Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

After the bubbler build I started to clean off the muck that had accumulate on it throughout the build. After about 3 minutes of scrubbing and trying different methods I decided there had to be an easier way.
This is how I ended up doing it , from start to finish it took about 15mins with little to no effort involved.
How well this works for you is going to depend on how grubby your copper is, mine was pretty filthy and cleaned up better than I imagined it would.
The bad news is that CLR no longer has Phosphoric Acid in it and so doesn’t work quite as well as it once did. I used a brand new bottle to clean the bubbler and it worked well, If you have an old bottle laying around treasure it as its probably the better stuff.

What Ya Need:
1 x bottle of CLR
1 x spray bottle or garden spray.
Garden hose
Green scrubber (those square ones)
Cold drink, Rum UJ, what ever tickles ya fancy.
Fold out chair or something to sit on.

Method
1: Fill spray bottle / garden spray with CLR…don’t dilute.
2: Attach still to keg so that you have access to all sides.
3: Spray with CLR
4: Sit in chair and have a drink while waiting a couple of minutes.
Continue steps 3 and 4 for at least ten minutes
5: Squirt with garden hose.
Repeat if necessary and give stubborn grime a quick rub with the green scrubber.

Another Method that works well and will work on really stubborn stuff given time and some effort is a mix of equal parts
Salt, White Vinegar and Plain Flour, make a paste and rub it on with your hands put it on thick and keep rubbing it around. Wash off with a hose from time to time and re-apply if necessary.

For the photos I used a second hand piece of 2.5 inch pipe

The streaking means its starting to work

After 10 mins and a few squirts

After a very quick light rub with the green scrubber.

That comes up a treat hey, I'll try it on my next build when I retire :laughing-rolling:

Thanks for posting this, well done again :handgestures-thumbup:

A much cheaper and easier way to clean copper is to go to ya local pool shop and buy a 5litre container of hydrochloric acid about $12 , Mix 1 part acid to 10 parts water spray on and hose of.

kji52 wrote:A much cheaper and easier way to clean copper is to go to ya local pool shop and buy a 5litre container of hydrochloric acid about $12 , Mix 1 part acid to 10 parts water spray on and hose of.

Perhaps i can add the extremely important safety tip of adding the acid to the water and not the other way round if you value your eyes/skin/clothes etc. :think:

5Star wrote:

kji52 wrote:A much cheaper and easier way to clean copper is to go to ya local pool shop and buy a 5litre container of hydrochloric acid about $12 , Mix 1 part acid to 10 parts water spray on and hose of.

Perhaps i can add the extremely important safety tip of adding the acid to the water and not the other way round if you value your eyes/skin/clothes etc. :think:

YES + 1 on 5Star !!!

even then be aware tipping the acid into the water gives off a gas that is nasty, do it well ventilated with gloves and safety glasses and shoes etc not thongs and beer in hand...

i have a auto acid dose machine for my pool PH and hate diluting the acid into the water / acid drum. i even hate going to buy it in the car ...

it is an effective cleaner but

I get bulk citric acid powder mix it up in a tub, soak the copper in it over night, reuse over and over till its not doing the job over night and then mix up new stuff, just a quik polish with Brasso is all thats needed then :D

I use the stubby method :text-thankyoublue:

You might find that too strong a mix of acid can and will not only clean but can etch your copper. Ya dont want any etching or its gunna be a real bugger to get really shiney after. Ill stick to the CLR thanks

Plain old white vinegar is not only very safe, but also cheap and not harmful to the environment. :teasing-tease: But then who would want to use a limp wrist-ed kitchen product? :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: when there is a chance to shoot rabbits with a canon. :laughing-rolling:

+100 Mod,don't do things by halves :laughing-rolling:

A good free way to clean your copper is to drop it into a bucket of hot backset, straight from the still.

Leave it overnight and either neutralise with bicarb and water or just plenty of water. It'll do the same job for free. 8-)

I originally posted this method because not everything will fit in a bucket of backset or citric acid.......it was mainly aimed at those wanting to clean something like a completed bubbler or reflux still.

Did these last night...

Cleaning copper experiments with photos...

Citric acid = 15mins
BAM! = 15sec

I would use the citric acid as the BAM had to be repeated as it was very patchy, plus its harsh shit.

Did you hold the bottle at arms length and talk really loud when you did it law? :laughing-rolling:

hmm thing is I could drink a cheese glass of my citric acid solution when I'm finished and it would have the same affect as eating a lemon would ya care to try the same with that stuff , just saying :whistle:

Cheese comes in glasses?


Wow.
The things i don't know.




Don'tTellEagleBoysPunkin

I tried citric acid and dilute hydrochloric acid.
Both work great on copper and bring it up to a pinky copper shine.

I found though, that on solder (I was cleaning finished parts) that it developed a dull grey surface which wasn't too easy to get off. I lost my shiny silver solder joint.
It's only cosmetic, but if anyone knows why this happens and how to fix it, I'm all ears.

I thought I'd give the citric acid a go. Here are the results.

Fouled condensor coil:


2 teaspoons of citric acid dissolved in a glass of water. Soak:


The next morning:


Not quite "BAM! And the dirt is gone", but not bad. Bit more of a clean and she'll be as good as new. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I like my copper dirty like my women lol :laughing-rolling:

Hot backset works just as well.

Next time you do a stripping run just throw the coil in a bucket of stuff straight from the boiler and leave it overnight :dance: