How often and how to clean racking cane and bottler?

[bkorver]

I was curious what the consensus was on how often and how to clean your racking cane and bottler. I sanitize every time I use them, but I noticed a buildup inside them. I just tried soaking them in a solution of oxiclean and it seemed to work. My question is about how many batches can you go without doing this, or do you do it after every batch?

 

[b-boy]

I clean mine every time I use them. Be careful with the Oxy. If you soak them for long periods of time the Oxy will cause the plastic to deteriorate. You will get small cracks. I only soak for an hour or so.

 

[Yooper]

Clean it well immediately after using, and then just a quick rinse is good when you go to use it. Rinse, and then sanitize, and it's all set on bottling day.

Remember that you can not sanitize something that is dirty! Cleaning is step one, sanitizing is step two. Always.

 

[diS]

Right, clean it after every use, sanitizing solution wont be able to break trough dirt to eliminate microbes.

 

[aceparadis]

If it hasn't been cleaned and sanatized it doesn't touch my product. I'm not spending money to make infected beers, thats just bad brewing practises. Clean & Sanatize every time.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

To be honest, I've never acually "cleaned" my racking cane. I rinse it well with hot water immediately after use and sanitize before use and that's it.

 

[Wynne-R]

Prevention is the key. Put it away clean and store it is such a way that it can dry. I can’t imagine not using a brush, but lots of people just soak.

Congratulations on spelling Oxiclean correctly. There aren’t very many of us.

 

[brettwasbtd]

Interesting....all of you that clean after and then just rinse/sanitize before the next use. I have always cleaned, rinsed, sanitized right before using and then will rinse immediately after. Sometimes after rinsing I will also pump the sanitizer I have sitting out through the auto-siphon and tubing. Then hang it out to dry.

 

[Spartan1979]

To be honest, I've never acually "cleaned" my racking cane. I rinse it well with hot water immediately after use and sanitize before use and that's it.

Same here.

 

[45_70sharps]

I clean everything every time.
I start off by putting everything in an oxyclean solution, follow up with some cleaning.
Everything gets cleaned and sanitized again just before use.
I don't want any problems that could be avoided so easy.