Rust in SS Shotgun Condenser

[artooks]

Hi Everyone,

Life got in the way and I was away from distilling, now I am back and last year I bought myself a new shotgun condenser from another reputable company, with my first shotgun condenser I was having problem with rust and it come to a point where I did not succeed and decided to buy a new one, anyway as I said I purchased it last year and it was in the package waiting to be used. Today I take it out for a deep cleaning boom there was rust again in this new condenser, this really puts me off as this is the second time happening, I am posting the pictures, but I am really wondering why this is a problem with the tubes in the condenser, what can I do to overcome this problem in the past I tried passivation, electro polishing and etc, as I said this is a new condenser but I believe this has something to do with the narrow tubes in the condenser they are not very smooth anyway.

How should I clean this part regardless of the rust as this is a first time deep cleaning, I know the 3 cycle cleaning what I am asking is before doing that should ı use a brush and deep clean with PBW ?

How should I treat the rust, I believe this is surface rust but it should be removed and passivated in order to get rid of it but the problem is even I did it in the past it keeps coming back not as bad as first time but it happens.

So can someone please help me on this matter ?

Thanks

[Salt Must Flow]

Citric Acid should remove rust and passivate the treated surfaces.

[MooseMan]

It's probably not the best quality stainless. Likely 304.
It would also have been subjected to harsh treatment during welding, and was probably not prepared well or passivated well after. The welder could easily have trapped iron bearing slag in the weld.

I'd go for a physical clean of all the tubes, using some kind of pull through or something, get them all real shiny and smooth.
Then a soap clean, then fill with citric acid to passivate, hot if you can. Give it at least an hour.

Then rinse with cold water and use some kind of fan to blow air through the tubes and get it completely dry.
Rinse and dry after every run.

[higgins]

Bar Keepers Friend is great for cleaning stainless. I'd use a tubing brush, BKF, and hot water to thoroughly clean the inner tubes, then dry it well and let it set for a few weeks to passivate naturally.

[The Baker]

Chlorine bleach can cause rust in stainless steel...

Geoff

[MooseMan]

Chlorine bleach can cause rust in stainless steel...

Geoff

Yes you're right Geoff and even a tiny bit of salt can make that happen really fast!

[artooks]

Thank you very much for all the feedback, I am wondering if I can use wire brush ?
also there is a rifle cleaning set which includes brass iron and nylon but I am not sure if brass and iron are suitable for SS as the will physically remove particles, also could create fine particules, what do you think ?

[Salt Must Flow]

I'd lean more towards a plastic brush just to be safe. A steel brush can transfer steel to the stainless and that would start rusting. I don't know for sure if a brass brush could cause any issues, but the first thing that comes to mind is whether that brass contains lead and if any could transfer to the stainless. For all of these reasons, I'd lean towards a plastic brush. A stainless brush would be fine, but I wouldn't want to buy one just for doing this.

[OtisT]

Thank you very much for all the feedback, I am wondering if I can use wire brush ?
also there is a rifle cleaning set which includes brass iron and nylon but I am not sure if brass and iron are suitable for SS as the will physically remove particles, also could create fine particules, what do you think ?

No to the wire brush. That is unless it is an all stainless steel brush AND it has not previously been used on other metals.

Using any other metal type or using a stainless brush used on other metals can lead to more corrosion.

Edit: posted at the same time as SMF’s response.

[Demy]

You can use a stainless steel scrubber rolled around a stick...