Tubing: Silicone vs Vinyl vs PVC

squeegeethree · January 27, 2019, 5:50pm

I have started to have a fondness for silicone tubing because of its lack of memory. I dislike that my vinyl tubing, while clear, holds the form it was stored in (and because of limited space I have to coil it). I see that there is an “anti-micobial” PVC tubing available (as well as a mystery thermoplastic tubing).

Besides not being clear, silicone is slightly rougher that vinyl so I imagine not as sanitary. Does anyone know of other tube dangers. Obviously there are phthalates in most plastics/rubbers that let them be flexible. This is less of a concern to me as I’m happy with hormone levels.

dannyboy58 · January 27, 2019, 9:01pm

I have silicone on my brew cart system from kettles to pump/chiller. Obviously required to handle the heat… I’ve never had any issue with sanitizing my silicone tubing since it get boiling water/liquid passed through it multiple times per brew session. Might be more of a consideration with using it for a racking cane, etc.

I believe the anti-microbial tubing you’re referring to is the “silver” lining kind? Never tried it

squeegeethree · January 27, 2019, 9:57pm

Yes I want to use silicone for racking cane.

Rburrelli · January 27, 2019, 10:45pm

Recently moves to silicone from brew kettle to CF chiller from ball valve. Works perfectly.

hd4mark · January 28, 2019, 12:03pm

Silicone for my brew sculpture for the hot temps. It is nice because it is so flexible. I agree with vinyl being a PIA because it retains it coiled shape or kinks but it’s my go to for a lot of tubing because it is cheap and readily available.

I have made some stuff using CPVC instead of PVC because it is made for hot but not quite boiling temps.

sneezles61 · January 28, 2019, 12:05pm

All silicone here… start to finish… I push finished brews from fermenter into keg with silicone tubing… No problems… All my tubing does get some time in star san before I use it… When I use to use vinyl, after it was in star san for a while it was kinda slimy… That I didn’t care for…
Its food grade too, right? Sneezles61

hd4mark · January 28, 2019, 12:22pm

I have to agree with vinyl and Star San. Weird slimy but kind of sticky feel. You would think all the tubing in the hardware store plumbing department is food grade but who knows?

brew_cat · January 28, 2019, 12:24pm

I have a silicone for hot wort but I use a flexible PVC for everything else it’s very flexible and clear. I did get some crappy tubing that came with some brew equipment that is very stiff and I don’t use that. I’ll rinse with starsan but soaking doesn’t add any benefit it will make the tubing cloudy. I need to see what I’m doing when transferring so the silicone is out

sneezles61 · January 29, 2019, 2:18am

Ceramic mug… Sneezles61