Hi, I would like to know how can I clean a Copper Brazed Stainless Steel Plate Heat Exchanger taking into account that copper reacts with almost all detergents. In order to develop a CIP cleaning, what cleaner would be used?
All SST plate chillers have copper brazing. My Blichmann Therminator has served me well and I do perform caustic and acid circulations for cleaning and sanitizing. One thing is for sure, don’t do them for long. That will erode the copper. I figure it will probably erode through when I’m 100. I don’t worry about it.
Are you sure that it is copper brazed and not hard silver soldered? The alloy used in hard silver soldering contains a significant amount of copper.
I’m not sure, but the brazing that is exposed at the edges of my chiller is copper colored. I’m assuming it’s copper.
Copper, per Therminator™ | Blichmann Engineering
That is good to know. Hard silver soldering is actually silver brazing because hard silver solder melts at over 1000F. What is referred to as silver soldering in the homebrewing community is not silver soldering. It is just soldering with a solder that contains a small amount of silver that melts below 850F.