Trisodium Phosphate

[Doc]

Disclaimer
This is not inteneded as one of those my sterlisier is better than yours topics, or just use household bleach.

Topic Start
I've been using Pink Stain (PSR) for cleaning all my kit for years and I'm really happy with it. I understand that PSR is based on Trisodium phosphate. I'm guessing on the based on part as it is sold as a cleaner and sanitising product yet Trisodium Phosphate is not a sanitiser. So therefore it is probably Chlorinated Trisodium Phosphate with the chlorine providing the santitising function.

Now to the point of the post. Is this fine to use on copper ? My new CFC arrives tomorrow and I want to clean and sterilise it for the weekends brewing and would like to use the same cleaning and sanitising product I use for everything else.
From some internet searches it appears that chlorine and copper can react to get copper chloride but this appears to be when the copper is heated up.

Does anyone have a difinitive answer for me ?

TIA,
Doc

 

[RobW]

This is what Palmer says:

Cleaning and sanitizing copper with bleach solutions is not recommended. The chlorine and hypochlorites in bleach cause oxidation and blackening of copper and brass. If the oxides come in contact with the mildly acidic wort, the oxides will quickly dissolve, possibly exposing yeast to unhealthy levels of copper during fermentation.


Full story here: http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixB.html

 

[sosman]

If it were simply TSP then I would have guessed this is ok for copper, it is mildly alkaline IIRC. Soak a piece of scrap copper in it and check.