PLastic Carboys Cracking

[sdmbrandy]

Does anybody have a problem with their plastic 5 gallon carboys cracking? Lately it seems that when I put in the one step cleaner in the carboy with warm water and leave it soak for a while the bottom of the carboy cracks on me. It happened to most of my old carboys so I bought 10 brand new ones off a local spring water company and out of the 10, 8 cracked on me. I got so disgusted I had to buy 15 gallon glass jugs. What could be causing this and has anybody else had this problem? The spring water company claimed that the jugs were new and fresh off the line.

 

[New_Guy_Brad]

Are you using plain old water cooler plastic jugs? If so from what i have researched those come in both PP (polypropylene) that is not acidic food (wine) safe, and some times they come in HDPE (high density polyethylene) which again is food grade but not acidic tolerant and is very thin.

Basically put my research has all lead me to 1 conclusion- Not a good idea to use plastic water cooler jugs for wine.

Even he typical primary for wine making is a very thick HDPE bucket that is made to tolerate acidic material, and the wine is typically only left in it for about a week before going to the carboy.

My answer to as why your carboys are cracking is the wine is probably breaking down the water jugs slowly and making them brittle over time, so it cracks when you go to clean with the hot water and cools down again.

 

[New_Guy_Brad]

I forgot to add, there are "wine safe" carboys out there of which i know of are "better bottles" which should tolerate the acid in wine, but then if you do some research online (as i have done extensively) this is one of the largest debates with wine making whether or not it is a good idea to have wine in these for a extended period of time.

Bottom line all my research has lead me to 1 conclusion on this topic. Buy and use the more expensive GLASS carboys. Better safe than sorry.

 

[sdmbrandy]

But brand "new" jugs that come off the line?

 

[Julie]

the jugs you are buying are designed for water, not wine making, yes the brand new ones as well. The plastice on them are thin and to be honest I would be concerned about plastic leaking into my wine.

 

[Runningwolf]

But brand "new" jugs that come off the line?

They don't have to be brand new "glass" carboys though. Look on craigs list and ebay for deals. I have not had any problem with Better Bottles that I have but I rarely use them. I use the glass 99% of the time but others on here use Better Bottles all the time.

 

[LanMan]

I have had a wine in a better bottle for the better part of 7 months and no breakage yet. #1 HDPE is what it is made out of and designed for wine and beer making.

 

[tonyandkory]

Better Bottles are all we use. due to the initial cost when we started.
never have had a problem with them other than we cant vacuum pump degas.

 

[DirtyDawg10]

I don't use plastic carboys but I have had this problem with other plastic items stored on a concrete floor. Not sure of the chemistry but something in the concrete breaks down the plastic is my guess. Not sure if this would be your issue though.

**Just looked it up online and it is the lime in the concrete that can break down plastics over time.

 

[TonyP]

If you're reasonably careful, plastic carboys shouldn't crack. Make certain the carboy's made of PET. (The one issue you may have involves putting a plastic carboy under pressure.) Plastic carboys not intended for wine making can have numerous issues from flaking to allowing residual wine flavoring that gets incorporated into the next batch. Also, I'd be careful using used carboys. Among the used carboy problems is the potential for interior scratches that create a breeding ground for microbes.

All in all, not a good idea.

 

[saddlebronze]

It's called Environmental Stress Cracking and is on Wikipedia. A reaction bewtween the polymer chains and the cleaning chemical being used. Acid of wine is not alone enough to do it you need the cleaner as well. I was on a plastics design team and we had bottles exploding in the store when certain cleaners were sprayed on the bottles. Finding onentha works with a particular bottle is trial and error.

 

[Rocky]

I have two BBs, a 6 and a 5 gallon, that I only use for early secondary fermentation and bottling. I have read that many people like them or have had no problem with them, but to me the math just does not work out. I know they are less expensive, but the cost of being wrong is too great to make me buy any more. I have found good 5 gallon carboys on Craig's List for as little as $10. Just have to be patient, watch the list and jump when they appear. Also, the sale that Amazon has from time to time on 6 gallon carboys, shipped for a total of $30 can't be beat.

 

[shoebiedoo]

I have to say, the last 4 carboys I got from Amazon were not that great. The bottoms weren't even level. I do know of 8 used Mexican carboys for $25each. pm me if you're interested

 

[tchuklobrau]

I have heard that wether glass or plastic, both can have what the op described. Sdmbrandy you mentioned 1step soaking for awhile, how long is awhile.. Some of the cleaning agents can do this to glass and plastic. I believe even BetterBottle has a warning on their site against prolonged soaking with certain cleaning agents. I just read an extremely long thread elswhere along the same lines only it was glass and not plastic this was happening to(bottoms were coming off of glass carboys). General consensus was not to soak glass or plastic longer than the cleaners directions suggested.

 

[TonyP]

I have heard that wether glass or plastic, both can have what the op described. Sdmbrandy you mentioned 1step soaking for awhile, how long is awhile.. Some of the cleaning agents can do this to glass and plastic. I believe even BetterBottle has a warning on their site against prolonged soaking with certain cleaning agents. I just read an extremely long thread elswhere along the same lines only it was glass and not plastic this was happening to(bottoms were coming off of glass carboys). General consensus was not to soak glass or plastic longer than the cleaners directions suggested.

Here's a link to the BetterBottle website article referred to above. It also has further links to additional information: http://www.better-bottle.com/technical.html

Clearly PET plastic carboys are used by a large percentage of wine makers and should be fine with some common sense. For example, don't clean with boiling water and don't use lye as a cleaning agent.

Excuse my preaching to the choir, but we get what we pay for. Problems are more likely to occur when using used carboys purchased from an unknown source or when buying a no-name brand from a Chinese company that also makes DVDs and football jerseys. For me personally, I stick with BetterBottle carboys and if it adds 20 cents to a bottle of wine that only costs me $4, so be it.

Tony P

 

[JDC]

Caution should be used when using One-Step, Easy-Clean, or Oxyclean type products on Better Bottle or other plastics. One issue is clouding, the other is longterm soaking is not recomended as the chemical will begin to degrade the plastics - if you do a 5-10 minute "swishing" you should be OK - if you "soak" for 30 minutes you could be damaging the plastic. Idophor products are safe - but you have to beware of potential staining. Good article on this in this month' wine maker mag