This has been my experience as well. I recently let the Craftmeister Oxy based cleaner re-circulate for 2 hours (warmed water mixture while I attended to yard work) and could not believe the amount of crud it pulled out of everything from silicone hoses (they look brand new again) to the system pumps and coils in my HERMS set up. This was after I did my usual cleaning process! I will be deep cleaning like this (periodically - quarterly) now for the foreseeable future. I never got this clean in the past with Oxyclean or PBW, though I never recirc’d for that long before, either.
^^^^
I bet that long recirculating operation was the biggest thing. Effectiveness of any cleaner is a product of time, temperature and concentration of the active ingredient. You can probably get the same result from any of them by finding the right balance of those three factors, increasing one to compensate for insufficiency in another. And mechanical action, whether by recirculation or elbow grease, supercharges everything. Don’t worry too much about which product you can get, as long as you can get results you like. I can’t get Craftmeister locally. I’ve bought it online because it gets good reviews here on the form, but I just didn’t find it different enough to warrant the effort and expense. I’m fine with PBW or Oxiclean.
I used to use Oxyclean because it was cheaper, but it would leave a hard gritty residue on the inside of my stainless steel parts, kegs etc. I would have to then soak it in a Star San solution to get it off.
I started using Oxiclean for the money saving aspect. I was sold on it when I bought a used carboy off craigslist that had been sitting in some guys garage for 4 years, had some beer from the last batch caked on the bottom along with bugs and other crud, he clearly didn’t attempt any cleaning before storing it. I soaked it for three days in Oxiclean, and then dumped it out, gave it a good rinse and the things was as good as brand new.
I have found that if I leave it in too long it will get this film covering that water won’t rinse out, but if I put a gallon of star san in and swirl it around for a few minutes it comes right off. I think PBW may be a bit better, but for the cost you can’t beat Oxiclean, just make sure it is non scented.
If you’re really looking to save $$$ and use supermarket products, plain distilled vinegar in a little hot water will take care of the residue left by alkaline cleaners. And you can easily tell when you’ve rinsed it sufficiently, just sniff.
Gaaah, I never thought of that before. Star-san is dang expensive if you don’t buy in bulk, and I get nervous trying to mix it in small batches to get the concentration right just to do a rinse. White distilled vinegar would be perfect for neutralizing the Oxiclean film, is premixed, and less likely to burn my hands compared to eyeballed small batch Star-san solution.