Broke a Carboy Today.

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Damn. This is giving me second thoughts on using a carboy.

Invest in one of those carriers, and you might want to do the Plasti-Dip too. Then you are pretty safe. Or just go the bucket route. Just be safe.
 
I had one break on me earlier this summer and that made up my mind to start switching the glass carboys with all better bottles.
 
I broke my last 6.5 gallon glass carboy a couple weeks ago while dumping out the pbw. it slipped right outta my hands and into the rubbermaid tub that i was fortunately emptying it out into. Here is what was left:

IMGP4246.JPG


thankfully i was not injured. i too am a better bottle home brewer now (well, except for my 14 gallon glass carboy. I just cant give that one up for 10 gallon batches.)
 
Wishing you well in your recovery! I own 10 carboys made of glass and have been fortunate to date (knocking on wood right now). I am terrified of glass, but it was necessary to use cause I love my beer so much. I had a window fall from a second floor and hit me in my back left shoulder then spin across the back of my right leg below the calf. I had shorts on at the time, so the effect was a severed right achilles tendon on an angle down to the bone. I was lucky and it was repaired and I can still walk. Lost all feeling in my right foot though from nerve damage and it eventually led to me leaving the Army in later years.

Glass is freigthening and devistating when it breaks, but until I can afford to switch, I am extremely careful and always thinking about the danger. It will be Better Bottles or a Conical someday for me too.

Again, wishing you well in your recovery.

Salute! :mug:
 
This thread keeps coming back to haunt me... But I guess that comes from linking to it when someone asks about glass carboys.

I broke the carboy a little over a year ago. I still don't have feeling in my index finger, but the thumb and middle finger are slowly regaining the feeling. I can pretty much use my hand normally, with the exception of doing fine motor functions without actually watching what my fingers are doing. Picking up a paper clip takes my full concentration.

I now ferment in Sanke kegs. It's much better in many ways than glass carboys. My beer never sees light during fermentation, I can pressurize it, either to transfer, or to force carb, not to mention pressurized fermentation. And to sanitize, all I do is pour a gallon of water in, put aluminum foil over the opening, and place it on my burner to boil for about 10-15 minutes.
 
Broke a carboy tonight - was cleaning it, sort of swishing it around, and out of my hand it went. Took a good chuck of skin out of my left hand, and my left foot. First thing I thought of was this thread! (Actually second thing, first thing was to stop bleeding.) Thanks to the significant other, it's all cleaned up and I'm all bandaged up. I'm thinking maybe I look into something to protect the carboys I have left a little better...
 
I'm just glad the carboy was empty - I can handle losing a pint of blood, but not 36 pints of beer.

I'm thinking of spraying my remaining carboys with "Flexi-Seal" to see if that protects them a bit better.
 
I'm just glad the carboy was empty - I can handle losing a pint of blood, but not 36 pints of beer.

I'm thinking of spraying my remaining carboys with "Flexi-Seal" to see if that protects them a bit better.


Better yet, spray yourself with the flex seal, dump the glass.


Wilserbrewer
Http://biabbags.webs.com/
 
Better yet, spray yourself with the flex seal, dump the glass.


Wilserbrewer
Http://biabbags.webs.com/

+1

Lousy glass carboys...they are ticking timebombs

I have used carboys, glass and better bottles. I tried the SS brew bucket too.

In the end, for me, you just can't beat a plain old plastic bucket. Easy to clean, hard to slice your arm off.
 
I had the same experience with one of my index fingers. It may take a few years but it should get back to normal. Mine was tingly too, like half asleep. If I barely banged the side of it where the most scare tissue was it was an excruciating pain (burning). Now there is none and the feeling is back to normal.
I caught my thumb in a Skilsaw over thirty years ago, and cut halfway through the bone. Although it took a few years for the nerves to regenerate, I eventually got full feeling back in it - and made a liar out of the doctor who laughed and said it wasn't gonna happen. But to this day, accidentally rapping the scar against a sharp corner will drop me to my knees with tears in my eyes....
 
I hope you recover and you don't have any lasting damage from this incident.

I decided to never use glass a long time ago. My reasons are validated by the existence of this post. The largest container of glass I would ever consider using stops with 1 gallon. I have a 125 gallon aquarium, and despite years of constant monitoring the reinforcements in the floor and careful level checks, it still scares me to death. I simply fear glass anytime liquids are involved. Bad things can, and eventually does, happen.
 
I'm liking the new Big Mouth Bubblers made from plastic. I got a secondary for my birthday and it works great is easier to clean than my buckets. They are taller and narrower too, so I can fit them easier in my freezer.

Still need to get a primary or two, but I'm looking forward to it. For the length of time your beer is normally in the fermentor I think the right plastic is a fine material to use.
 
Hope your injury turns out ok.

I also broke a glass carboy a few weeks ago. In the same fashion you did. Had just finished sanitizing and was turning to rack my just cooled wort, and outa my hands in went. I cut my palmand after wrapping with paper towels and cleaning up most of the glass, I racked to plastic fermenter. Was a pain in the ass!
I still find a little chunk of glass from every now and again in the garadge.
I replaced the 5 gal. With a 6. I would eventually love to get one of the big bubblers, but I still think I will always have atleast one big glass carboy. Just cuz. But then again, I am a hard learner. ;-)
Cheers to ur next brew!
 
Hope your injury turns out ok.

I also broke a glass carboy a few weeks ago. In the same fashion you did. Had just finished sanitizing and was turning to rack my just cooled wort, and outa my hands in went. I cut my palmand after wrapping with paper towels and cleaning up most of the glass, I racked to plastic fermenter. Was a pain in the ass!
I still find a little chunk of glass from every now and again in the garadge.
I replaced the 5 gal. With a 6. I would eventually love to get one of the big bubblers, but I still think I will always have atleast one big glass carboy. Just cuz. But then again, I am a hard learner. ;-)
Cheers to ur next brew!

I brewed an English mild yesterday, and it's in one of my old water company carboys. This morning I left the door to my fermenter open while I drank my coffee, just watching the berserk currents and swirls of white yeast in the dark wort. Doesn't take much to amuse me, I guess; the show kept me riveted for about twenty minutes.

I don't think I'll ever give up my old 5 gal jugs, even though sometimes larger ones would be nice. For one thing, I figure any glass carboy that's still in one piece after forty or fifty years is probably not going to break on its own.
 
Watching the yeast do their thing is exactly why I was gonna rack to carboy.I've always used plastic. Next wk....gonna try the carboy again. :):)
 
I'm just glad the carboy was empty - I can handle losing a pint of blood, but not 36 pints of beer.

I'm thinking of spraying my remaining carboys with "Flexi-Seal" to see if that protects them a bit better.

Priorities. I'd rather lose all the beer I've ever brewed than to shed blood.
 
I hate hate hate, let me say it again... HATE using glass. The only thing I use it for is aging, sometimes... I am transitioning away from that as soon as I get my stainless dry hopper in. Gonna start dry hopping in cornies.

Glass is just too damn dangerous. Right now I refuse to move one by myself.
 
Blood replenishes itself. Skin heals. Beer doesn't grow on trees.
Reminds me of the Scotsman who bought a bottle of scotch on a foggy night, and tumbled off the path on the way home. When he awoke he felt something wet under his jacket and started praying, "oh Lord, let it be blood..."
 
Milk crates, carboy covers, etc...

IMHO there will still be times when the carboy is outside the protective device, like when washing the outside perhaps idk. Still a risk not worth taking.

Even with the carboy cover, my basement would be awash in beer or sticky wort...no thanks.


Wilserbrewer
Http://biabbags.webs.com/

Jns
 
I bet they'd do it if you contact them. I'm not sure what the point would be though. Obviously your beer, wort or water will leak (gush) from the carboy cover. Do you think the glass will still get out somehow?

I have 4 of these and they are solid. If I had one suggestion it would be that the bottom handle was on both sides just like the top. Other than that, perfect for me.
 
I bet they'd do it if you contact them. I'm not sure what the point would be though. Obviously your beer, wort or water will leak (gush) from the carboy cover. Do you think the glass will still get out somehow?

I have 4 of these and they are solid. If I had one suggestion it would be that the bottom handle was on both sides just like the top. Other than that, perfect for me.

Anyone ever had them ship outside of the US? I'd buy one or two for sure.
 
I bet they'd do it if you contact them. I'm not sure what the point would be though. Obviously your beer, wort or water will leak (gush) from the carboy cover. Do you think the glass will still get out somehow?

I have 4 of these and they are solid. If I had one suggestion it would be that the bottom handle was on both sides just like the top. Other than that, perfect for me.

The purpose of the test is that the liquid inside will create a MUCH larger force pushing the shards of glass outward against the cover. And it will hit harder, since it is heavier and has more mass.

And it would be cool.
 
I would bet that if dropped full of water, it would force some glass through.
Maybe not explosively, but that would be a true test of when you are most likely to drop a carboy, or to pull the neck off of one with the clamp on handles.
 
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