The Elusive PET 5 Gallon Water Bottle

Are these things myths?

I'm trying desperately to save money. Better bottles, as you know, go from $20-$30 depending on size and where you get them. Meanwhile, I hear whispers, hushed murmurings, of the elusive 5 gallon PET water bottle. These magical things can be had for $5-$10, and come filled with water to boot!

Problem is, they are nowhere to be found.

When I'm at the supermarket and see the water bottles, I sneak up, sidestepping as to not frighten away the precious quarry, and carefully lift to check underneath. #7! Again! Every time, #7.

Does anyone know where the #1 PET water bottle breeding ground is? Because I'd love to know. Has anyone found them recently at maybe a Target, Wal Mart, Kmart, Home Depot...somewhere that is likely to be in my neck of the woods (Pennsylvania).

If you divulge the secret, there's a sack of magic beans in it for ya! And then maybe we can go search for Nessy and Big Foot.

Here's an ebay listing for 5 gallon PET water bottles at $14 each.

There's 10 available. I wonder how many will be bought out by members of this forum!


Edit: Eeesh! Shipping is $14! but I guess what do you expect for something so large

PolishStout said:

Here's an ebay listing for 5 gallon PET water bottles at $14 each.

There's 10 available. I wonder how many will be bought out by members of this forum!


Edit: Eeesh! Shipping is $14! but I guess what do you expect for something so large

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Ouch. Yeah, that's how they get ya on ebay. I can't count the number of times I saw what I thought was an amazing price on ebay only to find a crazy shipping price. Not to say it doesn't actually cost that much for them to ship.

At that price, you might as well get a betterbottle. But how much is shipping on those? haha

I found a couple at Lowe's. Most were 7's but a couple had the #1. Got one and used it. The bottom is more domed than a carboy, so you have to angle the racking cane in to get down to the yeast level. Still the price was right. $12 filled with water.

Here is an online company selling empties.
http://www.h2osplashwaterfilters.com/pet2.html

I have used these a few times with no noticeable negative results, mainly for 3 gallon batches due to their being 5 gallons and not leaving any room for aggressive fermentation.

Here is an older HBT thread where their merit was discussed.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/better-bottle-alternative-122773/

Cheers

Thanks everybody!

Yeah, I noticed a lot of the PET water bottles on sale online for around the better bottle price. With shipping, yeah, they are probably about the same.

Lowes! Great, at least I have a starting point of where to look. I'm planning on hitting the streets tomorrow and just going from store to store. I do have a Lowes nearby, so I'll check there, then maybe Home Depot, target, BJ's Whole Sale, and if I *have* to, Walmart and Kmart.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for Lowes so I don;t have to go crazy driving all around town.

One question, you said they had mostly #7's but a couple #1's. Were they the same brand? If not, do you remember what brand the #1's where?

Thanks again.

EDIT: Zen, just noticed that is for *two* bottles, I thought it was only one. That's a pretty good deal. If I can't ind any local, I'll go for that. Thanks!

EDIT EDIT: Do'h! Shipping for me is $15.55, which basically makes it $20 per bottle. :-(

Check with your local bottled water delivery service. Mine carries the in NJ, and Is just a few bucks more than the regular bottles

MicroBrewMaster said:

Check with your local bottled water delivery service. Mine carries the in NJ, and Is just a few bucks more than the regular bottles

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Good idea, thanks! I just assumed that the local bottled water delivery services would either not sell only the one bottle (without renting the whole rig), or would charge too much. But this is definitely worth a shot, thanks.

I swipe culligan water bottles from work water cooler. They've worked great for me so far.

Whole foods carries them for around $15. They carry both the PP and PE ones in 3 and 5 gallon.

jd3 said:

I swipe culligan water bottles from work water cooler. They've worked great for me so far.

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I eye these up all the time in our break room. The maintenance guy has said he would get me one or two if I really want it, but then he'd probably be expecting some unreasonable favor in return (he doesnt drink so no 6-packs of homebrew).

How do you go about 'swiping' them? LOL

Darn, no Whole Foods around here.

I used to work somewhere that had a cooler, but not anymore, so that's out too.

The ones at Lowes were all the same brand. I noticed that some of the bottles had a different texture on the outside top of the bottle. Those were the good ones. All the ones at my Home Depot were number 7. Good luck

I might have to give up on this. Today I checked Lowes, Home Depot, Target, BJ's, Shoprite, and Weis. All #7's. :-/

I still have to check the local water delivery services, but if they don't have any, that about does it I think. No wonder they get away with selling better bottles for so much.

One question. Are you driving to all these places? If so I think the gas you've used would have bought you a better-bottle.

Kahler said:

One question. Are you driving to all these places? If so I think the gas you've used would have bought you a better-bottle.

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No, I flew. Sorry, couldn't help it. :cross:

All the stores were on the way to a job, so no, I wasn't wasting gas.

Its cool.
I have both a 3 gal BB and a 5 gal. I love them and they are worth the investment.
If you go to morebeer.com, spend $60 and get free shipping. Northernbrewer.com has &$7.99 shipping on anything in stock, i didnt see any regulation on that one in terms of total spent.

Kahler said:

Its cool.
I have both a 3 gal BB and a 5 gal. I love them and they are worth the investment.
If you go to morebeer.com, spend $60 and get free shipping. Northernbrewer.com has &$7.99 shipping on anything in stock, i didnt see any regulation on that one in terms of total spent.

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Yeah, I'm going to eventually get one, probably with my next order. I actually *just* made an order with NB (should arrive Saturday). Their better bottles are part of the $7.99 flat rate, but glass are not.

I decided to hold off mainly because I won't need a secondary until I attempt the pumpkin beer closer to August.

I didn't realize morebeer.com had a free shipping program. I'll have to check that out. Thanks!

Or you can obtain 5, 6, and or 7 gal buckets for a fraction of the cost and none of the headaches of siphoning. Place a tap on the bottom and you're good to go.

norsk said:

Or you can obtain 5, 6, and or 7 gal buckets for a fraction of the cost and none of the headaches of siphoning. Place a tap on the bottom and you're good to go.

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I need it for secondary (to get off pumpkin or fruit trub) and/or extended aging (possibly for cider), which is why i was looking at better bottles. I've read that buckets have too much head space for secondary, and aren't recommended for aging. I'm sure I could get away with it, but I don't know if I'd want to take the chance.

I do use buckets for my primary though.

I wanted to follow up with this because I finally tracked down #1 PET water bottles at my local Shoprite. They are Poland Spring bottles with plastic handles, and cost only $11 (filled with water). I snagged only one because I also recently was given a 5 gallon glass carboy, and a number of 2-5 gallon buckets from my local bakery.

The search is finally over!

I realize this is an old post, but I went today to Whole Foods Market looking for the 5-gallon water bottles mentioned in the post. The price is now $21.99 and they have a handle. I didn't look at the number of the plastic, however. The 3-gallon jugs were $17.99. I decided that I'd skip it and just buy a real brewing bottle.

Hi, I'm new here. I found #1 5-gallon jugs that are listed on Walmart's website as $8.01. Hope someone finds that useful.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/American-Maid-5-gal-Water-Bottle/51200565?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222228041980665&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=99437951777&wl4=aud-273067695102la-92832648049&wl5=9014904&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=51200565&wl13=&veh=sem