Cleaning Kettle Elements ?

[Greg2013]

What do ye guys use for cleaning the crud off your kettle elements after a boil or as part of routine maintenance ? Up to now i always boiled a little water and citric acid in the HLT and the Keggle,worked great with some elbow grease after. Removed some pretty bad elements from my HLT the other day and have them soaking in a bucket in the bathtub in caustic solution to see how that goes.

The caustic is doing the job but man is it ever slow,however i must add the only caustic i had to hand was in the form of drain unblocker from Aldi

[LordEoin]

i put them back in the original kettle and boil them with citric acid. Seems to do the trick

[Greg2013]

i put them back in the original kettle and boil them with citric acid. Seems to do the trick

Things have changed to where that HLT which is an aluminium keg is being retired for brewing purposes,so those elements will only be spares from now on,but i still want to get them cleaned up. Must get some citric and soak them in a bucket of it. 

[Paul]

If using citric acid to clean elements, how much do you use per litre ?

[Greg2013]

If using citric acid to clean elements, how much do you use per litre ?

I don't measure it exactly,i use 10lts water brought to a boil then lob in about half dozen heaping tsp citric,let it sit for 30 mins then bring to boil again,you can always use more if needed.

[Paul]

cheers. so an hour in total should do the job ?

[LordEoin]

1tsp per 100ml is recommended

[Paul]

Really? That's nearly 20 times the concentration used by Greg. I'll need about 5 litres just to cover my elements

[LordEoin]

that's what it says on the tub

[Greg2013]

You have to bear in mind that those instructions on the tub are for descaling limescale from a tea kettle or similar not for cleaning elements post home brewing,the concs required for limescale removal are therefore naturally going to be higher.

There should be no need to use 1tsp/100ml to clean home brew boiler elements,if your elements are that bad then you are probably better off to remove them and clean by hand with some cotton wool and baking soda gently.

If you find after a hot citric bath your elements are still dirty get in around them with a soft toothbrush and baking soda,realistically though if you have to go much more severe than that you are going to do more harm than good to the elements.Depending how dirty the elements are you should easily have them cleaned in under an hour.

[LordEoin]

meh.. i just pop them back into the original kettle and use the full strength solution. it makes them lovely and shiny with the flick of a switch, limescale and all!