How much time and water does it take to clean an IBC?

This will depend on two factors. Firstly the residue being cleaned and secondly the type of IBC cleaner being used. 

Residue

The tougher the residue the longer the tank cleaner will take to remove it. Gauging the relative "toughness" of residues is not an exact science. There is no standard unit of measure for the "toughness of residue". But it is obvious that an IBC containing something like orange squash is going to be a lot easier to clean than one containing peanut butter. 

General rules

• If the residue is water soluble then this will make it much easier to clean
• If the residue is stick or viscous it will make it hard to clean
• If the residue is solid or caked on then it will be hard to clean

Type of cleaning head

We supply two distinct types of cleaning head for our IBC cleaners. The advanced model has a rotary jet cleaning head that runs at a higher fluid pressure.  This produces much more impact, this additional mechanical action means it will dislodge tough, sticky residues faster. The cleaning jets actively blast off residue rather than simply breaking them down and dissolving them.

The basic model has a spinning spray ball that runs at a lower pressure. Even though this still produces a vigorous cleaning action it has much less scrubbing power (mechanical action) than the rotary jet cleaner on the advanced model. As such, it relies more heavily on the cleaning fluids breaking down and dissolving the residue to remove them.

Both cleaning heads run at approximately the same flow rate (about 58l/min). As a general rule of thumb for most residues, the advanced model (rotary jet cleaner) will clean residues in about half the time of the basic model. 

For very tough residues this difference in cleaning times may be even greater though with the basic model taking 3-4 times longer to produce the same clean.

Putting it all together

For most residues the advanced model will generally outperform the basic model but the lighter the residue the less difference in cleaning times you will see. The advanced model is considerably more expensive so for lighter residues the basic model may make sense.

Roughly speaking 

Light residues

• The basic model will take 2-5 minutes (116 -290 litres) to clean the IBC
• The advanced model will do it in 2 - 2.5 minutes (116-145 litres) to clean the IBC

Medium residues

• The basic model will take 5-10 minutes (290-580 litres) to clean the IBC
• The advanced model will take 2.5-5 minutes (145-290 litres) to clean the IBC

Tough residues

• The basic model will take 10-20 minutes (580-1160 litres) to clean the IBC
• The advanced model will take 5-10 minutes. (290-580 litres) to clean the IBC

Note: for very light residues that take the basic model under 2 minutes to clean the advanced model would be a less efficient this is because the advanced model requires at least 2 minutes to reach every part of the tank in its cleaning cycle, whereas, the basic model gives complete coverage more or less instantly.