Milk machine cleaning- what do you use?

Hi all! I will be ordering milk lines, etc. for our milk machine/s sometime this week.

What do y'all use for cleaning everything? How do you go about cleaning the lines, etc? Do you use the acid rinse? Links are appreciated

I know a lady that uses vinegar as an acid rinse, anyone else do this?

When posting, please say if you use the milk for human consumption.

@Fullhousefarm @babsbag @goatgurl

because it's just me and I have a small home made milker now I just clean it with automatic dish detergent powder and use a brush that is used for water bottle back packs i.e. camel back, its long enough to clean the entire tube, then give it a good rinse. I know, i'm not much help for milking machine info.

I use the acid rinse once a week. I take everything apart and leave in the wash for a few hours and then use a brush and rinse. I have used steel wool on the can, not sure that I should, but I do. I have a LONG brush that I can run through the entire milk line. I bought a CPAP brush and trimmed it to fit the milk line. I don't have a brush for the small vacuum lines but I wish I did. I do have a brush for the big vacuum line but I don't clean it weekly, probably monthly.

When I milk I have a bucket of water with Dawn and 2 buckets with bleach. I put the inflations in the bleach water between each goat. When I am done milking I suck the soapy water up into the bucket, dump it out and then suck up one bucket of bleach water. The reason I have two buckets for bleach is that I find that the inflations have milk residue on them and the bleach water gets milky looking and I don't want that to me my last rinse so I have to have another bucket of bleach water. I use cold water for all of it as that is what is in my barn. Some of the dairy cleaners will tell you what temperatures they work best at.

I do drink the milk but usually (not always) pasteurized.

When I finish milking and the milk is strained and put in the refrigerator, I then rinse the milk lines and the stainless steel bucket in cold water. Then I put the milk lines and inflaters in the bucket, add powdered dairy cleaner and fill half way or so with hot tap water. I do have a super long brush that I use on the milk lines. Once all is washed and rinsed, I put the lines back in the bucket and cover with vinegar. I run the vinegar through the milk lines 3 or 4 times and rinse in warm water. I like the vinegar rinse as it shines the stainless very well, makes everything squeaky clean, and prevents milk stone.

We drink our milk raw and also use it to make yoghurt and chevre.

Right now we only sell for animal consumption. And yes, most of our customers AFAIK really give it to animals. LOL. My one son drinks it and we make fudge and cheese. I use it in recipes.

I clean mine with cold water, hot water, bleach, then hot water and dry. I take it apart and soak and scrub it once every week (or two occasionally) with dish detergent and then bleach. I should get some acid rinse, but honestly, it stays really, really clean. I use a brush and steel wool for the metal pail. I have a brush for the lines.

Normally I just use the machine in the morning, then it hangs to dry (in my house for now) all day and I put it together at night or early morning.

Since I'm milking 5 or less at night right now my daughter and I split the hand milking at night. When more babies get sold I will either move some does who have been in milk for 6+ months to once a day milking only in the morning or use the machine. I don't like to personally milk more than 4ish by hand- at that point the machine and doing two at a time saves lots of time.

I rinse the bucket, then run hot soapy water through the machine, then diluted bleach, then hot water rinse. The milk is used for human consumption by my family, and neighbor's family and my herding instructor's wife makes cheese with it also.