plastic bucket vs glass carboy

i KNOW this must have been discussed before...in fact i think i may have read a thread covering the subject, but after much searching i can't find the answers i want.

right now i only have 1 fermenting bucket. for my next batch, i thought i'd try getting a secondary fermenter. what advantage does a glass carboy have over a plastic bucket??? and if i end up with my original plastic bucket and a glass carboy, which should be my primary and which my secondary?? any help and explanations is greatly appreciated!!!

I have a plastic bucket I use as a primary and a glass carboy that I use for secondary. If you get a glass carboy for a secondary, it needs to be a 5 or 5.5 gallon one. If you get it for primary, it needs to be a 6.5 gallon one. A 6.5 gallon one can be used for secondary, but some say that there is too much head space which can cause oxidation of your beer.

Bucket for primary, carboy for secondary. That way, you can use the bucket for priming & bottling.

I use a bucket for the primary (easier to clean) and one of the plastic Better Bottles for the clearing tank/secondary. My Better Bottle has a spigot, so I bottle/keg straight from there!

david_42 said:

Bucket for primary, carboy for secondary. That way, you can use the bucket for priming & bottling.

Click to expand...

i have a bottling bucket with a spigot as well.

so its just a fact that glass carboys > plastic buckets?

myersn024 said:

I have a plastic bucket I use as a primary and a glass carboy that I use for secondary. If you get a glass carboy for a secondary, it needs to be a 5 or 5.5 gallon one. If you get it for primary, it needs to be a 6.5 gallon one. A 6.5 gallon one can be used for secondary, but some say that there is too much head space which can cause oxidation of your beer.

Click to expand...

I use a 5- gallon carboy as a primary quite a bit. I only have one 6.5 gallon carboy, so I use both for primaries when I make a ten-gallon batch (like this weekend, if I'm not working.....) Just put on a blowoff tube, and no worries.