Walmart brand Oxyclean - Wow

stoneman

After I racked my raspberry wheat into a corney, I poured the trub and spent raspberries into the toilet.
I then put a scoop of the oxyclean into the glass carboy and filled it full of hot water, after a half hour of soaking all of the krausen was gone, nor carboy brush required.
Thanks for the tip guys, it's nice working smarter not harder.

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alpo

Is it fragrance free?  

llazy_llama

If not, it just means extra rinsing. It usually takes me 3 thorough rinses before I'm comfortable with the results using Oxiclean Free.

Catt22

Only three rinses? I do three hot and three cold. I know, it's overkill, but only takes a few more minutes.

llazy_llama

A Jet bottle washer reduces the amount of elbow grease required. That thing works like a dream.

jason.mundy

Have a container that you soaked in oxyclean and need to get the residue off? Try filling it with water and adding a splash of vinegar. The acid in the vinegar cuts the base of the soap. It's all gone with one rinse.
I get the cheap vinegar at sam's club.
At this point the container is clean. I then wait until I want to use it to rinse one more time with my sanitizer, star san.

The-Pol

Is Oxyclean better than PBW?
I read that Oxyclean needs to be mixed 2-4oz per gallon of water for soaking... PBW is 1-1.5oz.
I had thought about moving to Oxyclean rather than PBW or B Brite, but what am I saving if I am using 2x as much?
Also... why do you have to rinse Oxyclean? Even Oxyclean Free?? I take it this is NOT like PBW?
What is the deal with this cleaner.

avaserfi

Never used PBW, but I do use no-odor off-brand Oxyclean very often. I put 2 scoops (1.5-2oz) in a 6 gallon carboy, fill with hot water, and let sit over night. After that it is clean, just rinse out a couple times with hot water, dry and it sits until I need it next time. I have never had an issue with residue, odor or anything else.
The Oxyclean leaves a slick feeling if not rinsed, but that is easy to get rid of.

beerthirty

PBW does need to be rinsed. As does Oxyclean.
I'm not exactly sure about the ingredients in Oxyclean but PBW is the same thing as washing soda(Arm&Hammer). Washing soda is much cheaper than either one of the name brands and works very well. All three are caustic so all three require rinsing. To me its simple economics, use the cheap one.

The-Pol

I never rinse PBW with anything but Star San... been doing that for a while...

Is this not enough when using Oxyclean? My point is... is Oxyclean more labor/water intensive?
I have a fermentor that I CANNOT scrub inside, so I use PBW... will Oxyclean do the job?

avaserfi

Oxyclean will do the job - I have never had to scrub the inside of my better bottles - just soak over night.
Star San would probably be enough, but I rinse it out right away just because it takes less than 1/2 gallon of water and gets it done quickly.

grlz

i love using the walmart brand oxyclean. its like 2 bucks cheaper than the big tub of oxyclean and you get 1.5 - 1.75 times as much. a couple of quick 2-3 gallon rinses and your good, in my experience anyway. oh, i havent had to scrub anything so far, just soak and rinse and everything comes off. b-e-autiful.

The-Pol

That settles it... I will be getting Oxy, or a comparable generic (SUN) and trying that instead of blowing another $40 on PBW.
Thanks fellas.

beerthirty

Isn't rinsing with star san a bit spendy? Or do you just rinse once? Also, if I remember my chemistry correctly(and I may not, its been 25 yrs) caustic solutions are normaly basic and starsan is acidic. So by rinsing a base with an acid you neutralize or raise the ph making starsan ineffective as a sanitizer.

jldc

I have had better luck with PBW than Oxyclean for dried krausen. Your mileage may vary.

HairyDogBrewing

I think PBW is more effective, but Oxiclean is good enough at a lower price.
PBW is 30% sodium metasilicate.
Oxiclean is sodium percarbonate and sodium carbonate.
UBC is sodium silicate, sodium percarbonate, and sodium carbonate.
I don't know what the *correct* ratio is, but I have had good results using 1 Tbsp per gallon.
It's like soap and should be rinsed off.
Also, if you have hard water, dried oxiclean can leave a white residue that must be dissolved with something acidic (vinegar or StarSan).

AnonyBrew

What's so hard about rinsing oxyclean out of a carboy? geesh you guys are lazy.

The-Pol

Spendy? No, I always ue Star San to rinse my fermentor so that it is sanitized.
Ineffective? Well, I have never had an infection, so... if so, I am EXTREMELY lucky.

The-Pol

At what concentration of Oxy?
By better... do you mean if I soak my junk for a couple days, the krausen ring will not be removed?
This may require actual testing... some of the responses are too cryptic.
If it doesnt work on my fermentor, I will use it for laundry... and spring for the PBW again. I just hate almost $5/pound and 1-1.5 ounces PER gallon.

flyangler18

Oxyclean and its generic versions are oxygen-based where PBW is a caustic, so they are different cleaners in that regard. I use Oxyclean and PBW in my brewery, although Oxyclean gets used much more frequently because it is so much more economical. One TBSP per gallon works just fine for me. The trick is HOT water and even the most stubborn krausen ring is gone after an overnight soak - no scrubbing necessary.

Whiskey

+1 for Oxy and hot water. Just soak it overnight and give it a wipe with a sponge and a rinse. For my better bottles, in lieu of the sponge I just use high pressure jets of water, they still come out spotless.

HomebrewJeff

You have to rinse PBW as well, don't you? Whether you are flushing the system with StarSan or water, I would think that's still rinsing.
I've only used the Oxiclean free from SamClub (it's giant, like 10-12lb) and for a 6.5g carboy, I use maybe 1/8 of a scoop in warm water. I rinse the carboy afterwards, but it's more so to get rid of all of the gunk that's fallen off the sides.

The-Pol

I was referring to the guys saying that they rinse like three times with HOT water... I dont do anything NEAR that with PBW. I rinse with Star San... the rest of the convo. gives context to what I asked.....

kladue

When you use the caustic cleaners an acid rinse will take the surface residue off after cleaning. Most all of the popular cleaning products use sodium carbonate as the caustic cleaning agent, some add a touch of sodium metasilicate as a wetting agent, and the powdered dishwasher compound adds phosphate and chlorine to the mix. All of the CIP systems I have worked with use a caustic cleaning agent followed with acid flush and water rinse for their cleanup.

The-Pol

So using Star San... an acid sanitizer... which is a no rinse sanitizer, would do this well? Rinse the caustic AND be the rinse (no rinse)? It has worked for me thus far, just checking to make sure I have not been like SUPER lucky

avaserfi

I have never had any issue getting caked on gunk off. Just two days ago I did an oxy soak on a 6 better bottle that was filled to 5 gallons and needed a blow off tube. The whole area for the last gallon had caked on gunk from sitting without contact with liquid for 3.5 weeks. Hot water 3 scoops of oxy clean (I used extra because the gunk was 1/8" thick) and 24 hours the bottle is crystal clear and odorless.

beerthirty

Thanks for clarifying that for me kladue. Sometimes too much thought goes into an idea.

HomebrewJeff

Gotcha, it wasn't clear from the post. Well I will say that in my experience, you definitely do not need to rinse that much with OC. I've never used PBW but I know with Oxyclean, if you use too much it makes the water kind of slimy-feeling.  I just checked mine, and I would say I use about 1/4 - 1/2 ounce per 7 gallons.

Minky

beerthirsty has a good point. Starsan depends on its acidity to work. I would think that a water rinse after using anything alkaline would definitely make sense before using the Starsan. Maybe a Starsan rinse to neutralize, and one to sanitize?
I used to use the PBW, and I noticed that it tended to leave a film on my glass yeast starter flask. I started using B-Brite due to the cost of PBW, and I don't get the film anymore. I didn't know about the acid rinse.
I think B-Brite is essentially the same as OxyClean.

The-Pol

Spent $4 on 4 pounds of Oxyclean today... so I will give it a whirl.

samc

I have yet to try One - Step but it is a no rinse cleaner. In my mini research I came across FREE samples today . . . what could be bad about that
LOGIC, Inc. - HomeBrewer Samples
I have used Straight A before and it works better than Oxyclean but more expensive.

sjlammer

I used bleach before i learned the virtues of Oxyclean. It is great. I will never use bleach again. +100000 for oxy. I use a little less than a scoop in 6 gallons

Spine

I used to buy PBW but now I only use oxiclean free. It's so much cheaper and seems to do just as good of a job for me. I do have to use a little more Oxiclean but in the end it is far more economical. I think the key is to get the solution very hot, like 170 dF hot, which is probably hotter than most hot water heaters get. I heat up the solution in my kettle which really helps get rid of the beer stone.

The-Pol

Yah I heat up my PBW in the kettle, so I might as well heat up the Oxy too eh?

avaserfi

I just use the hottest tap water I can - no issues getting anything clean, ever.

The-Pol

I bought the SUN brand... the chlorine free kind. It doesnt say scent free or anything, but there was not that option... I have mixed some up and there is no smell whatsoever.
I get a kick out of spending $1 per pound as opposed to like 4-$5 per pound!

Rick500

I use whatever generic brand (scent-free) is available.
I use one tablespoon in a whole carboy with hot water and I've not had to scrub one yet.

The-Pol

ONE tablespoon is less than what PBW recommends using, they recommend an OUNCE per GALLON... OUCH

beerthirty

Pol, since you seem to be economic minded, try washing soda next time you need to buy a cleaner and post your results. You might find it works just as well for a fraction of the cost.

Dwain

I saw this while googling soda wash. - Dwain