Cleaning dirty old demijohns?

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GlynG

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Can dirty old demijohns be cleaned enough to be safely used for wine making? These two here have been up in the attic for many years, open with no top on. They've also spent some month sat outside with no top on. I bought two different sorts of bottle brush (one a specially angled one) and could try milton cleaning solution and lots of scrubbing. Would this be enough? Any tips? Or am I wasting my time and I should get new ones instead?

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Buy some sodium percarbonate (the active ingredient in oxy cleans) from ebay, it �£7 per kilo. Use 3tsp for 5L of near boiling water and it should do the job. If their really cruddy use a stronger solution of 1tsp/L

Some might suggest just buying oxy clean which you could do, but the stuff on ebay is 70% whereas oxy clean is 30% plus ebay SB doesnt have all the other **** in it for washing that us HBers dont need
 
Hi MyQul,
Do you use sodium percarbonate just to soak, or can it be used as a general purpose cleaner? (eg washing FVs with a sponge before sanitising). Is it skin friendly or do you need to wear marigolds?
 
Hi MyQul,
Do you use sodium percarbonate just to soak, or can it be used as a general purpose cleaner? (eg washing FVs with a sponge before sanitising). Is it skin friendly or do you need to wear marigolds?

I normally use it to soak to get at things I cant get at using elbow grease (like the inside of my yeast starter demijon after I've finished with it) or if I'm feeling lazy (cleaning my FV before puting the wort into it).
I'm not sure about it being skin friendly. I've got fairly hardy skin and dont bother using marigolds for star san let alone SC. All I know is it breaks down into environmentally friendly 'chemicals' oxygen, water and soda ash (baking soda) which you can of course eat, so it's probably fine for your hands unless your particularly sensitive
 
Be careful how hot the water is, I poured some near boiling into one and the bottom dropped straight out of it.
 
What I do is fill it half full with hot water from the tap. Then top up with a kettle full of boiling water then if there's any space left put more hot tap water in

I'll do that next time cheers. I guess the hot water hitting the base of mine caused it to expand quicker than the wall. Thus something had to give.
 
Oxy is good but don't soak more than a couple of days as some people report it throwing a precipitate which is hard to remove.
I would also recommend warm (30 or 40 degrees) water with biological washing powder as the enzymes really chew up the hard to shift muck.
Either way, be sure to give a good soak with clean water to remove any residues. and be carefull because both oxy and washing powder make things very slippery.
 
Have found that Nappysan will shift anything, same idea as the washing powder but a throw back to cloth nappies for the kids.
 
Have found that Nappysan will shift anything, same idea as the washing powder but a throw back to cloth nappies for the kids.

Looks like it's just oxy clean in different packaging. 'Oxygen based bleaching agents' sounds like sodium percarbonate to me

Ingredients


  • Napisan contains amongst other Ingredients: 15 - 30% Oxygen Based Bleaching Agents, 5 - 15% Anionic Surfactants, <5% Polycarboxylates,
  • Other Ingredients: Optical Brighteners, Perfume



https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp...6&ddkey=http:gb/groceries/napisan-powder-800g
 
The missus would give me a tenner to buy new ones.
Are these special? Carry memories? Have been in the family for over a century? Or you really like them?
 
The missus would give me a tenner to buy new ones.
Are these special? Carry memories? Have been in the family for over a century? Or you really like them?

How many 'traditional' glass demijohns would you get for a tenner? I was looking a few months ago and even 2nd hand ones aren't cheap. Ended up buying a trolleyful of Morrison's 5l water lol.
 
Have tried cleaning some right dirty caked on demis over the years. Used all sorts of cleaning agents which included sand swilled around as an abrasive and small metal chains for the same purpose.

One of the best things I have used is good old bleach. A good squirt in a demi, topped up with warm water and left overnight. Next morning they are much, much easier to clean.
 
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