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Farcled Immersion Chiller

cdeme123

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Joined
Jan 8, 2011
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Location
NW Burbs of Chicago
Hello,

Well I've done it now.  I wanted to clean up my copper immersion chiller so I cleaned it and thought I would soak it in some sanitizer for just a few minutes.  I got distracted and forgot it there for about two weeks.  If you know anything about chemistry or simply can think you can probably imagine what I found when I realized where I had left my immersion chiller and went to retrieve it.  The sanitizer water was blue and so was my chiller.  It smelled pretty bad too.

I won't want this thing touching any of my beer until I know it won't foul it up.  I have been getting some decent results with a rag and some white vinegar but progress is slow.

Has anyone encountered a situation like this and salvaged the equipment successfully?  If so, how did you do it.  I really don't want to buy another chiller unless I'm convinced that this one is truly a gonner.

Any advice other than "don't leave your copper equipment soaking in anything" is welcome.  I already figured that first bit.

Thank you and happy brewing.

Chris

:-\
 
This is probably far too late, but I use Bar Keeper's Friend and a 3M scrubby pad on my immersion cooler before and after brewing.  Rinse thoroughly.

You might also try soaking it in hot OxyClean for an hour (not a week!) or two.

Hope that helps.
 
The blue is possibly copper sulfate?  I can't remember the name but we used to use it for some pyrotechnics.

Anyway if it is it's quite poisonous.  I would probably try boiling it in some vinegar, that should eat off some of the surface and get you back to copper.  I wouldn't use it in beer until the blue is gone.
 
I used immersions for a long time and never was impressed by the farcling and/or the cooling efficiency.  Strong vinegar solution will clean it but mine didnt take long to revert to black & bluish.  I think I ended up getting more for the copper at the scrap yard than I paid for it some time ago.  I went to a CFC and cant imagine anything cooling faster now.
 
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