Supermarket oxy cleaner questions

[Brewers Whoop]

Probably daft questions, but I don't know the answers so I'll ask anyway!

a) I've seen the various supermarket own-brand oxy-cleaners mentioned on here as an inexpensive but effective equipment cleaner. Are we talking about the oxy-cleaners the supermarkets sell for soaking/cleaning clothes, usually in the 'laundry' section. Or is there another type, hidden away in a place I haven't found yet?

b) I've read the posts warning about avoiding the ones with perfume in, but most of the labels I've read so far list 'enzymes' and sometimes 'optical brighteners' amongst the ingredients. Anything to be wary of?

and

c) How are people using these? For example, to clean a just-emptied FV, is it sufficient to add a litre or two of solution, made up as directed on the label, and swirl it around, or does the vessel need to be filled up and left to soak?

Thanks.

[Graham]

Wizz Oxy Ultra is the cheapest. I got mine from Tesco at about £1.20 for 600 grammes, but I have seen it cheaper elsewhere.

For some reason Astonish is about twice the price of Wizz, but Astonish is a mixture of sodium percarbonate and washing soda, whereas Wizz doesn't claim to have any washing soda in it. Its an expensive way of buying washing soda though.

Some of the other makes with perfumes and brighteners in them are silly prices.

[boingy]

Pound shops are good for that sort of stuff.
Be sure to ask an assistant how much it is before you buy it though....

[crafty john]

Pound shops are good for that sort of stuff.
Be sure to ask an assistant how much it is before you buy it though....

Surely it should be £1.00 as it's a pound shop, unless it states somewhere that not all items are a pound.

[boingy]

Pound shops are good for that sort of stuff.
Be sure to ask an assistant how much it is before you buy it though....

Surely it should be £1.00 as it's a pound shop, unless it states somewhere that not all items are a pound.

Soz, John. I missed the reply at the time.
Did you know that gullible is not actually in the English dictionary?. Turns out it's a French word and should be pronounce "goo-eee-bul"...

[Wolfy]

What you want is sodium percarbonate, its the 'active ingredient' in most of those 'oxy clean' or similar products - so try to find the one with the most Sodium Percarbonate and the least amount of impurities and especially no perfumes - even better buy pure sodium percarbonate if you can.
Sodium percarbonate makes a great cleaning/soaking agent, and it breaks down into hydrogen peroxide and soda ash (aka washing soda), since the hydrogen peroxide is also a disinfectant some vendors also sell sodium percarbonate as a sanitizer - even if it's only a mild sanitizer and a great cleaner.
Try to use it in water as hot as you can manage (since the oxidation process works best in hot 70C+ water) and soak your fermenter and other items in it for a while, 24 hours is good - most likely the only cleaning you will need to do after that is a bit of a rub with a sponge and then rinse with water.

[beermonsta]

This is from a reply I made to another post - but really relevent to this post...
"I also after doing some research have chosen to use Ecover laundry bleach as a cleaner(http://www.ecover.com/us/en/Products/La ... Powder.htm) - which is only one ingredient - 100% percarbonate. This is what they put in 'oxyclean' and other similar brands (in usually less than 30%)to release oxygen in the water to 'bleach' stuff. Should be nice and safe without added 'brightners' and god knows what other ingredients they chuck in peroxide cleaners and it should do a good job of cleaning before sanitising. Available at BnQ, Booths and Waitrose I think."