I’ve seen some references to Oxyclean here. I know it works for laundry and the like, but can someone tell me what I can use it for in my brewing and what procedures I would have to use? Rinse, no rinse, extra rinse? Ok for the brew kettle but never for bottles? Safe for carboys, glass or plastic but never for stainless steel? All of the above or none of the above? Thanks for any help you can give me.
I pretty much use it to clean everything from plastics to my brew kettle and it works great. It does need to be thoroughly rinsed like any cleaner should.
I’ve used Oxiclean Versatile for pretty much all of my brewery cleaning for close to 15 years. The only thing I wouldn’t use it for is AL. Works great for glass, plastic, vinyl tubing, etc. I use 1-2 Tbsp. per 6 gal. fermenter in hot water (don’t use hot water for carboys). Rinse thoroughly after using.
Ok, two quick questions. What is AL and why no hot water for carboys? I’m using plastic carboys so would that make a difference? That’s three questions, but who’s counting?
AL= aluminum. Some people use Al kettles
Hot water should never be used on glass carboys. There’s too much risk of shattering. Yeah, I know some people do it, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. No problem with plastic.
Thank you both. I would never have considered using Oxyclean for anything but clothes. Thanks again.
If I remember correctly (big if sometimes) Straight A and Oxyclean are basically the same thing. Minor chemical differences and big cost difference. Both work great so you may as well use the cheaper option.
Paul
Isnt PBW just really Souped up Oxyclean? Essentially an alkaline cleaner?
An Oxyclean soak is good for removing labels.
I like to clean my mash tun with Oxiclean before each use. I prefer Bleach for my fermentation buckets so they are sanitized at the same time. That requires a thorough rinse with HOT water though.
I’ve actually found oxyclean to be a detriment with high efficiency clothes washers. 
I clean my plastic fermenters with Oxy versatile. Use a caustic lye (sodium hydroxide) soak in the buckets about every 5 batches. That’s about it for the brewery. My AL kettle gets scrubbed with copper scrubbies and no detergent whatsoever. Glass is bad news altogether.
BLEACH Bleach leaves a residue and need to be rinsed. IMO, the rinsing defeats the purpose. Spend the $ for Iodiphor or Star San, no-rinse sanitizers.
I think it has to do with the water here but PBW works significantly better than Oxyclean. Oxyclean leaves a gritty residue on everything- I had to use something acidic to clean it out of my carboys, tubing, buckets, etc. I dont get that with PBW
I’ve found that oxyclean doesn’t always remove all of the krausen ring even after an extended soak, but the PBW will.
Although I use StarSan, I don’t agree about the rinsing. I’ve always considered this an overblown worry unless you are using your own well water. I like the no-rinse stuff because I don’t need to do the extra step of rinsing, and that it takes more effort to use bleach effectively. Charley Talley (Five Star Chemicals, who used to be in the bleach manufacturing business before Five Star) has some really good info on how to use bleach correctly in one of the interviews he did with Basic Brewing Radio or Brew Strong (I don’t remember which). Two of the big things I recall are that you want to acidify your water with the bleach, and that large brand bleach loses its microbe killing potency over time because they add sodium hydroxide and the cheap brands don’t. Also, if you do the acidified bleach treatment in the right amounts, you don’t need to rinse it anyway. Obviously if you want to go this route, make sure you read up on how to do it so that you don’t end up mixing your acid and bleach first before adding it to the water.
I’ve also been using Oxyclean or generic equivalents for cleaning my equipment for years. That with a Star San soak and I’ve never had an infection. I’d avoid using it on copper chillers, though.
That’s interesting. I don’t know why rinsing would defeat the purpose, especially with treated water not well water as you said. Never had an infection or an off-flavor in over 200 brews now.
For me, I can get a 3 pack of bleach at BJ’s for like $5 or something and it cleans and sanitizes my buckets in one shot. I have a gallon jug of StarSan around at all times for the spray bottle, Better Bottle and kegs. OxiClean for mash tun and initial keg cleaning.
Yup. Both are based on sodium percarbonate, but PBW also has some detergents and sodium silicate and whatnot in there. Wild guess, OxyClean doesn’t include those extras because it’s designed to be used in combination with laundry detergent which probably already has them.
We’re talking cleaning, not sanitizing.
Now we’re splitting hairs… ::) Mayhap you mean cleaning, not disinfecting?
FWIW I rinsed with untreated well water for years with nary a single bad batch to show for it.