Cleaning inside copper piping

[h22lude]

I just made a whirlpool arm. Basically just a long copper pipe with a 90° elbow to a camlock. The long end is capped at the bottom and I drilled holes going up it. Should work well. This was my second time soldering copper. First time we my IC. It came out ok. A few solder runs but that won't hurt anything.

My question, what is the best way to clean the inside? The outside I used bar keepers friend. The inside still has flux residue. I tried soap and water but that didn't do much. Should I run my set up with boiling water and PBW for 15 minutes?

Need to make sure it is clean since beer touches the inside. I don't want to be drinking that stuff.

 

[Rockn_M]

I would just run hot water with PBW or even StarSan for a few min. We drink water out of copper pipes that has been soldered.

 

[atoughram]

I always cleaned my copper pipe with Vinegar and didnt worry about the flux too much - more than likely the tap water your using goes through soldered copper pipe too.

Get a couple of gallons of cheap vinegar, heat it up, and recirculate it through the tubing you want clean. Save the vinegar for use as cleaner later if you want.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

here's what someone recommended about cleaning the flux from my DIY CFC:

"If you think there may be some solder flux in the lines, your best bet is to use some TSP that you can get from the hardware store. TSP is recommended by a lot of the equipment manufacturers of kettles, stainless conical fermenters, etc to get rid of the machining oil that may still be on the metal, it will work the same for solder flux. I would mix a batch up of TSP and very hot water (to soften the flux up) and run it through the CFC. Then follow up with a good rinse and then finally, boil water in your kettle and run that through as if you were running your wort through the system to cool. This will sanitize your system, test for leaks at the high temps and also make sure that everything is flushed out."

This stuff did the trick!