Flex tanks

Hokapsig · Apr 19, 2015

Question about Polyethylene flex tanks - I have Cab Sauv in 2 of the tanks and there is staining from the juice on the tanks. I pressure washed and k meta'd the tanks. Is there anything else I can do to sanitize the tanks and will the staining cause any contamination issues?

grapeman · Apr 19, 2015

I find that an oxyclean type cleaner works alright to get most of the staining out.

geek · Apr 19, 2015

Hokapsig said:
Question about Polyethylene flex tanks - I have Cab Sauv in 2 of the tanks and there is staining from the juice on the tanks. I pressure washed and k meta'd the tanks. Is there anything else I can do to sanitize the tanks and will the staining cause any contamination issues?

how is the Flextank working for you?
They now have the 15gal unit for wine making. I was waiting until this smaller vessel was available but then last month decided to instead get a 23L Hungarian oak barrel.

stickman · Apr 19, 2015

The Flex tank manual recommends the use of a weak sodium hydroxide solution as a tank wash, but I agree with Grapeman and generally use a base type cleaner like Oxyclean. After rinsing out the Oxyclean, I would follow with an acidic wash solution like citric acid etc. to ensure all traces of base are neutralized. So far this has worked well in my cellar.

Rocco · Jun 22, 2015

stickman said:
The Flex tank manual recommends the use of a weak sodium hydroxide solution as a tank wash, but I agree with Grapeman and generally use a base type cleaner like Oxyclean. After rinsing out the Oxyclean, I would follow with an acidic wash solution like citric acid etc. to ensure all traces of base are neutralized. So far this has worked well in my cellar.

Sodium Hydroxide is poison!!!!!! Use it to clean tanks??????!!!!……can I just use easy clean???

GreginND · Jun 22, 2015

Sodium hydroxide is not that bad. Sure it's caustic and concentrated solutions will burn your skin. But a weak solution is not poison in the strict sense of the word. It is completely soluble in water so it washes away.

Have you ever heard of lutefisk? It's dried fish preserved with lye (sodium hydroxide).

sour_grapes · Jun 22, 2015

Rocco said:
Sodium Hydroxide is poison!!!!!! Use it to clean tanks??????!!!!……can I just use easy clean???

"Alle Dinge sind Gift und nichts ist ohne Gift, allein die Dosis macht es, dass ein Ding kein Gift ist."* -- Paracelsus

* "All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison." This is often condensed to: The dose makes the poison.

NorCal · Jun 23, 2015

30g flex here. I clean with pbw, seems to do the job.

Flex tanks

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