Cheaper than a Better Bottle?

BruDaddy · 03-19-2007, 05:33 PM

Didn't want to steal the better bottle thread, but I was at Lowe's this weekend and noticed they sell 5 gallon bottled water for about $12. The bottle looks an awful lot like a Better Bottle. Any reason that you couldn't use this as a secondary?

**bradsul** · 03-19-2007, 05:36 PM

Check the bottom of the bottle and see if it says PET or grade 1 in the triangle. If it does then they will work for secondary. Otherwise give it a pass.

**olllllo** · 03-19-2007, 05:44 PM

If they are the ones I saw, they are PETE 1, so they would work. They also have 3g ones.

Here's something to coinsider though. They had alot more nooks and crannies and a hollow handle. This could make them difficult to clean.

If you are going to buy the water each time and exchange your dirty one. It might make sense.

I am considering doing this with the 3 gallon for mead batches.

**the_bird** · 03-19-2007, 05:46 PM

All the ones I have seen are 7s (other plastic, unknown O2 permeability, the actual plastic could be almost anything).

I'll keep saying this until I'm blue in the face - why risk $20 - $40 of ingredients, plus all of your time and effort, to save $10 or $15 on a fermenter? Penny wise, pound foolish.

Not to mention that it's only a 5 gallon fermenter, so you can only really brew 4 gallons if you want to use it as a primary.

ColoradoXJ13 · 03-19-2007, 05:48 PM

I nominate the question in this thread for next years Papazian for "Most frequently asked question"

I'm sure I have posted it too though...

brewman ! · 03-19-2007, 06:00 PM

BBs are only $20ish for the 6 gallon variety. Water bottles are usually 5 gallons. I'd spend the extra $$ and get BB. I'm using a 3 gallon water jug for a secondary right now and it sucks.

**olllllo** · 03-19-2007, 06:34 PM

Here is the 3 gallon.
It's a different vendor so the bottle shape is different.

You can plainly see that it is PETE 1.

For $5.47 with no deposit required (per the website http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=88108-45903-3GSPRINGU&lpage=none) seems like an excellent container for experimental batches or mead.

Note the difficulty in cleaning, however.

**kornkob** · 03-19-2007, 07:11 PM

Course, if you are lazy, you could buy the water, dump it (or use it in the brew) and put your wort directly in it. Water sold for human consumption (and the containers it is packaged in) is sanitary by defintion. You could skip the 'santize the fermenter' step.

However, a 5 gallon primary--- seems a little risky. Gonna get a blow off almost every time on that one.

z987k · 03-20-2007, 06:28 AM

seems like a great idea for a secondary.

BruDaddy · 03-20-2007, 01:46 PM

Yeah, secondary was what I was thinking. Plus, if you use bottled water anyway, you could just get a refill ($6 at Lowe's), use the water for the brew and the new clean bottle for your secondary.