cleaning equipment

What does everyone use to clean there equipment in??? my sink isn't big enuf. is there something you can buy to put the equipment in to clean and sterilize in

Not quite sure what you are trying to clean or how big it is but I will try to give you an idea of what I do to clean. For a primary fermenter I have two buckets. One is a 2 gal bucket I got from Walmart's bakery section, the other is a 7.9 gal bucket purchased from LabelPeelers. Use Oxiclean in either bucket to wash equipment parts. Also use these buckets filled with Potassium Metabilsulfite solution to soak parts in. For separate hoses or dips tubes I use a 2" piece of pvc pipe capped at one end. This just happens to fit down the disposal throat in the kitchen sink. I fill it up with Potassium Metabilsulfite solution and suck up some solution into the tubes. After filling the tubes/hoses full of solution, I slip open end of the hose back into the pvc pipe. You will have to add extra solution once the tubes/hoses are filled. For 1 gallon or smaller containers I fill them up to the top with solution. For the 3 gallon carboys I fill then over half way, stopper them, then lay them on their sides. After 2 - 3 minutes, I rotate 180°. I usually use a 2 - 3 minute soak time in the solution.

What I do is clean my equipment after each use and the clean/sanitize before each use. I do not like using soaps as this will leave a residue on the equipment. I will use PBW solution to clean, Rinse 3 times with hot water, and then rinse with strong k-meta solution to sanitize.

longhaul said:

What does everyone use to clean there equipment in??? my sink isn't big enuf. is there something you can buy to put the equipment in to clean and sterilize in

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Next to my AllinOne, the best piece of wine making equipment I have is a nice, deep, stainless steel sink with a long gooseneck pull down faucet that I put in my garage. Now I don't have to go up and down stairs anymore, fill up the kitchen sink or worry about having space to clean up the carboys or soak my bottles to get the labels off.

An alternative is a deep laundry tub sink, but I'm just concerned about how much nasty stuff is hiding in the scratches of those things. But no doubt that a dedicated, nearby, deep sink and high faucet is a wonderful convenience.

I use the shower in our basement that is never used for anything else. I bought one of the hose attachments for the shower head so that I can blast gunk out of the carboys and spray the outsides, then I use a drill-mounted carboy cleaner. I also use buckets to soak all my equipment with strong kmeta. When I scrub labels off (which I HATE DOING) I wait until I have at least 5-6 cases and I soak them in a giant tupperware tub (usually with bleach because people never fail to give me disgusting bottles). They soak overnight in bleach, labels scraped, then get rinsed, then oxiclean, then kmeta. I empty the tub with a bucket and turn the bottles upside down in the tub for whichever ones don't fit on the bottle tree. I also have a few spray bottles of Kmeta. I need more fastracks...

I use the large concrete slop sink in my basement. We have a hose with nozzle attached to the faucet to make cleaning our big stainless 15 gallon fermenters a breeze. We also use a faucet jet bottle cleaner to help clean carboys and rinsing is way nicer with that jet thing.