How To Unblock My New Stainless Steel Air Stone

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jeddog

Well-Known Member
Joined
4/10/06
Messages
404
Reaction score
23
Just bought a stainless steel air stone to airate my wort and had blocked up already after one day. :angry:

anyone got ideas on how to unblock my new stainless steel air stone?


regards Jeddog
 
Buy another oe.

If you search the web you'll find procedures for unblocking airstones, probably for those used in fishtanks that are a bit more open than what we're using. Either way, it didn't unblock mine, I bought another one and have been MUCH more careful with it.
 
soak it in metho.

worked for me
 
After chatting to Ross from Craftbrewer, the answer is to connect it to my CO2 bottle and blow it out....and never put the stone in liquid without it running

Worked a treat!! :lol:


Thanks Ross, love the service
:D
jeddog
 
Was going to suggest about 200 pounds per square inch, but Ross beat me to it :rolleyes:
 
Sorry to dig up an old topic but I put together an aearation setup last night using an aquarium pump, inline filter and a 2micro stainless stone.

I boiled the stone to sterilize it and had it running in the boiling water and it was bubbling away as you would expect but as soon as it enters normal cold water I lose all bubbles except for a few tiny ones where the barb enters the stone.

Am I doing something wrong here? Should I try soaking/running it in metho? Boiling it for longer? The fact that it works fine in boiling water has thrown me a little.

Cheers,

Paul
 
Wouldn't it expand a little due to heat in boiling water?
 
Stux said:
Wouldn't it expand a little due to heat in boiling water?
Thats what I thought but it's stainless steel would it really expand that much at only 100degrees?
 
Dip in metho, compressed air, voila.

A routine procedure for my stones.
 
Being stainless steel, you could always try my proven method for unblocking all manner of stainless steel filters:

Get a jet lighter/torch (butane preferrable but propane will work too)
Heat up until it glows then blow compressed air/CO2 through it
Blockage solved

this works for everything from my aquarium filter/airstones to water filter and washing machine inlet hose filters
 
Thanks for the responses guys. I'll give the metho a run this evening and try and find someone with a compressor or a CO2 cylinder I could steal for a second.

I don't really trust myself heating it to glowing point but I won't dismiss that option yet!

Cheers!
 
Thought I had it sorted after soaking in metho for a few hours. Bubbles fine in the metho and fine in the hot water I was using to clean the metho out but as soon as it went to a glass of cold water a big fat zero. Will try and give it a blast on a mates CO2 cylinder and see if I have any luck.

Could it be a bit of a dud or is this somewhat normal?
 
2 micron. Are there higher micron stainless stones? All I seem to be able to find are 2 and 0.5. The 0.5 is for force carbonation and won't work with an aquarium pump correct?
 
Ducatiboy stu said:
Dangerous chemicals, violence and swearing should fix it
Well I did just read that a quick dip in some hydrochloric acid should clean out the holes. Still a few options left!
 
Is the pump powerful enough?

It appears to work in less dense liquids than cold water
 
Mr B said:
Is the pump powerful enough?

It appears to work in less dense liquids than cold water
I hope so. It's an ebay special but they claim its 210L/h which is pretty good. Maybe it's my punishment for looking for the cheapest way to an aeration kit.
 
Ok I just took it out of the metho and went straight into the cold and it worked. Thanks again for your advice guys!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top