cuse88
Well-Known Member
I just noticed a little corrosion inside my Therminator. Has the green oxidized coating on in the wort side. Is there any solution to remove the corrosion or am I SOL?
I just noticed a little corrosion inside my Therminator. Has the green oxidized coating on in the wort side. Is there any solution to remove the corrosion or am I SOL?
There's definitely copper in there.
"Brazed together with pure copper in an oxygen-free furnace, with no potential leaks like a gasketed unit!"
Email Blichmann. They have legendary customer service. I bet they'll tell you what's going on and what to do.
You may be able to use alcohol to fix it. Soak with everclear for 4 hours then rinse the chiller well with hot water. This is based on the reading I've done on copper acitate being alcohol soluble.
Was the PBW hot? It seems to work better warm.
Starsan is good a removing corrosion... You can make it strong... Double or triple strength just make sure to flush with water so that it doses not stay in contact for a long time.
If this does end up being your course of action,Thinking a new chiller is in my future.
The water side doesn't matter. As long as the wort side is good - you will be fine.
This is what I am trying to figure out. I wasn't sure with the corrosion, if there was any kind of test to do to verify it has been resolved. I can see in the wort inlets and it doesn't look to bad.
It seems odd to me that your water ports would be the ones to have corrosion? I would have suspected the wort side to be more susceptible.
Blichmann got back to me. All they said to do was flush with PBW then soak in Star-San. This doesn't seem to be enough to me at all.
Duda here, and we agree with Blichmann. The main point I think everyone is missing out on is what to do after the starsans soak. Starsans is acidic, and so long as there isn't any oxygen in your solution, soaking is okay - but as soon as you take that chiller out of its chemical bath and drain it, you now expose it to air.
Flushing star sans out of the unit is the most important part. Don't want to leave anything in there to sit if it can be avoided.
In the event it's not completely flushed, does the PBW soak and then star San seem sufficient to reverse any possible corrosion effects early on? I am trying to reverse the effects of possible.
First, lets ignore PBW. PBW is a great cleaner for dealing with organics (such as chunks of hops), but doesn't really react with metal or corrosion, so we can ignore it as a non-factor in this conversation.
Next, how old is your unit?
I ask because 9 times out of 10 when someone has a verdigris issue its not from the stainless or the copper of the unit itself, but from tiny specks of copper which flaked off in the manufacturing of the unit which now just sit inside the unit.
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