I've been upgrading equipment to build capacity for a much larger system, and now have a 120qt mash tun made from a rectangular Coleman Xtreme cooler. My friend helped put together a manifold out of PVC pipe, but the pipes have manufacturer ink imprints on them. It seems like some hard scrubbing with hot oxiclean water can remove most or all of the ink, but it's a PITA and there's a lot of pipe including small parts. Is it necessary to remove the ink? Does anyone have experience using pipe with ink and whether the ink will come off during mash, or what?
I would just leave it alone if rubbing alcohol doesn't remove it. But you should use CPVC in a mash tun.
Psh, you're using it to make poison, a little ink won't hurt you. (That's the way I would look at it, but I know not everyone is as lax as I am on certain points.) As mentioned, though, better to err on the safe side and use CPVC for your manifold as it's rated for higher temps. You can find it right next to the PVC at the big box stores.
Yes, you want to remove . . . or it will gradually end up in your wort. Try acetone, it'll be gone in a jiff.
OK, thanks everyone. I'll probably go get some acetone and try to get most of it off but I'm not going to sweat it too much. And yeah, the manifold is CPVC not PVC.
