer. BKF will take that brown stain off that may develop on SS, and I've also removed scorches with BKF. But a long hot soak with PBW works well too. The actual PBW container has recommendations for the amount to use for heavily soiled equipment.

 

[Deadalus]

How hot is very hot PBW? Heat the water on the stove hot, or is water heater hot good enough? Same question for the hot citric acid.

This is for PBW-Water heater hot is ok. I aim for 150F on my BK for clean in place that gets pumped through my CFC and HERMS coil. Sometimes I overshoot that and get up to 165-170. Too hot and you may start to melt stuff that perhaps you wouldn't have let get that hot otherwise, like plastic fittings.

I haven't tried citric acid yet.

 

[Broken Crow]

This is for PBW-Water heater hot is ok. I aim for 150F on my BK for clean in place that gets pumped through my CFC and HERMS coil. Sometimes I overshoot that and get up to 165-170. Too hot and you may start to melt stuff that perhaps you wouldn't have let get that hot otherwise, like plastic fittings.

I haven't tried citric acid yet.

Since most plastics start to crap out in the 130°-150° range (including my CIP pump rated for max 154°), when I clean the extended setup or kegs I tend to keep it at 130° and just give an extra 5-10 mins...still works great at that temp.

 

[Bobby_M]

150F is fine, or whatever the least tolerant object in the flow path demands.

 

[Nagorg]

How hot is very hot PBW?

From Five Star Chemicals:

 

[hotbeer]

If it's just a brew kettle and just open and bare inside like a stock pot, I'd have no reservation about using a Brillo or SOS pad. Rinse well and you'll be fine. Not concerned about scratches either. You'll be boiling the wort.

I don't have a SS fermenter, though I'd still use it there too. At least once just to see if I have issues. Brillo and SOS just make cleaning burnt on and scorched stuff a breeze.

I've been using it for decades since I realized 3m did a number on us with their ad men telling us Scotch Brite was better and telling us all the horrors of steel wool that while somewhat true, seldom apply.

 

[sibelman]

To rehab polished surfaces, oxalic acid (BKF without the abrasive) would be ideal. Citric works too.

The inside of my kettle needs nothing but Oxiclean for regular cleaning. Acid clean once in a long while.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Bar Keepers Friend

If I don't have any?

Bar Keeper's Acquaintance?

 

[oakbarn]

There is always a concern about scatches and stuff, but as above, a BK is on the Hot Side. You have to be extra careful on any vessels, piping or fitting after a chiller where the temp is less than about 180 or so ( extra careful as the "true area" is lower), but the Hot side is not critical. We only use the blue or white pads because we might accidently use somehwhere we should not use a green, but be careful with fermenters, not the brew kettle or HLT, it just don'tmatter! Also PBW temp vs time. We use about 140 and rinse with the same. If you leave PBW in fermenter and it gets cold, it will leave a white scale. You can use Starsan and it gets rid of that!