Bought a new bottle of StarSan and mixed up 5 gallons of it, after I added a couple bottles it was cloudy as hell! I don’t know what this means but I have heard that one of the signs that StarSan is bad is that it turns cloudy. BUT NOY AFTER A COUPLE BOTTLES!!??
A solution of Star San becoming cloudy does not mean it is not effective as a sanitizer. A cloudy solution is usually a reaction with minerals in the water. Star San solutions are effective as a sanitizer as long as the pH does not go above 3.0 even if it becomes cloudy. However dirty is different than cloudy…
Were you cleaning bottles with a Star San solution? Were these bottles with labels? Label glue will even turn a cleaning solution of PBW cloudy.
My Star San is always super cloudy as soon as I mix it. I wouldn’t worry.
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No I soak in pbw with a rinse then in to the StarSan, your explanation makes sense. I had just added salt to the softener, she was empty.
Ps. Don’t keep your brine tank “topped off” with pellets. Use blocks better yet. Trust me I’m a plumber!
I’m on a well and the water always turns cloudy with StarSan. Brew on Sir!
Top it off all you want with blocks, but with pellets I put a couple bags in and let it run down. Fill it up all the way with pellets constantly and your out a softener and $$$
Yup
Cool. Thanks for the tip. But I gotta ask, why?
There is a couple of problems with pellets and over filling a softener. First thing will happen is you will get bridging with the salt. So at some point you will have salt in the Brian tank but the water lever will not reach it. Also what ever they use to make the salt stick together in a pellet will not get used by lthe softener and will settle to the bottom. It will take a few years but eventually you will have lots of crap on the bottom that will not dissolve. Other then that there is no reason why it would kill a softener. I don’t know anything about rock salt I use crystals just stay away from the pellets. The water will only hold so much salt it really makes no difference how full you fill it. That is why you control your salt use age by the amount of water that goes back into your brine tank after it is done regenerating.
Sorry, as a Eco-Water trained service Tech, I disagree with you. You should never use salt blocks in a softener, they are not designed for block salt.
The problem with pellets is that the average home owner fills the tank FULL (as a way to limit how often they have to add salt). If you fill it full and have any humidity in the air the salt will remove it and MAY bridge. As a service tech, this is one of the most common problems I see (that and over water use).
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