green substance around ss heating element

[rackashack]

I finished an hr test run of my new RIMS with tap water and after disassembling I found a green substance around the base of the heating element.
First question: does anyone know what it is? and the second question: should I be concerned with it potentially being in my beers?

This is the new heating element I got:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...a2756.order-detail-ta-bn-b.0.0.449d2fc2cocCbW

Thanks for the help!

 

[Dland]

Looks like something left over from manufacturing process. I would not want it in my beer.

Suggest clean & flush it well, probably solve the problem. But if substance continues to ooze out, the seal between the liquid and electrical might become suspect. It's not hard on most of these to take back off where wires come in to check if you suspect it might be leaking, but it should short out pretty soon if it is.

 

[bucketnative]

Before I looked at the photos, my first thought was corrosion. But, that does not look like corrosion. It almost looks like toothpaste in terms of consistency? Is it pasty, crusty, sticky, or any other descriptor? I would tend to lean towards some sort of residue as described by @Dland above.

 

[kevin58]

Did you clean and passivate your equipment first?

 

[rackashack]

Looks like something left over from manufacturing process. I would not want it in my beer.

Suggest clean & flush it well, probably solve the problem. But if substance continues to ooze out, the seal between the liquid and electrical might become suspect. It's not hard on most of these to take back off where wires come in to check if you suspect it might be leaking, but it should short out pretty soon if it is.

I really appreciate everyone's responses. I cleaned everything with dish detergent and hot water and tested it out again and the green substance did not return. It looked like toothpaste, but it was almost like foam, it wasn't sticky or have the consistency of a paste.
I didn't clean any of the new RIMS parts prior to the first use since I was just using water for the test, so maybe it was some manufacturing residue that was collecting at the base of the element. The other thought was that it was something in the tap water that was reacting with the heat. The water here is pretty hard and it has high levels of chloramine. In a very unscientific manner I changed another variable for the 2nd run and used half RO and half tap water. I feel more comfortable using it for the planned batch this weekend tho, but I'm still curious what caused it to show up in the first place.

 

[sicktght311]

it was most likely just goo leftover from the manufacturing process or inside where the element meets the triclamp housing. Deep clean, maybe a hot soak in PBW and a good rinse, and you're good to go so long as it doesnt come back