I sanitized my wort chiller with bleach, did I make it unsafe?

[bhawthorne1911]

Hi all, I started brewing in '85 read Charlie's book back then and Since then I've pretty much been ignorant of the changes to our hobby. I've only been brewing about three times a year. When I last used my counterflow wort chiller I used a week bleach in cold water solution ( I've used only bleach on everything all these years) , then sent hot water through it then dried it thoroughly. That was 15 years ago ( my bad ). So I've just picked up Palmer's book, which I love, all this new info, I'm very happy to have it. But now I know bleach is bad for copper, can cause black oxidation. Since this is a counterflow chiller I can't see if I've formed black oxidation. So my question to you guys is...is my chiller still safe to use? If not can it be restored and if so how? Vinegar, PBW, STAR-SAN? Thanks in advance,
I appreciate the help,
cheers.
Brian H.

 

[MyQul]

tbh I dont know much about this. The question is does the black oxidisation from the copper leech into the beer?

My biab pot is un-anodised so it has black aluminium oxide on it. When I looked into this, far from being a bad thing, the aluminium oxide is actually a protective barrier and stops aluminium leeching into anything in the pot (obviously im my case beer, but if your cooking with it food). So I'm wondering if back oxidisation on copper is a simliar thing. Like I say I don't know much about this - it's just a thought

 

[bhawthorne1911]

Thanks, I agree that the oxide coating on aluminum is fine, not sure about copper though