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Cooler cleaning

Weldabeast

Weldabeast

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
May 23, 2019
Messages
12,491
Location
Northeast Florida
What is ur cooler washing/sanitizing procedure?

I've always done the bleach dilute, dish soap,.and scotchbrite until yesterday...slow day and I didn't have any bleach at work but did have a jug of white distilled vinegar. I never had any issues with bleach but I think the vinegar might be just as good. I had a stinky boar hog in the cooler almost a week and there was some hog stink after I finished with the meat and the cooler was empty. 1 deep clean with vinegar solution and dish soap scrubbed with the scotchbrite pad drained and dried....then a spritzing with vinegar solution...I let is sit 30 minutes after spritzing then wipe dry. No residual vinegar odor and no more gamey smell. I think I'm converted...not having to worry about ruining ur clothes is pretty nice and imo the vinegar smell is less harsh/chemical smell vs bleach
 
Vinegar is a great cleaning product. Another one that I have fallen in love with is plain old baking soda. I take a lot of baking soda and a little water and scrub with that. A sponge or scotch pad will do. It should have an almost paste-like consistency. If you want it to have a "good" smell instead of just neutral, some dish soap or Dr. Bronners will work well. After everything is rinsed out and totally air dry, I sprinkle dry baking soda in the bottom of the cooler for storage.
 
I've soaked in OxyClean for a day or two and had good results. Haven't tried vinegar, but I will.
 
Weldabeast said:
Is that stuff food safe? I thought it was for laundry?

Another positive for the vinegar I didn't think about till just now. Don't drink bleach vs adding vinegar to food recipes
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Bleach is USDA permitted in the cleaning of any processing or distribution facility for any food product you consume.
 
kyler1945 said:
Bleach is USDA permitted in the cleaning of any processing or distribution facility for any food product you consume.
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Yep, guaranteed everyone here has drank bleach.

Store bought bleach is approved for the treatment and disinfection of drinking water.

Many small, rural restaurants have a well and are regulated public water systems, and nearly all of them dose store bleach to a few parts per million right into the water they use to cook and drink.

The various chlorine compounds are miracle substances in that they are super toxic to most pathogens at levels that are harmless to humans. A level you can't even smell will kill all E. coli in a glass of water if you let it sit for a little while.

That's why I'd stick with the bleach and just rinse it well afterwards.

A lot of folks use too much. If you scrub that cooler so that there aren't a lot of crusty crannies for "germs" to hide in, then a few capfuls will kill any pathogens in that cooler. The less bleach you use the longer it should sit. I would let it sit and "do its thing" for 30 minutes before rinsing (edit: 30 minutes was the old standard for drinking water....contact tanks had to be sized so that water would sit chlorinated for at least 30 minutes prior to consumption....now they calculate inactivations, etc).
 
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Most everyone will know this just putting it out there for those that don't.
vinegar and bleach should never be used together when combined, they produce deadly chlorine gas.

For food grade cleaning I usually use vinegar for disinfecting I'll use bleach
 
Icedog said:
Most everyone will know this just putting it out there for those that don't.
vinegar and bleach should never be used together when combined, they produce deadly chlorine gas.

For food grade cleaning I usually use vinegar for disinfecting I'll use bleach
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excellent call....bleach is mostly water and a base (sodium hydroxide) and the base keeps the chlorine in solution...any acid will release it into the air
 
Every use with raw meat or fish, Dawn soap and hot water scrub. Rinse immediately, air dry.

End of season or particularly muddy/dirty critter or trip. Dawn scrub, rinse, Capful of bleach and enough hot water to slosh it around in cooler. Leave it in cooler with it closed and slosh around every few minutes several times. Rinse with hot water, wipe dry.
 
I'm on a well and add bleach to the aerator all the time....as I wrote in the first post i have always used bleach and only did vinegar yesterday. So far so good....I started to hear what other peeps did to clean...maybe in a couple days of sitting the the bed of my truck it'll prove to be a horrible idea and then go back to bleach like ive always used.....
 
raisins said:
Yep, guaranteed everyone here has drank bleach.
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At least twice a year, once in the spring and the other I never remember the pattern on, when you turn on the spigot in the kitchen or bathroom, you get that very distinctive smell of bleach.

The bleach doesn't bother me, but the every so often particles of what I hope to be aging pipes does.
 
Sbrammer said:
At least twice a year, once in the spring and the other I never remember the pattern on, when you turn on the spigot in the kitchen or bathroom, you get that very distinctive smell of bleach.

The bleach doesn't bother me, but the every so often particles of what I hope to be aging pipes does.
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PM sent
 
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