bleach cleans plastic or glass
Removing wine stains from carboy
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I like to stay away from bleach. Just when you think you rinsed sufficiently, you find out you didn’t.
PBW, B-Brite, One-Step Cleaner are all basically OxyClean (sodium percarbonate) plus some additional cleaning agents. When you add sodium percarbonate to water, it breaks down into hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate (aka "soda ash", "washing soda"). The hydrogen peroxide quickly breaks down in water into more water, and oxygen. The oxygen bubbles work well to get into tiny places and clear out contaminants, and the bleaching action of the peroxide also helps remove discoloration. Once activated, the solution is viable for a few hours.
PBW: sodium percarbonate, Sodium Metasilicate (aka "water glass"), sodium bicarbonate (aka "baking soda")
B-Brite: sodium percarbonate, sodium carbonate
1Step Cleaner: just sodium percarbonate?
OxyClean: sodium percarbonate, sodium carbonate (in addition to what the sodium percarbonate breaks down into, apparently), surfacants, "polymer"
Sodium Metasilicate is very alkaline, and slightly corrosive. But it softens water and makes a great cleaning additive.
You can also buy soda ash by itself as a cleaning agent. It's often used to clean barrels.
So if OxyClean works for you, great... that's certainly the cheapest route. But if not, worth trying others. PBW has the most things in it so if you use that, the rest are redundant. OxyClean might have things in it you don't want, so it'd be worth doing extra rinses. The others don't, hence their reputation for being "no-rinse cleansers".
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I agree with @VinesnBines , I’ll go further and say IMO it is the gold standard of cleaners. I come to winemaking from being a long time home brewer. I’d made and used the poor man’s PBW and it works well (also works well in a dishwasher btw).
I was at the national homebrew conference one year and five star was giving samples of PBW away. I got a couple and decided to reclean one of my better bottles (a PET fermenter) that looked clean to the eye. I couldn’t believe how much the solution discolored due to residue that the poor man’s PBW didn’t remove and was not visible to the eye.
I immediately bought a 4 Lb container, then an 8 Lb container when that got low. Ended up buying a 5 gal bucket of it when it went on sale. I’m a true believer in PBWs superior cleaning ability. There may be others that are just as good, but IDK
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Interesting that you say the solution is only viable for a few hours. I am soaking a carboy on its side. 24 hours per quarter turn.
I'm talking about the hydrogen peroxide... in other words, the "oxygen cleaning/bleaching" part of the chemical reaction. Eventually all that hydrogen peroxide gets used up. A lot of factors affect this: temperature (many people clean with warm/hot water solutions), pH and dissolved metals in the water. It's not like at "a few hours" it suddenly drops to zero, but I think the factors that expedite breakdown apply to most users, so shooting from the hip I don't really deem a solution very good after a few hours. This has also been my experience using OxyClean to "bleach" things outside of any wine-related use.
But depending on which cleanser you're using, there are other cleaning agents left in the water... you've sorta just got "soapy water" at that point (not real "soap" but you get the idea).
Flufnagel
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I discovered a jug of blackberry wine that I made in 2004, 18 years ago. After carefully siphoning the wine to bottles, the entire inside of the jug was stained dark purple.
I put some PBW and hot water in the jug, filled it to the lip, and capped it. After a full day of soaking, I dumped out the lot, and there was no trace of what had been in there. PBW works wonders!
I put some PBW and hot water in the jug, filled it to the lip, and capped it. After a full day of soaking, I dumped out the lot, and there was no trace of what had been in there. PBW works wonders!
my theory is that they just put oxiclean in different containers and label it PBW. they seem identical to me. I once ran a direct comparison and found zero difference. I’m all PBW tho. Could never find the unscented Oxy at the store
FUN FACT: “OneStep” and “EasyClean“ actually are the same product in different containers. My old LHBS owner told me a story about LD Carlson and the OneStep manufacturer got into some giant pissing contest. I forget the specifics, but one told the other to F off prompting LD to make their own cleaner instead. EasyClean is quite literally the same exact stuff as OneStep. Just 10% cheaper and a less flashy label.
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I was going to suggest PBW but someone beat me too it. I get the powder as it’s cheaper than the liquid. Never tried it on a carboy before but use it on my beer lines in my kegerator.
I’ve gotten in trouble for mentioning bleach before but you won’t find anything cheaper and it works well. But like they say rinse it well and then some.
I’ve gotten in trouble for mentioning bleach before but you won’t find anything cheaper and it works well. But like they say rinse it well and then some.
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