Holy Cow! Mixed Star San and Five-Star Line Cleaner!

[waldzinator]

Woah. Cautionary tale. I was getting ready to bottle my brown ale. I had a bottling bucket full of star san, and noticed it was getting a bit murky. So, I decided to dump it and pour fresh. My star san dispensing container was getting empty, so I took one of those mini refill bottles of what I thought was star san and dumped it in the dispensing bottle. In my LHBS haste, I must have grabbed the five-star line cleaner. The color looked off, and then I started to notice the plastic container warming in my had. Holy exothermic reaction!!!! It started gelatinizing and warming the plastic really hot. Not sure what the chemical reaction was (chem is a long time ago), but boy that was scary. Guess I'll bottle tomorrow.

 

[mattd2]

Woah. Cautionary tale. I was getting ready to bottle my brown ale. I had a bottling bucket full of star san, and noticed it was getting a bit murky. So, I decided to dump it and pour fresh. My star san dispensing container was getting empty, so I took one of those mini refill bottles of what I thought was star san and dumped it in the dispensing bottle. In my LHBS haste, I must have grabbed the five-star line cleaner. The color looked off, and then I started to notice the plastic container warming in my had. Holy exothermic reaction!!!! It started gelatinizing and warming the plastic really hot. Not sure what the chemical reaction was (chem is a long time ago), but boy that was scary. Guess I'll bottle tomorrow.

Wow, if it was the liquid line cleaner #1 (LCC#1) then yep - Caustic soda plus acid = not a nice surprise! Glad you notice something was up before anything really terrible happened

 

[waldzinator]

Wow, if it was the liquid line cleaner #1 (LCC#1) then yep - Caustic soda plus acid = not a nice surprise! Glad you notice something was up before anything really terrible happened

Yeah. I let it vent then sealed up the container. I guess my question is, what now? Just leave it sealed up and dispose of it? I'm trying to be environmentally mindful. Also, see you're in NZ, so not sure if you can answer the second part of my question (I'm in PA, USA).

 

[waldzinator]

So, I had to jog my chem brain. Active star san ingredient is Phosphoric Acid. Active LCC#1 ingredient is Sodium Hydroxide. This is just yielding water and salts, right? Acid-base titration...right?

 

[mattd2]

So, I had to jog my chem brain. Active star san ingredient is Phosphoric Acid. Active LCC#1 ingredient is Sodium Hydroxide. This is just yielding water and salts, right? Acid-base titration...right?

From google it apparently is a solution of trisodium phosphate, which some on here add to oxiclean to make a budget version of PBW. I guess in this case it would be the cheapest way to do it
Hey did you edit you post because I swear it said potasium phosphate to begin with

 

[waldzinator]

From google it apparently is a solution of trisodium phosphate, which some on here add to oxiclean to make a budget version of PBW. I guess in this case it would be the cheapest way to do it
Hey did you edit you post because I swear it said potasium phosphate to begin with

I did edit it, haha. I meant to type SODIUM phosphate and typed potassium, mostly because my kid is nagging me while I'm thinking. Either way, salts lol....just the wrong ones originally.

 

[mattd2]

I did edit it, haha. I meant to type SODIUM phosphate and typed potassium, mostly because my kid is nagging me while I'm thinking. Either way, salts lol....just the wrong ones originally.

Hahaha I know what you are going through I don't have a great background in chemistry so I was pretty confused where you were getting the potassium from

 

[waldzinator]

Hahaha I know what you are going through I don't have a great background in chemistry so I was pretty confused where you were getting the potassium from

Well, fortunately the reaction cooled down and stabilized. The end product was gel and water, more or less. Honestly though, the star san and line cleaner bottles look damn-near the same. I've really gotta be careful.

Thanks!

 

[mattd2]

Well, fortunately the reaction cooled down and stabilized. The end product was gel and water, more or less. Honestly though, the star san and line cleaner bottles look damn-near the same. I've really gotta be careful.

Thanks!

So is you LHBS getting larger packaging of the 5-Star products and re-packaging them into smaller bottles? to save cost?
If so I would suggest letting them know that better labeling might be needed.

 

[waldzinator]

So is you LHBS getting larger packaging of the 5-Star products and re-packaging them into smaller bottles? to save cost?
If so I would suggest letting them know that better labeling might be needed.

I don't think so. I think the labelling and bottle size are both from Five-Star. I buy the 8oz star san squeeze bottle normally, but I've also purchased the smaller 4oz non-squeeze bottle to refill my squeeze. I'm assuming it's standard packaging. The LCC labelling is damn close. The print on the Star San bottle is a little lighter purple than the LCC. In a rush, you hardly notice the difference....until it's heating up in your hand upon mixture.