Campden tablets

[chesters-mild]

Hi all
I use a campden tablet in my cold water to remove chlorine etc. It would help my brew day to go faster if I could treat water from my hot tap before mashing & boiling (my hot water set up is all only a few years old with modern copper pipes) Can this be done? BTW -My water (Manchester) is quite soft.
Cheers

 

[Clint]

I think if it's heated through a combination boiler and not a tank it's just hot tap water...I could be totally wrong though!

Cheers

Clint

 

[chesters-mild]

I think if it's heated through a combination boiler and not a tank it's just hot tap water...I could be totally wrong though!

Cheers

Clint

Yes it's combination boiler
The idea is to save time by using hot water from the tap to make the heating time for the strike / sparge water less, and just add the tablet to the hot tap water before using it.

 

[Dutto]

CHANGED MY MIND!

Unlike the traditional "hot water tank" system, the water that passes through a combination boiler will be as fresh as that supplied from the cold water; so I can see no reason (I CAN NOW!) whatsoever why it can't be used instead of cold water.

JUST DISCOVERED THAT THERE ARE DIFFERENT COMBINATION BOILER CONFIGURATIONS and some of them may not be suitable.

The only proviso being that you run the tap for a few seconds to ensure that you aren't getting stale water that has been sat in the boiler for any length of time.

In addition, the heating process will help to get rid of any residual chlorine. :thumb:

THE ONE IN MY KITCHEN PROVIDES HOT WATER DIRECT FROM THE BOILER SO IT CAN BE USED (in winter I often drink warmed water) but in case yours is different please check out the various configurations before use.

http://bpec.org.uk/downloads/CE30 - Domestic heating by gas.pdf

 

[Ale]

I am not an expert but the things that come to mind are letting a bit of water run through so water that has been heated and then cooled in the pipes runs through. Also, I would want to make sure the pips in the boiler itself are safe for drinking water. I expect they are copper but dont know for sure. It wouldnt surprise me if they try to cut manufacturing costs and use cheaper materials because we all know not to drink hot water.

 

[DoctorMick]

I use water from my hot tap as it saves about 20 mins at this time of year and haven't noticed any difference from using cold.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Campden tablets are used to remove chloramines from the water. You will still need to use half a tablet for a 23 litre batch.

 

[Bigjas]

I use hot water from my hot water tank for brewing. The way I see it is if there was anything nasty going on in the tank, it will be boiled for an hour so wouldn't matter. I have completed 12 brews using hot water from the tank and had no issues so far. It certainly speeds up the brew day. I also use campden tablets to treat the hot water before use.

Jas

 

[Clint]

...what if you use a whole tablet?

 

[Fil]

...what if you use a whole tablet?

no biggy just a waste as 1 tab is sufficient to treat UPto 50l
afaik the excess so2 will just dissipate with heat

 

[Pawlo7671]

I work with un-vented cylinder boilers every day, the rule of thumb is to make sure temps are about 55C at this temp legionnaire is not a worry. I don't see that if your boiling the water what difference it makes, as far a any biological infection goes you could literally brew with pond water if your boiling it.
as for off tastes, cylinder boilers do accumulate a certain amount of **** in them and pond water has fish sh!t in it ( just don't brew with pond water )
Some combi boilers do have a small cylinder (about 3 liters ) in them with pre heated water so that when you open the hot tap it doesn't take an age to deliver as your not waiting for the heat exchanger to do its thing, I wouldn't even bother worrying about this.
Its worth knowing that there are cylinders and cylinders, un-vented stainless steel units are very much the in thing know and i would have no problem drawing brewing water from one of these, copper cylinder with an open header tank ( vented ) ...probably should get rid

 

[Dutto]

The "Don't drink hot water!" mantra is a throw-back to the early days of having heated water in houses.

In the good old days, the hot water system was kept topped up from a cold water tank located up in the attic of the house.

Often not even covered, the cold-water tank became the source of many domestic legends as various creatures (birds, rats, mice, slugs, snails and the occasional murdered corpse) allegedly found their way into the tank, rotted away and poisoned the residents of the house.

How many times (if ever) this actually happened I don't know ...

... but I do know that I would never drink water from the hot tap of an old fashioned system! :thumb:

 

[Ale]

The "Don't drink hot water!" mantra is a throw-back to the early days of having heated water in houses.

In the good old days, the hot water system was kept topped up from a cold water tank located up in the attic of the house.

Often not even covered, the cold-water tank became the source of many domestic legends as various creatures (birds, rats, mice, slugs, snails and the occasional murdered corpse) allegedly found their way into the tank, rotted away and poisoned the residents of the house.

How many times (if ever) this actually happened I don't know ...

... but I do know that I would never drink water from the hot tap of an old fashioned system! :thumb:

I once found a dead bird in a header tank. It was a long time ago and this jogged my memory. I think it was a starling. It seemed like it had been there a while but was well preserved, probably the chlorine and being underwater. I turned the water off, drained the tank, put it in a bin bag (with gloves of course) which went in the bin and forgot about it.

 

[foxbat]

Often not even covered, the cold-water tank became the source of many domestic legends as various creatures (birds, rats, mice, slugs, snails and the occasional murdered corpse) allegedly found their way into the tank, rotted away and poisoned the residents of the house.

When I was in halls at Uni, errm, some years ago, a maintenance chap went up in the roof space to do some maintenance and came back down with a very wet and very dead rat in a clear plastic bag that he'd retrieved from one of tanks.

 

[chesters-mild]

Well that about settles it, thanks folks!
As my water feeds into the boiler direct from the mains, no tank, and takes 20 - 30 seconds to come up to hot once the gas fires up and the piping is only a few years old and copper I'll use the hot water to save some time on the next brewday. I only asked the question as I'm sure I'd seen somewhere that the water had to be cold for the Campden tablet to work effectively.
Cheers