Cleaning a Cold plate and a Therminator

Systems, Gear, & DIY
1

I haven’t fired up the stainless steel draft cold plate in while and I am looking for some advice on what products to use to ensure a solid deep clean.  I only have Star San and Iodine on hand.

Also, I have seen posts on placing the Therminator in the oven after multiple uses. I have been thorough with my post chilling maintenance, but would like to do a nice invasive nuking of the chiller now that it has been used 10 times or so.  For those of you who bake it, for how long and at what temps?  Any downsides?  Can the cold plate go in too?

Thanks in advance…

2

The products you mention are sanitizers, not cleaners.

3

I’d give both of them a running through with Acid 5 and PBW.

4

Heating your bottles or equipment to 350F for at least 60 min will sanitize. The equipment must be free of organic deposits (clean) then it can be heated. I have the therminator and I clean and sanitize by thoroughly rinsing then boiling for 20min. Never had a problem with sanitation (infected beers) as of yet.

5

I once sent John Blichmann an email asking if a Therminator could be sanitized in a pressure cooker.  He said it would be fine but the stickers would probably fall off (and maybe that black rubber strip).  I haven’t tried it yet.

I generally run hot (160) PBW through it recirculating with a pump.  Make sure to run the PBW through in both directions.  Then I run hot water through to rinse.  Finally I use an airhose to dry it out.  Never had a problem.

Before use I generally run sani-clean through the chiller.  I like sani-clean for this because it doesn’t foam as much as star-san.  Note that the contact time required is slightly longer.

6

As Denny said, you need to clean them first, then sanitize.

Dry heat in the oven, I use 285F for 3 hours on time-bake, will sterilize the equipment.