Finally saved up enough extra cash to pick up a wort chiller! After the first use, I rinsed off in PBW then regular water and let it sit to dry. For some reason it has these spots on it now (see image). Is this normal?
To say what it looks like would be a guess. When I’m done brewing I take a greenie pad and lightly clean the coils in dish soap or oxy clean till they shine, then rinse thoroughly before storage. When I brew, my coil sits in a bucket of Star San till I’M ready to chill . I pretty much quit using PBW, I found that Oxy-Clean does the same thing for me and it’s cheaper. I’m big on cleanliness and that part of brewing is a must, but try not to worry, it all becomes part of your routine on brew day.
Is your local water hard?
Yes it is
I don’t think PBW is a good cleaner for Copper. It’s an alkaline and you want an acid.
Yep that’s what did it try soaking in in water and white vinegar
I don’t use cleaner on my chiller. Just water and a rag after I pull it out of the chilled wort. It’s stained, although not spotty like that. I don’t worry about it too much, the copper doesn’t need to be bright and shiny.
Those look like water spots, to me.
Looks more like measles :shock:
The water I use for cleanup is our only tap hooked up to our old well water and it is pretty hard water. When I run the chiller I usually try to collect some of the hot runoff to soak and rinse
dirty equipment. When I soak my chiller in that while cleaning up, I get discoloration over time. It eventually got to a point where I used a product called “copper bright”(?) on it and it removed most all of it.
