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Fred, I have to laugh a bit. So many report washing their copper in viniger, and such to achieve nice shiny copper sheen again. The reality, is wash or rinse in some hot water to get rid of tails and oils lodged. The copper oxide which make it look so bad is actually what you want to react with the SO2. Washing it clean with acids just shortens its life, and won't allow it to do its job as efficiently.

And don't worry about cleaning it too well. The foreshots, and collected heads will do a supurb job on the smelly tails left there. Very minute amount if you backflush with boiling water after each run or just boil them in some water. You will get cleaner product out of that awful looking mesh."

A HA!! thank you much. Did boil once and had a good run. Used glassrens once and maybe I'm imaging but the next run didn't please me. Did you know that the copper roofs on the ancient roman ruins look as new as the day they were built while the stone building underneath are crunbling away. (A little History channel here))

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I have done that with rashigs and copper, but now I use 2 rolls of copper mesh at the top, and the rest of good quality ss scrubbers. Easier and works better for me."

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Mine are almost 3 years old and have gone through way more than a hundred washes. Still good. No acid cleaning."

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Not raschig rings, ss pot scrubbers. Works almost as well as the copper mesh, but will last forever. Pour some boiling water down through them and you are good to go again. If you do a strong flavored brew or perhaps twice a year, just run them through thedishwasher."