Cleaning corny product disconnects

[Kev888]

There have been threads in the past talking about cleaning the disconnects; I (and many/most others) generally just flush through the disconnect with cleaner at the same time as the line, but they are made to be easily disassembled and I've found that even after flushing, if you take them apart they can contain liquid that still smells slightly of beer.

So I've been doing a test for a few months; I've been flushing all six of my disconnects through with BLC as normal, but three of them have also been disassembled and soaked in a percarbonate type solution afterwards. I'm now about to set up my taps again (after taking them away over christmas), so last night I took them all apart at once for a good clean and inspection.

The difference isn't as much as I'd feared; the ones that were soaked in percarbonate look pretty much as new, by comparison the ones that weren't have a sort of dullness to their internal surfaces; one had a thin build up of a greasy/grey substance, but it was quite thin - like a thick traffic film or something. One also had a slightly rusty spring which is a bit odd, but thats probably another matter (unless the BLC is attacking it or something anyway).

Obviously its only a small, short term test done for my own interest so perhaps not that scientific/reliable, but puts my mind at rest a bit. It leaves me thinking that I'll continue to just flush them through with BLC week to week, but maybe give them a good soak every once in a while. I may also start to keep aside a particularly well cleaned disconnect and line for when bottling from the corny..

Cheers
kev

[barney]

Thanks for sharing your research Kev, very interesting. I didn't even know they came apart. Will have a strip down and look see now.