Second hand carboys

[TJsBasement]

Today I'm cleaning a few carboys I picked up a yard sale, I got the 3 of them a few weeks ago and they have been sitting full of water in the garage sense then. 2 are somewhat cleanish but one has some white mystery crap dried in the bottom and some red streaks running down the sides. I have been down there using a drill mounted carboy cleaner and One Step like I'm mad at it and the streaks on the side just will not budge. I do have Powdered Brew Wash to try next but what other more critical options do I have, any kind of serious acid that will sure fire remove everything except the glass. Even the 2 carboys that appear clean may not get used, I just don't feel like I'm getting them clean, not completely clean. If someone was to gift you a filthy dried carboy would you use it, would you repurpose it would you just trash it or if you used it how would you get it clean. Thanks for any tips guys.

 

[Runningwolf]

I would use caustic soda. Just be careful with it.

 

[TJsBasement]

Oh snap I happen to have Red Devil sodium hydroxide from playing with hho, Thanks Dan.

 

[Sirs]

you can always try Muriatic Acid it's whats used to clean bricks and such it'll get most anything off of glass or anything else if you leave it on it, it's easy to use just dilute it to the suggested strength and then rinse good problems solved. Just make sure you follow the directions to the letter,as it is a caustic acid.

 

[TJsBasement]

Sounds like I'll be getting real serious this round. Let me find my clear face shield and lets do this. I think the power tools will stay in the drawer for this one, no need to fling corrosive stuff all over the garage, well not right off the start at least.

I really do appreciate the input.

 

[keena]

If you find a trick that really works let me know. I just got 3 used carboys that I'm not using till they are cleaned as well

 

[BobR]

I guess my question is, was this sale in your neighborhood and do you know the people who sold them? Might be simple to ask if they know what might have been stored in them. If in a strange neighborhood, with stranges selling them, in todays world I trust no one. Gosh, could they have been used in a meth lab.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Soak them overnight in powdered dishwasher detergent in hot water, dissolve the detergent up to about 4 gallons and add half gallon of distilled white vinegar and top off with more hot water and leave to soak. CC

 

[Julie]

Homebrew Heaven sells this stuff called Super Grunge, this stuff gets real tough stains out of your carboys.

 

[TJsBasement]

I guess my question is, was this sale in your neighborhood and do you know the people who sold them? Might be simple to ask if they know what might have been stored in them. If in a strange neighborhood, with stranges selling them, in todays world I trust no one. Gosh, could they have been used in a meth lab.

No I don't really know what was in them, the guys selling them claim wine only and they was stored clean but just looking at them told me otherwise. I haggled a bit and got three 5 gallon carboys for 30 bucks.

I'm diggin on the acid idea so far, that should remove everything but the glass. Word of warning here, caustic soda/sodium hydroxide/lye=good stuff in drain cleaner and any strong acid are both extremely corrosive and will burn your flesh and bones until gone plus there is a fire risk, before anyone uses anything like this you really need to read up or talk with someone that knows how to handle it, I know about a couple things to have on hand should an accident happen and you need to neutralize it but I'm don't know enough to hand out advice on it so do your homework.

 

[New_Guy_Brad]

If you want to give your arms a workout theres a method that works very well.

1 cup dry rice
3 tbsp baking soda
enough Hot water to make like a slurry.

cover the opening with your hand and shake away. the baking soda and rice acts like a internal sandblaster. has never failed me yet and ive bought some dirty carboys one even with a dead mouse in it.

 

[TJsBasement]

Rice is a good one, another food safe abrasive is kosher rock salt. I actually rehurt a previous shoulder injury last night by vigorously shaking a gallon of one step in a carboy mid air so no more of that, I could hardly sleep. I'm thinking maybe try and hack together a carboy rocker table or sling of some sorts.

 

[TJsBasement]

Well I been thinking it over and I'm not going to use these carboys. I got myself freaked out enough about them being used and I'm feeling a bit timid in my older age about using the corrosive options. Will any a you local guys use these ? PM me if ya want them. I found out one has a tiny fracture on the bottom so I only have 2 five gallon carboys from Mexico to get rid of, or 3 if you can make use of the cracked one, maybe trade for a bottle of wine or something whatever. They are clean for the most part but the one still has a streak running down the inside and the seller claimed they was only used for wine but I truly have no idea, seemed like an alright guy but who knows. My trash goes out on Sundays as will these.

I'll post pics in a few minutes.

 

[TJsBasement]

The clean one, has a few scratches on the side




That one has the streaks, kinda a red color.




Better inspection and its not a crack, just a scratch.

 

[Runningwolf]

TJ, a lot of folks use them to throw their change into. Consider keeping one for something like that or mayber ask your family if they would like one. I understand not wanting to keep it for wine but there are other purposes.

 

[TJsBasement]

I'm a very big fan of reusing stuff but glass just does not last around here, if it don't say Playskool just take it out of the box and straight into the trash.

 

[TJsBasement]

Well it's in the works of being not my problem to clean. Thanks for tips guys, I remember stuff like that so I owe ya one. If they become available again I'll post here.

 

[Born2Wine]

Here's my two cents. 1) I'm a nurse and we are known to be real concerned about germs and bacteria. 2) a couple of our most feared bugs is HIV and the Hep C virus. 3) a dilute of bleach water kills both HIV and Hep c etc etc. 4) I'd bleach water ur car boys, rinse well and make wine.

 

[euphio]

That white stuff looks like it might just be hard water stains.
You could remove it using something like CLR or Limeaway.
The cleaner is pretty caustic though, so I'd rinse like crazy after you use it.

 

[Born2Wine]

TJ, I think I left out the logic in post 19. My thought is if bleach water will kill HIV and Hep C virus then it will kill anything laying inside an old abused carboy. Further, if you can't scrub it off with what you're doing then it's pretty unlikely it will come off while aging wine. I don't think I'd worry about it after scrubbing it like you have followed by bleach water sitting in it for 24 hours.