Sodium Percarbonate as a no rinse steriliser?

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

No offence, but please don't mix bleach and any kind of acid e.g. vinegar. The gas that is produced turns to hydrochloric acid on contact with the inside of your lungs, air passages, mucus membranes and eyes.

I've been using thin bleach, water and vinegar to great effect. I've only had contamination when I've been trying to sample the wort after the krausen has fallen and when I've had to leave the beer in an imperfectly sealed fermenter for a long time. I've used it as a no-rinse sterisliser and have had no issue with chlorine related off flavours. I might try the B&M oxy stuff if I shift over to kegs since the chemical reaction is very good at cutting through crud and scouring out wee crevices.

It's dirt cheap and you can literally make it by the bucket. Put 25ml thin bleach in 25L water, stir well, add 25ml vinegar. Then you get a saturated solution of chlorine that'll murder just about anything given a 30s contact time. It's potent for 2-4 hours left open to the air. In a sealed container it can last a long time.

If you want to sterilise, sanitise or just clean something then by all means use a weak solution of bleach, which works extremely well.
Equally if you want to remove limescale then use vinegar (the clear 'spirit' vinegar works best for this).

But you can't just mix them together and expect to get some miracle cleaning solution. Real life doesn't work like that.

In expectation of comments along the lines of "I've been doing it for years, and I even use it to bath the baby", here are a few knowledgable sources you might like to look at.

https://www.avonfire.gov.uk/all-areas/2435-af-rs-warns-of-the-dangers-of-mixing-cleaning-chemicals

https://www.thoughtco.com/mixing-bleach-and-vinegar-609281

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/tips/a32773/cleaning-products-never-mix/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/...-vinegar-creates-toxic-chlorine-gas-home.html

https://www.healthline.com/health/bleach-and-vinegar

 

[Kveik Freak]

That's why you add the bleach to water and get the appropriate dilution before you add the vinegar. I've worked in laboratories professionally, I'm well aware of the dangers of mixing neat cleaning products.

 

[dwhite60]

Product here in the states that I use called "One-Step". It's basically sodium percarbonate. I use it to clean AND sanitize and have never had a problem. Stuff cleans real well. Eats through some tough stuff.

Sodium percarbonate breaks down into water, oxygen, and base minerals making it one of the most environmentally friendly products you can use.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Product here in the states that I use called "One-Step". It's basically sodium percarbonate. I use it to clean AND sanitize and have never had a problem. Stuff cleans real well. Eats through some tough stuff.

Sodium percarbonate breaks down into water, oxygen, and base minerals making it one of the most environmentally friendly products you can use.

Totally agree - it’s excellent stuff and similarly the only thing I use for both cleaning and sanitising :-j

 

[Chippy_Tea]

That's why you add the bleach to water and get the appropriate dilution before you add the vinegar. I've worked in laboratories professionally, I'm well aware of the dangers of mixing neat cleaning products.

You may be aware of the dangers but members and guests may not be and may not follow your instructions to the letter hence the warning.

 

[Festival Man]

Sorry, my post was misleading. I should have written that I need to use something like Starsan. The point of my post concerns Sodium Percarbonate can it be used as a no rinse sanitiser.

I use percarbonate as a cleaner, but would always rinse it. It's not like bleach, in that it doesn't leave anything hugely nasty like chlorine hanging around, but it degrades to sodium carbonate (aka washing soda). This is quite strongly alkaline and can be caustic at high concentrations (although not in the same league as sodium hydroxide, or caustic soda). I'm not a chemist, but I reckon you could end up with a significant hit of carbonate ions in your beer (esp if you left the residue in the bottles whilst bottling). Personally I always give a quick rinse - without being obsessively thorough.

Sodium Carbonate Ph 11.6, so you are quite right to rinse and san'.