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Using Dioxy-Chlor (oxine) in a Premier Stainless Keg washer?

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  • Using Dioxy-Chlor (oxine) in a Premier Stainless Keg washer?

    We have began using dioxy-Chlor in our brewery for sanitizing tanks, HEX etc. We would like to start using it in our premier keg washer. The chemical pump takes a pretty low dilution of sanitizer. My question is: is anybody using oxine or dioxy Chlor in their premier keg washer? What dilution rates are you using and how are you activating the oxine? My concern is that the concentration will be too high to safely add phosphoric acid to activate it.

    Any and all info would be appreciated.

    Premier has no clue.
    Last edited by Azbrewdude; 08-28-2015, 09:19 AM.

  • #2
    It's really just a math problem.

    The little peristaltic pump that doses the oxine will pump in a metered amount of sanitizer solution.
    The sanitizer cycle will pump in a certain amount of water based on your water pressure and how long the valve is open.
    Combine so much solution to so much water and you get the ppm you want for your oxine.

    The machine blows out the sani solution after its wait period. So just run a cycle, and collect the volume of water shot out of the drain at the end of the sani cycle into a bucket. That's the amount of water (plus the amount of sani solution if you've hooked it up for the test - ours is an older model and is 8oz/minute and runs 30 seconds so 4oz goes in. I believe they've changed pumps so it adds more total solution, so the dilution is less oxine. More on this later.) It'll probably be about 2 to 3 gallons of water. From that calculate how much oxine you need in there, and what dilution you'll need for adding however ounces your pump will add.

    On ours this works out to about a 40/60 oxine to water ratio, using our 8oz peristaltic pump and Oxine supplied by Wesmar Chemicals. YMMV. We activate the oxine using a small amount of nitric acid, then dilute and we're good to go. In terms of concentration, just don't stick your head in there or anything and you'll be fine. Use a pH meter to make sure it's low enough to activate but not so low that you over-activate it. Talk to your chemical supplier.

    Some advice: On mine, and others around I've spoken to, the peristaltic pump sucks. In that, it both sucks, and it sucks. Oxine and PAA will, over time, destroy the hose feeding the pump, the hose inside the pump, and the backflow check valve it feeds into. So, and I cannot stress this enough, make sure you have backups of both the pump hose and the backflow valve on hand. If the check valve is going, the hose will start to visibly shake and inflate more than usual on the downstream end. If you don't do anything, not only is potentially not enough sanitizer getting in, but it will lead to either the small hose popping out of the pump and spraying oxine everywhere (and not into your kegs), or bursting the hose inside the pump. If it bursts inside the pump, or just starts to spring tiny leaks over time (which it will), oxine can go down the drive shaft, into the electrical box, form chlorine gas, and short out your touch screen. (That was expensive.) They've put an o-ring in there now, on later models. So go check there's a silicon ring between the pump drive motor and the box. Otherwise regularly inspect and make sure the hose inside the pump is in good shape, well lubricated, etc.. Finally, the hose supplying the sanitizer to the pump is just standard icemaker hose, you can get it for next to nothing at a hardware store. So when it turns brittle and starts to fall apart, replace it.
    Russell Everett
    Co-Founder / Head Brewer
    Bainbridge Island Brewing
    Bainbridge Island, WA

    Comment


    • #3
      Cheers!

      Originally posted by Bainbridge View Post
      It's really just a math problem.

      The little peristaltic pump that doses the oxine will pump in a metered amount of sanitizer solution.
      The sanitizer cycle will pump in a certain amount of water based on your water pressure and how long the valve is open.
      Combine so much solution to so much water and you get the ppm you want for your oxine.

      The machine blows out the sani solution after its wait period. So just run a cycle, and collect the volume of water shot out of the drain at the end of the sani cycle into a bucket. That's the amount of water (plus the amount of sani solution if you've hooked it up for the test - ours is an older model and is 8oz/minute and runs 30 seconds so 4oz goes in. I believe they've changed pumps so it adds more total solution, so the dilution is less oxine. More on this later.) It'll probably be about 2 to 3 gallons of water. From that calculate how much oxine you need in there, and what dilution you'll need for adding however ounces your pump will add.

      On ours this works out to about a 40/60 oxine to water ratio, using our 8oz peristaltic pump and Oxine supplied by Wesmar Chemicals. YMMV. We activate the oxine using a small amount of nitric acid, then dilute and we're good to go. In terms of concentration, just don't stick your head in there or anything and you'll be fine. Use a pH meter to make sure it's low enough to activate but not so low that you over-activate it. Talk to your chemical supplier.

      Some advice: On mine, and others around I've spoken to, the peristaltic pump sucks. In that, it both sucks, and it sucks. Oxine and PAA will, over time, destroy the hose feeding the pump, the hose inside the pump, and the backflow check valve it feeds into. So, and I cannot stress this enough, make sure you have backups of both the pump hose and the backflow valve on hand. If the check valve is going, the hose will start to visibly shake and inflate more than usual on the downstream end. If you don't do anything, not only is potentially not enough sanitizer getting in, but it will lead to either the small hose popping out of the pump and spraying oxine everywhere (and not into your kegs), or bursting the hose inside the pump. If it bursts inside the pump, or just starts to spring tiny leaks over time (which it will), oxine can go down the drive shaft, into the electrical box, form chlorine gas, and short out your touch screen. (That was expensive.) They've put an o-ring in there now, on later models. So go check there's a silicon ring between the pump drive motor and the box. Otherwise regularly inspect and make sure the hose inside the pump is in good shape, well lubricated, etc.. Finally, the hose supplying the sanitizer to the pump is just standard icemaker hose, you can get it for next to nothing at a hardware store. So when it turns brittle and starts to fall apart, replace it.
      Excellent! I know what dilution I need to use, just anted to make sure it was safe chemically. As far as extra parts, we are 5 miles from Premier, so we can get spare parts anytime.

      Cheers!

      Comment

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