How Long To Use Equipment Before Getting New?

Northern Brewer General
1

I have been brewing for over a year now, and I still use all of my original equipment which I received with my deluxe starter kit from NB. How long do people use there equipment before getting new, replacement parts?

I have gotten new tubing for bottling and siphoning but still use most of the original equipment.

Specifically, I want to know how long people use the same auto-siphon and blow-off hose? Although I always sanitize my auto-siphon and blow-off hose, they both have areas where they are dirty with some brownish scum. Is this still good to use or should I change out my equipment for replacement parts?

Cheers!

2

I think most people recommend replacing tubing every couple of years, but that depends how often you brew and what chemicals you use to sanitize with. I’ve been using the same tubing for several years, no ill effect. If my forum stalking is accurate, I think Denny has been using the same equipment for much more than a few years :smiley:

3

Alright, thank you for the reply! I just wanted to see if I should be replacing some of my equipment other than my tubing.

Cheers!

4

[quote=“Shenanigans”]

Specifically, I want to know how long people use the same auto-siphon and blow-off hose? Although I always sanitize my auto-siphon and blow-off hose, they both have areas where they are dirty with some brownish scum. Is this still good to use or should I change out my equipment for replacement parts?

Cheers![/quote]
I would be a little worried about the “brownish scum” in your auto-siphon. How do you clean up after useing it? Me, after useing my A.S. I rinse and clean and rinse again and then keep it in a wallpaper tray, full of starsan until the next use, it only takes a minute or so. My A-S is crystal clear after many,many batches.

By blow off hose do you mean the hose that is with the A-S or a blow off hose that goes to your primary? I do change my hoses from time to time. Cheap insurance of the unknown.

5

+1 to a good rinsing of the syphon after every use. I also use it empty my carboys after they’ve been soaking in oxyclean. I figure running some oxy through it could help get anything out that doesn’t get rinsed out.

Speaking of oxyclean, soak whatever you have that has a brown scum on it in some hot unscented oxyclean. Leave it in there for a day or two and see what it gets ya.

I’ve been using the same auto syphon and blow off hose for almost three years now. I just soak in oxy to clean, then star san to sanitize. Star san will cloud your plastics, but that doesn’t hurt them at all, just cosmetic. I’ve used my syphon and blow off tube with sours, cleaned like this, used them for non sours, and haven’t had any contamination.

6

It was explained best to me this way…tubing is fairly cheap. Why risk a batch of beer on $3 worth of tubing! If it’s starting to look nasty, I’ll swap it out, even though I’ve used old tubing and haven’t had problems.

7

First off there is never a need to leave a piece of equipment in a tray of sanitizer until the next use, and it can even be damaging to the equipment especially plastics and stainless. More isn’t better so in the case of sanitizers follow the directions for contact time and that’s it. More time doesn’t sanitize more and if the device is clean it can be sanitized in 30 seconds before the next use with fresh sanitizer. Store your equipment clean and dry. Done.

Cleaning properly after use is the most important thing, and using a cleaner that is made for what you are doing is critical. “Brown scum” can be a variety of things but Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW) will remove most with just a brief soak, and if that doesn’t get it, start with an acid cleaner like Acid Line Cleaner (ALC) or even a strong mix of Star San first, and then follow with a soak in Oxy or PBW. That combination in that order does wonders.

If you have over-soaked your plastics in some cleaners or sanitizers they can become damaged and that allows places for dirt to be trapped, stain the material more easily, and in some cases be unusable. Most of the time our softer plastic become stained a bit, but that’s no big deal. When there are visible residues that can’t be removed with the above process, time to toss and replace. Hard plastics like the Auto Siphon should last almost forever unless they were also damaged by some improper cleaning or something.

I replace my soft plastics every few years and that includes everything from beer and air lines to racking and blowoff tubes. If they don’t come clean they are gone, but that takes a very long time, and it is only when they can’t be cleaned, not on a schedule. If it gets cleaned properly after use and put away dry it will last a very long time. Never had issues with sanitation.

8

I say replace the scummy tubing…and, if you’re not already, use PBW to clean your gear after every brew, fermentation, and bottling. I didn’t use it for anything for the first couple of months, and then my auto siphon tube got scummy. Now, I use it to clean everything and don’t see scum any more.

9

Thank you everyone for the great advice!

I will try soaking the tip of my auto-siphon in some PBW (the brown scum is more of a mild discoloration at the very tip of the clear part of my auto-siphon).

Also I am referring to the blow-off hose which I use for my primary when fermentations go a little crazy. I will soak this in PBW to see if that helps clean it up.

I always sanitize my equipment after each use but I only use PBW on my fermenters so I will start using it for some of my other equipment.

Cheers!

10

I tie part of muslin bag to a string with a paper clip on the other end and pull it through my tubing. It cleans the scum off when I forget to rinse it out after using it.
Not sure if you can disassemble the autosiphon but since I found a wad of hair attached to the tip of mine I have been really good about cleaning the new one.

11

I dig it.

12

[quote=“mvsawyer”]I tie part of muslin bag to a string with a paper clip on the other end and pull it through my tubing. It cleans the scum off when I forget to rinse it out after using it.[/quote]They make some nifty, long tubing brushes (4’ maybe longer) that also work on diptubes.

13

[quote=“Dean Palmer”]First off there is never a need to leave a piece of equipment in a tray of sanitizer until the next use, and it can even be damaging to the equipment especially plastics and stainless. More isn’t better so in the case of sanitizers follow the directions for contact time and that’s it. More time doesn’t sanitize more and if the device is clean it can be sanitized in 30 seconds before the next use with fresh sanitizer. Store your equipment clean and dry. Done.

Cleaning properly after use is the most important thing, and using a cleaner that is made for what you are doing is critical. “Brown scum” can be a variety of things but Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW) will remove most with just a brief soak, and if that doesn’t get it, start with an acid cleaner like Acid Line Cleaner (ALC) or even a strong mix of Star San first, and then follow with a soak in Oxy or PBW. That combination in that order does wonders.

If you have over-soaked your plastics in some cleaners or sanitizers they can become damaged and that allows places for dirt to be trapped, stain the material more easily, and in some cases be unusable. Most of the time our softer plastic become stained a bit, but that’s no big deal. When there are visible residues that can’t be removed with the above process, time to toss and replace. Hard plastics like the Auto Siphon should last almost forever unless they were also damaged by some improper cleaning or something.

I replace my soft plastics every few years and that includes everything from beer and air lines to racking and blowoff tubes. If they don’t come clean they are gone, but that takes a very long time, and it is only when they can’t be cleaned, not on a schedule. If it gets cleaned properly after use and put away dry it will last a very long time. Never had issues with sanitation.[/quote]
I always leave my auto-siphon and tubing in properly diluted starsan and have no issues.
With that said, I have no damage from doing this. Also i dont use the cleaners that you say, I rinse very well and back into the star san. I have no issues at all, just good beer.

In fact, many times not but always, i’ll just clean my primary with hot water and a cloth, no problemo and no infections. I think the use of heavy cleaners is more of a problem than soaking in a starsan solution. It works for me.

14

[quote=“wallybeer”][quote=“Dean Palmer”]First off there is never a need to leave a piece of equipment in a tray of sanitizer until the next use, and it can even be damaging to the equipment especially plastics and stainless. More isn’t better so in the case of sanitizers follow the directions for contact time and that’s it. More time doesn’t sanitize more and if the device is clean it can be sanitized in 30 seconds before the next use with fresh sanitizer. Store your equipment clean and dry. Done.

Cleaning properly after use is the most important thing, and using a cleaner that is made for what you are doing is critical. “Brown scum” can be a variety of things but Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW) will remove most with just a brief soak, and if that doesn’t get it, start with an acid cleaner like Acid Line Cleaner (ALC) or even a strong mix of Star San first, and then follow with a soak in Oxy or PBW. That combination in that order does wonders.

If you have over-soaked your plastics in some cleaners or sanitizers they can become damaged and that allows places for dirt to be trapped, stain the material more easily, and in some cases be unusable. Most of the time our softer plastic become stained a bit, but that’s no big deal. When there are visible residues that can’t be removed with the above process, time to toss and replace. Hard plastics like the Auto Siphon should last almost forever unless they were also damaged by some improper cleaning or something.

I replace my soft plastics every few years and that includes everything from beer and air lines to racking and blowoff tubes. If they don’t come clean they are gone, but that takes a very long time, and it is only when they can’t be cleaned, not on a schedule. If it gets cleaned properly after use and put away dry it will last a very long time. Never had issues with sanitation.[/quote]
I always leave my auto-siphon and tubing in properly diluted starsan and have no issues.
With that said, I have no damage from doing this. Also i dont use the cleaners that you say, I rinse very well and back into the star san. I have no issues at all, just good beer.

In fact, many times not but always, i’ll just clean my primary with hot water and a cloth, no problemo and no infections. I think the use of heavy cleaners is more of a problem than soaking in a starsan solution. It works for me.[/quote]

For items like racking canes, auto syphons, and transfer tubing I think a good rinse with hot water and a dip in star san is usually plenty good. Blow off tubes, on the other hand, usually require a little something extra. The same goes for equipment that might not have been properly taken care of in the past.

15

[quote=“wallybeer”]I always leave my auto-siphon and tubing in properly diluted starsan and have no issues.
With that said, I have no damage from doing this. Also i dont use the cleaners that you say, I rinse very well and back into the star san. I have no issues at all, just good beer.[/quote]

Not sure what you are doing that a lot of folks are not, as StarSan makes most tubing cloudy and sticky when left soaking as little as overnight.

There is just no sensible reason for constantly soaking equipment, especially in sanitizer. You are going to eventually find that your hoses don’t last very long and may actually be more prone to contamination as the inside becomes sticky and unable to be cleaned or sanitized properly. This stuff isn’t somewhere that we need to invent something.

As for the folks just rinsing with water and then sanitizer after using, you are not removing a lot of organics that will be left residual and don’t just rinse off with either. Even a quick rinse in some OxyClean, PBW, or even dishwashing liquid does wonders over a water rinse. I have no problem with a final sanitizer rinse of anything as long as it is no more than the contact time suggested. There is a reason that those guidelines are written.

16

Thank you for the advice of using PBW on my auto-siphon and blow-off hose, they look so much better now. The auto-siphon is completely void of the previous brown discoloration and the blow-off hose looks cleaner.

Cheers!

17

[quote=“Dean Palmer”][quote=“wallybeer”]I always leave my auto-siphon and tubing in properly diluted starsan and have no issues.
With that said, I have no damage from doing this. Also i dont use the cleaners that you say, I rinse very well and back into the star san. I have no issues at all, just good beer.[/quote][/quote]

“Not sure what you are doing that a lot of folks are not, as StarSan makes most tubing cloudy and sticky when left soaking as little as overnight.”

I use distilled water, which leaves everything clear. After use I rinse very well and I put every thing back in solution, no problems at all. No cloudy,no sticky,no infections,no problem.

Just making good beer.

18

And YES I do replace my tubing ect. when I need to. After many, many uses. Soaked in star san, of coarse.