Sterilising equipment.

[phoenix68]

Hi, I have left some demijohn's two glass and one large plastic one filled with sterilising fluid for nearly a week I thought this would be OK.I have emptied these jars and then I've rinsed them out with hot water only only to find a white haze on the bottom quarter of the inside of the jar.
I think the bleach in the baby's bottle serialising fluid from Morrison's has come out of suspension and stuck to the bottom of the jars.
I have tried to remove it with extremely hot water bleach and VWP cleaner steriliser all with no luck I'm thinking of using acid next maybe citric or vinegar.
What sterilising fluid do you guys use,I liked the baby bottle stuff as its convenient to buy.
Any advice on removing this white haze will be appreciated thanks.

Cheers Graham

 

[tubby_shaw]

What you have in the bottom of your containers is calcium carbonate that has precipitated out of the water that you dissolved your sanitiser in.
The best way to get rid of it is to use a mild acid solution, distilled vinegar or a solution of citric acid will work well :thumb:
And remember prevention is better than cure, don't store hypochlorite solutions

 

[phoenix68]

Thanks for your advice any idea how much citric acid to use.

Cheers graham

 

[tubby_shaw]

How long is a piece of string :lol:
It depends how much precipitate there is, start with 2tsp in 500ml of hot water, it will of course get weaker as it neutralises the chalk, when it stops fizzing add more citric acid :thumb:

 

[phoenix68]

Two spoonfulls 20 seconds brlliant.

Cheers Graham.

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

Bull hooks.

I've got half a dozen bottles sitting full of Young's Steriliser & Cleaner. Am I likely to have the same problem when I empty them?

 

[Moley]

Probably depends upon how long they've been left and how hard your water is.

I regularly fill DJs with sterilising solution, have every intention of coming back to rinse them and then realise what I haven't done a couple of days later, and I have found a milky layer or light deposit at the bottom, but I've never had one which has welded itself to the glass.

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

Graham and I are both from similar area of Kent... our water's pretty blooming chalky!

 

[phoenix68]

Its not a problem if you do two tea spoons of citric acid fill the demijohn with hot/warm water and it goes off like a fizz bomb 20 seconds later and you've got a lovely new looking demijohn.
I've got several I found in a ditch don,t ask, me soaked them in bleach and soapy water then a dose of this and you wouldn't know where they came from to look at them.
I have one that I've been using for storing sugar syrup this had crystals on the inside that wouldn't seem to wash off sorted this out as well.
May try taking a bath in it myself later.


Cheers Graham