Best Star SAN Alternative including all new Chemsan

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well stone me! I was going to buy a few but only ended up buying one in the end...
 
I'm sure it's been said a million times before but if you have even the most horrible crusted on matter in your bottles you can very likely get it out with hot oxyclean. 1/2tsp in hot tap water, leave it for an hour, stick your thumb over the end, give it a really good shake, rinse well, you're sorted.

My wife and I got a whole load of bottles from a friend which he had rinsed but not dried and there were chunks of black mould stuck to the bottom of nearly all of them. Nothing shifted it until I tried oxyclean, it just lifted it all out.
 
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Whats everyones opinion of this stuff as a no rinse sanitiser?
https://www.nisbets.co.uk/jantex-kitchen-cleaner-and-sanitiser-5-litre-pack-of-2/cw70310l for £13 of commercial kitchen sanitiser. Its no rinse and whilst needs higher concentrations compared to starsan, it still works out much cheaper overall.

  • Passes the BS EN 1276 standard for antibacterial performance
  • The product passes BS EN 1276 with a contact time of 5 minutes at a dilution of 1:40, and 30 seconds at a dilution of 1:10.
  • Kills 99.9% of bacteria within 30 seconds - including E. coli and Salmonella
  • The sanitiser is food-safe, perfect for commercial kitchens
key ingredients:
Alcohol Alkoxylate
Quaternary ammonium compounds, benzyl-C12-16-alkyldimethyl, chloride
Didecyldimethylammonium chlorid
 
I've just cleaned a batch of bottles and before I store them would I be OK to put a couple of squirts of Chemsan in each bottle? They are PET bottles so screw on lids and they'd be stored until my next bottling session in 2-3 weeks. My Chemsan does have a tendency to go cloudy after a day but my thinking is that if I sanitise and seal them now then nothing else is going to get in until I bottle my next batch?
 
I've just cleaned a batch of bottles and before I store them would I be OK to put a couple of squirts of Chemsan in each bottle? They are PET bottles so screw on lids and they'd be stored until my next bottling session in 2-3 weeks. My Chemsan does have a tendency to go cloudy after a day but my thinking is that if I sanitise and seal them now then nothing else is going to get in until I bottle my next batch?

I would be uncomfortable having standing or unevaporated Chemsan in them for two reasons

1. if Chemsan does go off and lose effectiveness over time then the moisture might encourage baddies to grow

2. I find that Chemsan attacks plastic. The last time I bottled, I left my plastic bottle tree with Chemsan all over it and pooled in the drip tray. When I came back to it, the chamsan had started stripping the oil out of the plastic, making it greasy. It washed off OK but I guess it made it a little more brittle. Not good for bottles that need to be able to expand and contract.

If you are confident the Chemsan will evaporate, however, I don't think it will do any harm to the bottles, and it leaves a protective layer which with stop microbes from being able to take hold.
 
Cheers.

Think I'll seal the bottles up for now then. Reckon I'll need to wash them at all before bottling or will it be fine with some Chemsan on bottling day?
 
I can’t comment on PET bottles as I only use glass, but I always store my bottles with a few sprays of star-san and a small wrap of foil sealing the neck after washing them. My star-san is made up from RO water so doesn’t cloud up and I figure if it’s at a very inhospitably low ph when it goes in, any baddies will be killed of in the first few minutes. The fact that it sits there means nothing else will grow, bacteria can’t just climb in even if it has degraded its protection, it’s already done it’s job by then.
I’m still in the habit of tipping out the contents and giving it another quick squirt just before bottling, but this may actually be unnecessary. Not had an infected bottle yet.
 
Hey fellas, for cost saving I was interested in the bleach / vinegar solution but I seem to recall it being said it had to be the old fashioned thin bleach and not the thick stuff that's in all our supermarkets these days - is that true or doesn't it make a difference ?
 

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