Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Other discussions for folks new to the wonderful craft of home distilling.

Moderator: Site Moderator

Post Reply
BrewinBrian44
Rumrunner
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:11 pm

Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by BrewinBrian44 »

Hey guys,

In another thread, I posted about getting into neutral and bought 5L of 5mmx5mm SPP from Dr Gradus on EBay.

Long story short, I finally found time to try and clean this stuff and saw a recommendation to use the normal cleaning protocol ie vinegar/sac run.

I did not realize how nasty the manufacturing residue is on this stuff, but it’s gag worthy. I did a 1hr vinegar/water run that smelled like straight burnt rubber coming out the spout the whole way through. I would have ran longer, but my liquid level was getting too close to the heating element.

I went ahead and disassembled the still after the run so I could rinse the SPP with water. I put it in a 5gal bucket and kept rinsing over and over and no matter what, there was still I tinge of gray in the water even though the SPP looked very clean.

Hoping the sugar wash will clean up the rest of the oil, I strained the SPP of water and repacked them column for my sacrificial alcohol run. I’m running in pot still mode with no reflux to prevent this crap getting in my boiler.

I’m about 2.5 quarts into the collection and man, this stuff still stinks of burnt rubber… figured a lot of that would be gone by now.

I was thinking of doing a water only run right after this to try and steam out this crap. Not sure if this will work.

Any suggestions from the members on here who have worked with this stuff? Am I going to need to repeat the vinegar run all over again? Another sac run? Please help. Lol
greggn
Site Donor
Site Donor
Posts: 1370
Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2014 11:59 am
Location: East Coast

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by greggn »

BrewinBrian44 wrote: Sun Jan 16, 2022 3:56 pm
Any suggestions from the members on here who have worked with this stuff?

I've not bought from them but I would suggest a full soak in heads for about a week. Then boil it in water for a while. Drain, let it cool, then smell it and decide where to go from there.
________________

I drank fifty pounds of feed-store corn
'till my clothes were ratty and torn
BrewinBrian44
Rumrunner
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:11 pm

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by BrewinBrian44 »

Wish I had some left over heads. I’m all out of feints.
User avatar
NZChris
Master of Distillation
Posts: 13037
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:42 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by NZChris »

Have you used detergent? Dishwasher?
BrewinBrian44
Rumrunner
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:11 pm

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by BrewinBrian44 »

I have not used any detergent, basically threw this stuff in the still as it came for the vinegar/sac run. I had no idea the stuff was so dirty.
BrewinBrian44
Rumrunner
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:11 pm

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by BrewinBrian44 »

What I should have done is soaked everything in something like TSP. I’m doing a water run now to see if the smell has dissipated.

The rubber smell started to fade some in the sac run after all the alcohol was depleted, but it started to become hard to detect over the tails still in the boiler.
BrewinBrian44
Rumrunner
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:11 pm

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by BrewinBrian44 »

Well… I’ve let it run on water for about an hour and there’s still a slight tinge of the smell. Much less than during the sac run. It’s leading me to believe most of the oily residue is gone, but still enough left to cause a smell. Definitely not safe for a sprit run.

I’m wondering what I should do at this point… I could really use some guidance.
User avatar
jonnys_spirit
Site Donor
Site Donor
Posts: 3623
Joined: Wed Oct 21, 2015 7:58 am
Location: The Milky Way

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by jonnys_spirit »

Run another sac run fairly slow with a good charge as close to 40%abv you can get?? Hot etoh solvent should clean it up aggressively.

Sounds like you got some deerty AF spp direct from the seedy underbelly of the wide wide webs..

Cheers,
-j
————
i prefer my mash shaken, not stirred
————
BrewinBrian44
Rumrunner
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:11 pm

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by BrewinBrian44 »

Right on. Towards the end of my steam run, the smell was barely detectable, but still there. I even did a taste and spit it out. Slight….

I did notice a tiny bit of oil floating on top of the water in the boiler, no crud or anything though. I could have had enough passive reflux that it went into the boiler a bit. Could have happened after shutting down.

For the time being, I spread the hot spp on a large beach towel in a thin layer with a box fan blowing at it to dry it out.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll do another sac run.

Could it be the taste of the metal alone? Should SPP impart any smell/flavor into distilled water?
User avatar
NZChris
Master of Distillation
Posts: 13037
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:42 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by NZChris »

Detergent is good for getting rid of oils. Chuck it in hot water and dishwashing detergent and get to work.

If you have a dishwasher, give it the longest cycle.

If that doesn't clean it up, swap it for copper SSP, which is much better for getting rid of sulfides than SS.
BrewinBrian44
Rumrunner
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:11 pm

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by BrewinBrian44 »

I have an old nylon brew bag, I suppose I could throw the SPP in that and tie off the top so the pieces can’t escape in the dishwasher.

I wonder if I’d get similar results in a brew kettle with water and detergent?

Update:

The nylon brew bag and SPP are now in the dishwasher for a heavy duty cycle. It’s so close to being clean! You guys think it would be wise to do another sac run after the detergent cycle? Vinegar necessary at this point?

Another note. My big 2” ball valve has a notable flaw… upon disassembly, there was a fair amount of liquid trapped inside of it. Sure enough, it still smelled like vinegar and and that oily crap even after running alcohol and water. Surely this was contaminating the collection the entire time during my cleaning runs. Makes me wonder if this was the root cause of my issues. I should have just run it without the valve!
User avatar
NZChris
Master of Distillation
Posts: 13037
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:42 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by NZChris »

I hope you put that valve in the dishwasher.
BrewinBrian44
Rumrunner
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:11 pm

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by BrewinBrian44 »

The valve went in too!

The washed SPP smells like… metal. Lol I’m assuming that’s normal?
User avatar
jonnys_spirit
Site Donor
Site Donor
Posts: 3623
Joined: Wed Oct 21, 2015 7:58 am
Location: The Milky Way

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by jonnys_spirit »

62F242A1-14C4-459F-B5AB-59E48B853334.jpeg
If it smells like metal would you still eat it?
————
i prefer my mash shaken, not stirred
————
BrewinBrian44
Rumrunner
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:11 pm

Re: Trouble cleaning brand new SPP. Burnt rubber smell.

Post by BrewinBrian44 »

Decided to do another alcohol cleaning run for the SPP since I need to do a cleaning run anyways on a brand new copper graham coil RC. Figure I’ll kill two birds with one stone. The SPP is probably good to go after the aggressive dish washer treatment, but I’ll get a bit more added insurance now. I’ll get a little practice playing with my new VM rig in the process too.
Post Reply