Re: Distiller cleaning detergent?

Here is the routine that works well for my counter-top distiller.

This is a 3 quart unit and the boiling tank is stainless steel on the inside. Have been using this unit for about 4 years and this now transcends house water supplied at 3 different locales, two of them municipal "tap water", one locale well water. It is interesting to me that all three, each in their own way, have their own signature, of sorts... referring to the residue each source leaves behind in the distiller tank. The well water residue tended to favor a rusty colored sludge among other leftovers, which I suspect may be indicative of iron content. This seems to make sense because at one time, this locale was home to an iron ore mining operation.

Anyway, the normal routine is, I usually distill one load a day, and clean the tank once a day. It takes about 4 to 5 hours for this unit to distill one load (3 quarts), and then another hour or so for the unit to cool enough that it is fully safe to open the unit and clean out the tank. What does cleaning generally consist of? Pouring out the few tablespoons of loose residue, then pouring in about a cup of store-bought vinegar, to sit in the tank till the next day when it is time to repeat the cycle. Then, all I do is pour out the dirty vinegar into a jar to re-use over and over. Then I rinse the tank with some cold water. Using this routine I have found little need to scrub with a green scrubby thingy. There are times when I make 2 batches in one day. At the end of batch one, I pour out any liquid residue but do not scrape away the gritty residue burned onto the bottom of the tank, I just refill with water out of spiggot and start batch two. After the second batch, I pour back the same cup of vinegar and let it sit for the rest of the day like normal. By the next day when it is time to make another batch, that grit stuck to the bottom of the tank has turned into silt floating around the tank, and it rinses away easily.

I still have not yet determined how long I can re-use one glass of vinegar over and over. The current glass has been in use for over two months, and has taken on quite a bit of sediment....looks kinda nasty, but i figure, if it continues to lift the sediment burned onto the bottom of the distiler tank, why throw it out? Bear in mind, ever since I first got onto real/raw vinegar a few years back, I now have virtually no need for store bought vinegar. I had this old gallon jug of store bought vinegar sitting under the kitchen sink for years, with nothing to do ;) Using it as a solvent to clean the distiller, instead of wasting the good stuff for this job, seems to me to be a fitting use.
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