Dirty Siphon Tube

I find that homebrew (or wine making!) tubes do get blacker than 'proper' siphon tubes, though I have no idea if this is because they are narrower or made of something different. I just put up with my black tubes, though I do find that if I siphon up a dead leaf that only just fits it does take some of the black off the inside. I know that people say to drop a weight attached to a piece of string attached to a cloth into the tube and pull through to clean external filter pipework, but I think they are quite a bit wider than siphon tubing. The only other suggestion is to soak the tubing in bleach - thin supermarket basic range bleach (no perfume or surfactant) diluted 1 in 10 or baby bottle sterlising solution made up to the recommended strength. Rinse very thoroughly, with the last rinse water being overdosed with dechlorinator, before using again.

Hello All,

I couldn't find a bleach without any nasties. I do, however, now remember using Domestos in my filthy home brew bin many, many years ago - it did work. As I'm still here, I can only assume that I must have washed it out pretty well! Previous to that I had used sodium metabisulphite, which, it seems, sterilised but didn't clean. With that in mind, I went back to the home brew shop and asked their advice. They sold me a cleaner/steriliser which is not sodium metabisulphite, but is a "chlorine donor". I can find nothing about its contents. It is called "VWP", and is described as being for both household and home brew use, including teapots, dentures, and toothbrushes!

So, I gave it a go, soaking the tube for about 6 hours in a full strength solution. The tube is now slightly opaque, but is much cleaner. I gave it many rinses afterwards as Sue suggested. No apparent side effects ......apart from this rather annoying twitch ....... 

                                                     Skittler

How about baby equipment sterilizing bleach? Milton for example

I don't think it matters what you use. If you rinse it well afterwards, any trace of chemical left in it would be vanishingly minute and not cause any problems. Personally I'd just leave it as it is, it's for getting dirty water out of your tank, not for looking at, so what matter if it looks dirty.