Hose & resistance to chemicals

[Shaun Goeckner]

Hey, so what type of hoses are resitant to breakdown from usinf iodopher, Star San, PBW and the other cleaners we use? Standard vinyl don't last long & I don't want to plumb with copper yet....

[danno]

I have silicone tubing that I bought from US Plastics (http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/variant.asp?catalog%5Fname=USPlastic&category%5Fname=7511&product%5Fid=8415&variant%5Fid=54038). I bought all my polysulfone QD's and the tubing at the same time, that was three years ago, haven't had any failures. one thing, this tubing is extremely flexible, so much that I had to engineer a way to keep it from kinking every time I used it. I went to the hardware store, and bought some door springs that fit over the tubing. keeps it from kinking rather nicely...

[Shaun Goeckner]

No problem running PBW through it or anything?

[danno]

nope, it works great. been pumping PBW and Star-San through it for three years...

[BrewDog]

I have the same silicone tubing and agree with Danno - it works great.

[dparsons]

I would bet the thicker-walled tubing would be less prone to kinking. I've used just plain vinyl for the past year reasoning that when it goes away I'll get the nicer stuff. I use PBW and StarSan with not ill effects. Note that StarSan/PBW are not recommended for soft metals (copper, aluminum, ...). I put my ice cream scoop in PBW without thinking and got something precipitating on the surface of it. Hmmm.

[danno]

US Plastics sells a thicker walled silicone, but it's more than twice as expensive. silicone really does have everything you'd want in a brewing hose, highly chemical resistant, very high temp rating, and it's translucent so you can see what's going on...

[paulcgi]

I picked up food grade 3/8" re-inforced tubing at local farm ag store for less than a buck a foot. it's rated to something like 190F (or so). been using it for most everything with great luck. I also use PBW and haven't noticed anything with that tube.

[Shaun Goeckner]

Hey, so how long can I circulate PBW through my copper heat exchanger, any idea?

[danno]

until it's clean... :D

I've never had issues with copper, it's the aluminum that really doesn't get along with Star-San.... PBW is just a cleaner, it doesn't react with anything...