StillSmart

Being naive I assumed that the nice shiny coil I put in my column would remain in that condition, and be cleaned by the high strength vapours that it would be subjected to.

With my last upgrade I have just removed the coil and I gurned when I smelt it, the colour is just as bad, dark and dirty. I thought the vapour would be relatively clean, where does the muck comes from? I do not know.

I have been rising the column with a couple of kettlefuls of hot water after each run, but that is obviously not enough, and I will have to alter my routine.

I have tried to clean the coil but the triple layers of cooling tubes do not lend themselves to being scrubbed. So I am looking for something that I can soak them in, vinegar? citric acid? Any one any suggestions or experience?

How do you clean yours? Do you? How often?

I use Distilled White Vinegar. Does a good job and it's cheap

You could also dunk it for half and hour in the slops from your boiler after a stripping run

AM

Hot slops is my favourite for cleaning copper, and its free Citric acid plus some salt is also very good.

I cant say my reflux coil stinks, its very dark and oxidised, but I have never found the need to clean it. I guess with a VM I never let the tails get as far as the output, never mind the coil, so the rinse out of the column at the end seems to be enough for me to stop it stinking the place up.

Let it soak in 60 C water with some salt and lemon juice or citric acid. The copper should come up clean as new. Rinse really well.