Cleaning Chocolate Molds

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Erica Rodriguez-Anthony on March 25, 2012 at 12:49pm

CAN YOU SHARE PICS PLEASE? I MAY BE HAVING SIMILIAR ISSUES........

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Permalink Reply by rene on March 25, 2012 at 4:52pm

hot water and airgun ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on April 1, 2012 at 8:54pm

Someone came to me asking about sourcing ammonium hydroxide. I can find semiconductor grade, 99.5% pure 29% dilution - but the MSDS is pretty frightening for a product at that concentration.

What are people sourcing for the original strength before diluting to what level?

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Permalink Reply by Brad Churchill on April 4, 2012 at 2:15pm

CORRECTION:

A while ago I put a post in here that we use Ammonium Hydroxide to clean our molds.  THIS IS WRONG!!!  What I meant to write is that we use a solution of water and degreaser containing SODIUM HYDROXIDE.

 

IT WORKS AWESOME, AND REQUIRES NO DRYING OF THE MOLDS, WHICH COULD POTENTIALLY OVER TIME CAUSE SCRATCHES IN THE POLYCARBONATE.

 

Sincerest apologies everyone.

Brad

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Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on April 4, 2012 at 7:49pm

Ahhh, Brad - that makes so much more sense. I am glad this got straightened out - ammonium hydroxide is pretty nasty stuff. Not that sodium hydroxide (aka lye, caustic soda) is a cakewalk.

Please note, everyone, that this provides a very good reason to RTFM (that is, read the material safety data sheet, or MSDS) on any chemical you are considering using. I was looking at the MSDS for ammonium hydroxide and wondered what others knew about it that I couldn't find out.

In doing some follow up research on sodium hydroxide I ran across the following (Red Lightning degreaser), which might be a good (and perhaps safer and easier to handle) alternative for anyone who's at all skittish about using lye as a degreaser. I plan to try it - and I will let people know what I find out.

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Permalink Reply by Brad Churchill on April 4, 2012 at 10:13pm

Don't use it straight.  It can be considerably diluted in warm water, removes ALL cocoa butter very nicely with almost no effort.  The molds will feel slippery when being rinsed, and you'll see the water sheet right off of them.  No spots. We take a bit extra care and use a hair dryer to blow off the remaining few spots.

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Permalink Reply by Mike on April 4, 2012 at 11:36pm

Yes, that does make more sense --- now to figure out what to do with half a gallon of janitorial strength ammonium hydroxide :)  Glad this got sorted out before i started looking for the stronger stuff (I used to work with concentrated NH4OH at my old job and it fumes when you open the bottle...nasty stuff to use even with a fume hood.)

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Permalink Reply by Susan Van Horn on April 5, 2012 at 3:50pm

Brad, you are referring to Red Lightening that Clay mentioned in your most recent post of approx. 14 hours ago?

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Permalink Reply by Mike on April 6, 2012 at 12:48am

I picked up some deep fryer cleaner (sodium hydroxide-based) today from smart and final and used it at 1 cup per 1 gallon water and it worked great.  it doesn't list concentration of NaOH. its not the cheapest stuff at $10/gallon but its worth the $1 in cleaning materials to not have to cotton ball all of my molds.

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Permalink Reply by rene on April 5, 2012 at 2:34am

brad...that's what i thought and was suspicious for :)

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Permalink Reply by antonino allegra on April 19, 2012 at 4:12am

Hi All, 

we finally got our supply of Sodium Hydoxide, 25 l drum with a dil. of 40%

We tried a cup in about 40 lit of warm water and i must say it went so quick! my employees loved it! in few minutes we washed everything.

The rinsing part was a bit of issue: the molds after 2 rinse still have a slippery feel, not the "squicky" one as i was expecting.

@Brad and any one else: do i need to rinse them more or reduce the amount of Sodium or is just normal?

thanks in advance! 

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Permalink Reply by William Sarris on April 22, 2012 at 11:48am

Bloom can form on molded chocolates if the the molds were previously used with compound coating or white chocolate and then used with real chocolate. The fats are not compatible and will react to form bloom.

As far as cleaning, hot water and Dawn Dish Washing Liquid works the best. Dawn cuts the oil in the chocolate. Just completely dry and you are ready to go. if you want to disinfect after washing, use 1 capful of Clorox Bleach to a gallon of water and dip the mold before drying with lint free towels.

Don't use a hair dryer, it can warp the molds if the are plastic.

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