# cleaning a milking machine?



## duckidaho (Dec 31, 2008)

HI all, we recently acquired a one-cow milking machine. How do you clean these between every day usage? I was able to find directions on Hamby, but they were advertising an expensive sounding detergent. Is there a home made version of this detergent? Will a bleach solution degrade the gaskets and rubber parts? We also do not have access to hot water at the barn so everything would have to be washed in cold. Thanks for the help.


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

you shouldn't wash it in cold water.

Proper procedure is a warm rinse, Hot detergent wash, warm acid rinse.

We used the cheaper chemicals from a local farm store.chlorinated pipeline cleaner is around 7 bucks a gallon and the milk stone remover/acid rinse is about the same.
We lugged 2 gallon buckets of warm and hot water and the appropriate chemicals to the milker and after milking sucked them out with the unit, dipping it in and out of the water to simulate the action of the air injector in a real pipeline. 
You could also dip a brush in the hot detergent water and give the outside a quick scrub if it got a little more dirty than normal. other wise we would bring it in the house every week or so and scrub it up.


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## Brooks WV (Jul 24, 2010)

We are a one cow operation as well.

We clean twice a day, after each milking. Once the milk is poured out, we rinse with ~2 gallons of warm water (run the vacuum pump and suck it up through the teat cups). We swish it around and pour it out. Next, we take ~2 gallons of hot water with a couple splashes of bleach in it. We run it through twice, using the brushes to clean all the parts and hoses. We reassemble, dump the bleach water, and rinse it twice with cold water. We then set it up to dry.


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## arcticow (Oct 8, 2006)

Bleach won't remove all the stuff left from the milk and eventually will set milkstone... best household stuff is Dawn dish soap for cleaner and if you don't want to pay for acid, then 35% vinegar or 35% peroxide will do...


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

We have only cold water in our barn as well, for now. So, we bring our milker claw, hose, and can to the house twice a day to clean/sanitize it all. We rinse it with warm water, then wash it in hot soapy water, then we do a vinegar rinse on it and let it all dry. We then put everything in the can and fill it with hot water and add a chlorine sanitizer. We let it set for about 10 minutes, drain, and its ready to go.


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## arcticow (Oct 8, 2006)

Chlorine will not work as well in HOT water as it will in lukewarm water... 5 minutes and drain ought to be plenty..


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## Chixarecute (Nov 19, 2004)

We always used ivory dish soap to wash, in hot water, scrub brush in teatcups/inflations, then interior of milker, then exterior. Rinse in sanitizer water. 

We didn't have to use milkstone remover much except in the bulk tank, around the "fill line."


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## BlackWillowFarm (Mar 24, 2008)

I don't have warm water at the barn either so I carry it with me when I go. I bring two gallons of warm soapy water for washing the machine and a smaller pail with warm soapy water for washing the teats before milking. I make sure I only dip a clean rag into the teat water and when I'm done milking I splash whats left of that into the bucket to rinse the milk out. Then I hook up the machine and suck the two gallons through the machine, twice. After that I draw about a gallon of cold water from the barn faucet, splash a little chlorine in it and draw that through the machine as a final rinse. I hang everything to drip dry in a little closet I have in the barn.

Once a week I bring it to the house, take apart every little piece, and acid wash it all in my kitchen sink.

I use Dawn dish detergent because that's what was recommended to me by the milk testing lab I use. They're the ones who told me to clean the machine that way too. 

You can use Dawn and bleach in place of the expensive cleaners advertised on those websites. I have been for years.


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

I have used cold barn faucet water sucked out of a 5 gallon bucket followed by a cold bleach water rinse and hung to air dry for years now with no problems. I rinse it with cold water before each use. 

I'm too lazy to go through all that mess when it's for dumping to bottle calves! Haven't had any sick calves yet.

I handmilk for house milk so no milking machine involved.


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## honey20miss (Feb 24, 2021)

If it is disassembled, you can wash it with your hands, and if it is not disassembled, you can pour water with detergent and rinse with water until clean water


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