used keg cleaning

[panadero]

Hello all,
I have forty plastic kegs (pka), half barrel. They have been through a few breweries, but look good. I decided to take out the spears just because they have been sitting for months, and a few of them seem to be not quite perfectly seamed on the inside. Looks like a stainless mesh with black plastic on it coming out of the side wall two thirds up on the inside. Is this the keg deteriorating from excessive washing (ha ha) or just bad manufacturing? I only took out four spears so far, but thought I should do them all for peace of mind. I will try to get a picture, but I am not sure the camera will not completely block the light. The spears are in excellent shape, and two of the four kegs I opened are fine. Assuming it IS just stainless mesh and a poor hdpe seam, with a good cleaning regimen am I fine using them?
Any advice appreciated.
Thanks,
David

[panadero]

picture

I finally got a semi decent picture...

[einhorn]

Contact PKA about this directly.

[troybinso]

Any updates on this thread?

[panadero]

I did contact pka, and they were going to replace 5 of my kegs with new ones so they could test them. Then the redhook accident happened, and they haven't been back in touch. I am still using 3/4ths of the forty kegs I bought, the others were all stripped - threaded spears. I wash manually - i.e. a self rigged cleanup on a vfd pump - search around here, there are pictures. It takes a while to clean, but I can multi task.
For the price I paid, and the age - at least six years - I feel I have gotten my moneys worth, but would like to replace with stainless over time.
David

[Ted Briggs]

1- my guess is the black deposits are Calcium Oxalate from using caustic in a Co2 environment. Use phos/nitric at passivation strength to remove.
2- you really want to take the chance of a keg blowing up in your face?

[panadero]

The deposits all came clean, it was the steel mesh I was worried about getting clean. As far as blowing up kegs, I use 10 pounds pressure on my air, and co2 while cleaning.
David

[Ted Briggs]

"Nitric Acid is very oxidative and can cause the keg to become brittle over time depending on the type of plastic used."
Good to know!