Iodophor Pitfalls

[shonky]

Tony, try Gerard from ND brewing.



No affiliations etc. (how about a discount Gerard?!)

 

[Gerard_M]

where can i get my nice un diluted iodophur from now ????????????
cheers

Actually I hadn't thought of diluting it, and now that I give it some thought, with the drought & water restrictions it would probably work out to expensive to add the water to it! :blink:
Bummer :angry:

I have had a customer admit to using it on a cut. He said it didn't get infected and healed very well, but the iodophor hurt more than the initial cut did.
Cheers
Gerard

Oh & Shonky I will give you an extra vial of WLP810 for your trouble.

 

[PostModern]

OK, spill the beans about the HCl, Post modern!!!.

No interesting story to tell. I just recently painted the concrete floor inside my house (living room, entryway and landing) a lovely shade of purple (Scotty now calls my place "Chez Purple Floor"). I acid etched it, as one does. I thought there was better value buying chemicals in bulk, so I now have 4 litres of 5 from the bottle left over and don't like leaving it around the place, as I have 3 primary school aged boys. I overheard the kids hatching a plot to "dissolve the school", so there is even more imperative to get the stuff out of here As Scotty is now inspired to paint his brewery floor purple, I thought he might save himself the trip to Bunnings for some dangerous chemicals.

PoMo,

Another old saying is ......

"Scotty and Dangerous chemicals don't mix" - well no too safely anyway

I've heard that... It was him the sparked the idea of cleaning my fermenters in caustic. Luckily I did it unsupervised by him.

If there is a brewing application for concentrated hydrochloric acid I'm sure Scotty, if anyone, will find it.

I have had a customer admit to using it on a cut. He said it didn't get infected and healed very well, but the iodophor hurt more than the initial cut did.

To get back on topic of iodophor... I once had a brewing mis-hap that led to a bleeding hand. Cut my hand on the tear-off blade of the cling wrap, I believe. There was nothing about but my iodophor squirt bottle (diluted). I too can testify that there were no harmful effects apart from the damn awful sting of the iodine.

 

[Jye]

The last 2 Basic Brewing podcasts have been on sanitation and Murl Landman from National Chemicals was on talking about iodophor. Lot of useful info which included that you can not store iodophor once it has been diluted (1ml per L) for example in a spray bottle <_< It will only have a shelf life of about 60hrs.

Not sure if this has already been mentioned.

 

[tangent]

2 of the most informative podcasts i've heard in a while.
i was thinking about your spraybottle!

 

[Darren]

Didn't hear the podcast. Did they say that if there is colour in the diluted iodophor then it will still do its job, albeit slower than is recommended on the bottle?

cheers

Darren

 

[Jye]

Didn't hear the podcast. Did they say that if there is colour in the diluted iodophor then it will still do its job, albeit slower than is recommended on the bottle?

cheers

Darren

I cant remember, Im going to listen to them both again since they were very informative. The second one has Charlie Talley from Five Star Chemicals and talks about bleach for half of the show before finally getting to Star San (which I believe is phos acid based).

 

[devo]

Idophor rocks, best thing since sliced bread. :beerbang:

 

[Darren]

I cant remember, Im going to listen to them both again since they were very informative. The second one has Charlie Talley from Five Star Chemicals and talks about bleach for half of the show before finally getting to Star San (which I believe is phos acid based).

I hope both these guys disclosed the vested interests (if they have any) in the products they are talking about.

cheers

Darren

 

[Kingy]

funny i came across this topic i put a brew down last friday and refilled my iodpher spray bottle.

this arvo i went to use it and the bottle wouldnt spray,so i got a bit heavy handed with it wondering why and iodopher got into a cut on my hand through a bandaid,and i tell u what!!!! ABSOLUTE INSTANT STINGING....

seems ok now tho,might dab some on all my injurys from now on. Then again, maybe not!

 

[Brewtus]

I used to gargle the stuff more concentrated than I use for sanitizing to get rid of throat infections on Doctors orders. Didn't do me any harm.

 

[milpod]

Shouldn't we be rotating our sanitizers anyway.If we all use one product,isn't the same as an unfinished anti biotic script?

 

[Screwtop]

As with all of these products I believe the phosphoric acid component will remain viable over long storage periods but the Iodine has a short shelf life especially in strong light. Why Tincture of Iodine (2% iodine, 2.4% sodium iodide and alcohol) is sold in dark brown bottles, iodine is more stable mixed with higher levels of alcohol.

As for the "shelf life" of B-T-F Iodophor, Dr. Landman, General Manager of "National Chemicals Inc." of Winona, MN. and is a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology, relates a story about one of their distributors who had found a case of the product that had been forgotten for 5 years and returned it to the manufacturer. NCI tested the 5-year-old product and found that it still met standards. This was, of course, undiluted iodophor that had been well packaged and protected from exposure to light, air etc. In either case, it is far more stable than chlorine, which begins to degrade immediately upon being manufactured. The color of the iodophor solution is a rough guide to it's effectiveness as a sanitizer. If the solution still has its amber color, it is most likely still active. It is recommended that a fresh solution should be mixed when the color fades or after 12 hours.

Please remember, Iodophor is not a cleaning agent. In fact, introducing dirty items to the Iodophor solution will degrade its sanitizing properties rapidly. Items to be sanitized must be thoroughly cleaned before hand.

Find more info Here

 

[microbe]

I have recently started using Iodophor after years of misguided Sodium Met use. I believe I'm using it at the correct strength as stated on the bottle (1mL in 1L or 1:1000) but the amber colour is not very strong at all. Kind of like a very pale ginger beer. Does that seem right to anyone else that uses it? or should the colour be more distinct?

cheers,

microbe

 

[Stuster]

No that sounds about right, microbe. From listening to those podcasts mentioned earlier in the thread, it's best to keep it at that strength as well. It's very easy to add a bit more thinking it'll work better but then it's not no-rinse.

 

[Andyd]

Yep - Murl said that most brewers use too strong a solution.

With regard to shelf life, Iodophore basically degrates as it works on organic matter and due to exposure to light. It's particularly susceptible when diluted.

A test you could do (which I haven't) would be to take some wort and put it into Petri dishes sanitised with iodophor of varying ages. I might try this one when I get back from holidays...

Andy