More Airlock problems- Possible contamination?

[jdaniels9]

Hey, I made a thread about airlock and bungs. I was not able to get them out. I have now Broekn two airlocks on watch batch of wine. The plastic part broke on the first one and the second one- as i was pulling it out came right out of the bung. That is to say the plastic chamber slipped right out of the bung.

So I was left with a bung stuck in my carboy with nothing to pull it out with. I tried to pull it out with a knife but i ended up jsut pushing it int the carboy all together. If I didn't sterilize the bung (i cant remember if i sterilized the new one) canthat contaminate my whole batch? It is about 20 days in now. I am in the degassing stage.

 

[AlFulchino]

next time use a coat hook to pull out the bung while it is still stuck in the neck

as far as yoru situation now....there is a video floating around on you-tube that shows you how to remove bungs and also corks stuck in bottles.....get a plastic shopping bag from a grocery store insert into neck of bottle, leaving enough for you to hold outside the neck and blow into like a balloon.....tip the glass upside down so that the cork or bung falls toward the neck....blow up your bag, trapping the cork or bung.....make sure your ballon/bag stays inflated and then start using the blown up area to pull out the bung/cork

i dont see any problem w your wine as long as you have kept o2 off of it....be a bit more gentle on those airlocks.... good luck

 

[Wade E]

I dont think your wine will be contaminated but Im sure you are using a rubber bung nd Ive head people say that have done this that thier wine tasted like the rubber bung. You should get yourself the better bungs that are silicone and are multifit like in the link below that I have provided for you, they will not fall in and your airlocks will slip right out of these no problem.
http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=5151

 

[Green Mountains]

I've a couple of those myself Wade, they're very nice.

 

[Slyder73]

On a standard Italian carboy I use 6.5 bungs and if I gave them a good hammering they'd go down below the lip of the carboy glass. That is not necessary. They only have seal airtight. Mine I leave sticking up a quarter inch or so after a nice finger pressing. They are quite tight weeks later getting them off. This lip left at the top gives you something to thumb with and work it out so you don't have to be pulling by the plastic airlock, which is not strong, nor is it attached to the actual bung.

 

[Dugger]

Hey, I made a thread about airlock and bungs. I was not able to get them out. I have now Broekn two airlocks on watch batch of wine. The plastic part broke on the first one and the second one- as i was pulling it out came right out of the bung. That is to say the plastic chamber slipped right out of the bung.

I've noticed that the barrel diameters of the one piece and three piece airlocks can sometimes differ so this might explain why one of your airlocks pulled out of the bung. Always fit the airlock in the bung before putting the bung in the carboy and insert the bung dry for a better seal ( wet bungs just seem to slip back out too easily). A 6.5 bung seats much lower in the carboy than the #7, so if you continue to have problems removing the bung, switch to a #7 or the universal as suggested by Wade.
.. Doug