Here's an intreresting link I found : <shttp://www.alphap.com/basics/compare.html>
With an interesting chart.
Check the right hand column, "recycle numbers". The O2 column is oxygen transmisiliby, lower is better.
Some stuff I noticed: #7 bottles pass only 1/2 as much as #1 bottles. So #7 is TWICE AS GOOD FOR BEER, as far as staling goes. #2, as in bucket fermenters, pass 53 times as much oxygen as a #1 bottle. So #7 plastic would be 100 times better than a plastic bucket. I'll repeat that:
#7 PLASTIC IS BETTER THAN #1 PLASTIC.
#7 PLASTIC IS 100 TIMES BETTER THAN A PLASTIC BUCKET.
So, if a plastic #2 bucket is just fine, then it just don't matter, does it?
Note also the CO2 transmissability column, that each of those plastics pass CO2 at 4 to 7 times the speed of oxygen. SO:
YOUR BEER WILL GO FLAT, BEFORE IT GOES STALE, IN ANY KIND OF PLASTIC.
I did some googling on the #1 carboys. All the sales literature seems to compare them to glass. Nothing to compare them to the mass market water jugs. No "Our jugs are better than #7 jugs because ______"
With an interesting chart.
Check the right hand column, "recycle numbers". The O2 column is oxygen transmisiliby, lower is better.
Some stuff I noticed: #7 bottles pass only 1/2 as much as #1 bottles. So #7 is TWICE AS GOOD FOR BEER, as far as staling goes. #2, as in bucket fermenters, pass 53 times as much oxygen as a #1 bottle. So #7 plastic would be 100 times better than a plastic bucket. I'll repeat that:
#7 PLASTIC IS BETTER THAN #1 PLASTIC.
#7 PLASTIC IS 100 TIMES BETTER THAN A PLASTIC BUCKET.
So, if a plastic #2 bucket is just fine, then it just don't matter, does it?
Note also the CO2 transmissability column, that each of those plastics pass CO2 at 4 to 7 times the speed of oxygen. SO:
YOUR BEER WILL GO FLAT, BEFORE IT GOES STALE, IN ANY KIND OF PLASTIC.
I did some googling on the #1 carboys. All the sales literature seems to compare them to glass. Nothing to compare them to the mass market water jugs. No "Our jugs are better than #7 jugs because ______"