cleaning poly tanks&how

[mitchellbob]

i want to clean my 500 gallon poly tank what can i use to clean it .

[Fred Henderson]

What has been in it?

[Father & Son]

I use a bleach and water mixture (10%), slosh it around, then reach inside with a mop and mop whatever I can reach. A pressure washer works nice but make sure the bleach is rinsed out or you will speckle your clothes. Ask me how I know.

Jim

[KenWP]

You can put a 45 degree angle on the pressure washer to get the cornors. Works well except the gun goes sideways.

[jrthe3]

i put on the rain gear on a nice warm day and get right in with a brush the power washer and some dawn

[smitty76]

I use a water and bleach mix with a mop. I can only get into 2 of my tanks so the mop works good to get into the one I can't get into.

[PerryW]

power washer and some dawn

I was told to never use soap on sugaring equipment.

[Jim Brown]

CORRECT!! never use soap on any equipment that touches the sap or the syrup....VERY HOT water and pressure are what we use on every thing!

our two cents

Jim

[Haynes Forest Products]

So I wash my dishes in soap and some of the equipment I have gotten was so dirty when I got it we washed it in hot soapy water and I had a SS bulk tank with bird crap on it and that would be OK but if I wash it with soap I just ruined it...............Come on folks if you wash it with dish soap and then rince it with hot water YOU AINT GOING TO DIE and yes I sell my syrup after I have done this:o PISSSSSSSST hey I even used gasoline to get a sticker off a piece of equipment and then washed it with soapy water and then made maple syrup with it HOLY CRAP

[Dave Y]

Haynes,
I think the issue with soap is residue that comes in contact with sap and then boiled. It can cause an off flavor. I don't think it will make you sick. I use chlorine Bleach and rinse very well. I wouldn't wash a plastic tank with soap as the soap odors can be permeated into the plastic and you never get rid of it

[DrTimPerkins]

The recommendation in maple is to primarily use hot water. A small amount of chlorox is fine (if necessary) if rinsed thoroughly. Soap should be used only if absolutely needed, and then only sparingly, and should be rinsed with copious amounts of water. If you do use soap, use a type that is readily easy to rinse and leaves very little residue, like Alconox.

The reasoning...the maple flavor, especially in light syrup, is very delicate and can be readily overcome by a small amount of soap residue, which is concentrated by boiling. If you've ever tasted "soap" off-flavor, you'd probably not ever use soap again.

And please don't complain to me about this or write that you do it and it works for you. If that's the case, no problem. I didn't make up these recommendations (and that's what they are...recommendations, not regulations) they've been around forever in the maple industry.

In the case of the poly tank....if it's real nasty, try chlorox and rinse real well. Poly tanks are very hard to keep clean. Plastics in general are somewhat porous and will take on off-flavors and odors.

Tim P.
UVM PMRC

[jrthe3]

ok i picked up a 425 gallon poly tank today it was used for well water it has some iron build up on it i tryed to pressure wash it out did not work real well i can not get in it cause it only has a 10 inch opening what you think i should use to clean it off or should i just let it go it will just be a gathering tank so sap will only be in it for a hour at the most do you think the iron will hurt anything

[Haynes Forest Products]

Well its not Iron any more its rust and its stained into the plastic. If it was to leach out into the sap it would be a very small particals that would filter out. I bet if you scraped it all off the sides and ate it your body wouldnt notice. Try CLR on a small section.

[Brent]

A product we get at Home Depot called "Iron Out" may help. We add this to our water softener to get the iron off the resin beads, otherwise they get coated with iron and the softener loses effectiveness. Can't see on the label what it is but I'm pretty sure it will be a powered acid. It is pretty good, but not wonderful, at getting iron staining out of toilet tanks etc.

I'll bet there is some iron in sap anyway, is that right Dr. Tim ?

[KenWP]

If the tank used well water and got stained we used to use a acid based chem in the pressure washer to remove it. My vet only had us use it once a year to remove film and such off of the walls and waterers so that the disenfectants would work again and the chlorine could do it's job. To do the tanks right I used to put a 45 on the end of the pressure washer wand to do the tops and the tops of the sides.

[DrTimPerkins]

I'll bet there is some iron in sap anyway, is that right Dr. Tim ?

Yes, there is typically some iron in maple syrup. Averages about 10 ppm.

If it doesn't come off with a pressure washer I'd just leave the tank alone. This assumes that you're sure it is just iron stains and the tank wasn't used for something else which caused the stain.

[jrthe3]

i know it was iron stains the tank was bought brand new by my uncle 8 years ago and i helped him put it in his basement for drinking water storage but now he got city water and no longer needs it

[The Sappy Steamer]

I use a little bleach or food grade hydrogen peroxide to clean our tanks. One thing I would recommend is to make yourself up a pvc pipe extension to go on a wet/dry shop vac to suck out any remaining water in closed tanks. Really keeps the nasties from growing. We have a vacuum that we only use for sugaring. It works great for us.

[Mike in NY]

So I wash my dishes in soap and some of the equipment I have gotten was so dirty when I got it we washed it in hot soapy water and I had a SS bulk tank with bird crap on it and that would be OK but if I wash it with soap I just ruined it...............Come on folks if you wash it with dish soap and then rince it with hot water YOU AINT GOING TO DIE and yes I sell my syrup after I have done this:o PISSSSSSSST hey I even used gasoline to get a sticker off a piece of equipment and then washed it with soapy water and then made maple syrup with it HOLY CRAP

different but the same; My 2 qt stainless thermos for my coffee. I used to drink that every morning while milking. When done I would hot rinse it w/hot clear water then hot rinse it again next am before refilling. occasionaly my wife would get her hands on it and wash it w/ the dishes (dish soap)
and then for my coffee would taste like soap for a day or 2.
so I got better at hiding it.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I dont drink Coffee But once a month and last night I did as you do I washed My wifes two travel mugs ONLY in hot water....................Now if she would just travel:lol: :evil:

[dano2840]

ive always used a 5 gal bucket of hot water with about a 2 second squirt of dish soap, and a scrub brush, rinse with hot water and then with cold and have never had a problem

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

This dish detergent is a funny issue. I wash out all my woods tanks with good old blue DAWN detergent at the end of every season along with all my sap and syrup buckets. Key is to rinse them good. Funny but still remember when I flew up to Verona in 2004 for the conference and I was sitting in a room of aprox 150 or more people and Steven Childs was doing the seminar on exactly what I can't remember and he popped the big NO NO QUESTION. He ask how many people used dish detergent to clean tanks and other things with and I was only one in room that raised my hand and I guess most everyone looked at me like I was an idiot until he said everyone should be doing it. Bet you could have heard a pin drop in that huge room we were in.

A few years ago an inspector was at a sugarhouse and tasted some of their syrup out of one of the barrells they had produced and he got pretty sick. Come to find out the syrup had acid in it from where they didn't rinse the evaporator very good. Should we quit using acid? Of course not but like detergent, it needs to be rinsed good. I find out I can get my tanks much cleaner on the outside from where mud or dirt may have splashed and stained a little with detergent than without along with my syrup drawoff and storage buckets.

[KenWP]

Bacteria make a sort of oil that you need soap to wash off with. I had a crew once that refused to wash with soap until the CFIA inspector found out. They basically said it was okay to wash their hands with out soap as long as the water was boiling hot but until they got that tough to use soap or else.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Im going with the dish soap WITH ALOT OF RINCE WATER I always use alot of rince water. I hate the slimy feeling of soap on things I clean. Spill a coke and try and wash it off with mineral spi:mad: rits Try and clean the SS BBQ of the oils that build up on the outside with Stright Bleech:mad: Now use cleanup with a little soap in it:) With a oil fired arch and my tanks on the outside and everyday dust slime and planes flying over I find that its better to get them clean with alot of hot water and That I have alot of.

IS IT BETTER TO CLEAN THE CRUD OFF WITH DAWN DISH SOAP AND RINCE WITH ALOT OF HOT WATER OR JUST STERILIZE THE CRUD AND LEAVE IT IN PLACE?????:rolleyes:

[DrTimPerkins]

I find out I can get my tanks much cleaner on the outside from where mud or dirt may have splashed and stained a little with detergent than without along with my syrup drawoff and storage buckets.

Using detergent to clean exterior surfaces is not a problem...good rinsing is still recommended. IF you do use soap on the inside of sap tanks or other materials that come into contact with sap, you should be sure to use an unscented type of detergent and then should use it very sparingly, and rinse it copiously. If you can get away with just washing with lots of hot water, that is even better.

Most detergent formulations are made for dispersing fats and oils. There isn't much of that in sap (until you get to the point in the evaporator where you add defoamer), so detergents aren't terribly necessary. There are some types of detergents that are made to leave very low amounts of residue (Alconox is one type we use in science laboratories...but even then when we do analytical work....after washing then rinsing glassware with water, we follow that with an acid wash to burn off any residue, followed by lots more rinsing with water).

[PerryW]

I find that a weak solution of Unscented Bleach and water will wash both poly, galv & SS. Tanks and works great.

I would stay away from dish soap unless you have lots of rinse hot rinse water.