Silicone Tubing

[DavidHatton]

Evening all, any suggestions of where I can get some good quality silicone tubing, seen alot in online HB stores but would like some advice first before buying.
Smething that will replace the pvc stuff that I bought at the begining of my home brew life.
cheers David.

 

[peebee]

On the quest for the "perfect" tubing? And silicone tubing feels good, is incredibly flexible, very resilient and reassuringly … expensive! Especially the "platinum cured" stuff which you should really use when in contact with foodstuffs. Having coughed up and ripped out all the cheap nasty PVC stuff you start getting the hints that it might not be so "perfect". Then you go through the expensive process of ripping out silicone tubing and fitting cheapo PVC in its place.

Thing is, there isn't a "perfect" tubing. My current rule is using silicone (which is undoubtable good stuff) on the "making" side - its resistance to heat is particularly useful - then turn back to PVC (and polythene like MDPE, etc) for after the boil stage and for dispensing. Though I'm still happy to use silicone for routing beer through a "safe" environment (i.e. when used within a keg, not outside of one). PVC leaches unpleasant chemical if it gets hot, silicone is virtually transparent to air, oxygen in particular.

There's a right place to use many "wonder" materials. And a wrong place too.

 

[Poochops]

This stuff, 12mm. It's tube for goodness sake. You'll never look back.
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/platinum-cured-silicone-tubing-12mm-id/

 

[Dutto]

I've used everything from garden hose to food grade PVC to silicone and decided that there is only one rule for all of them; and that is ...

... WASH AND SANITISE THE INSIDE IMMEDIATELY AFTER USE!

The reason being if you don't then it will surely produce a black mould that is impossible to remove!

What I do for ALL tubing is:

• Flush it thoroughly with high pressure cold water from the tap.
• Go outside and swing the tubing round my head to get as much water out of it as possible. (The neighbour caught me doing this one time; and hasn't spoken to me since!)
• Coil the tubing into fairly tight coils.
• Spray a StarSan mixture into one end of the tubing so that it forms a "plug" in the bottom of the first coil.
• Rotate the tubing so that the "plug" moves along the tubing to touch all inside surfaces.
• Keep rotating until all of the StarSan mixture is drained out of the tubing.
• Hang it up in a "Tube Tidy" until next time it is needed.

The tubing in the photograph has been in service for over two years and is still "black mould free"!

 

[peebee]

… It's tube for goodness sake. You'll never look back. ...

And then after a day sitting in the tube your beer doesn't taste right. Worse, its probably turned to vinegar.

These are not trivial little defects. People selling the stuff never warn you of this. And you've got to figure out why its happened. "Infection?", perhaps I need to be more cleanly? "Oxidation?", perhaps I'm splashing the beer about too much? "Silicone hose?", hum, "it's tube for goodness sake" so it can't possibly be that …. can it?

It is great stuff (silicone tube), just be careful how you use it and do not let beer after it's started fermenting anywhere near the stuff.

 

[Druncan]

For blow off's I up-cycled 1 litre plastic tonic bottles on my FV's. I put 5cm SS in and connect a tube from the gas out top feed. I have yet to find a plastic or silicon pipe that does not go more opaque due to the SS,,,,,,, The reaction just worries me,,,,,,, I'm thinking of copper pipe next?