Brew Haulers in water. Are they 'seaworthy'?

Checking in with those of you that use Brew Haulers and put them in swamp coolers. I've read in one older thread where the Brew Haulers appear to hold up after being used in and out of water.

Has anybody had any issues recently with them wearing out or falling apart after sitting in water for weeks?

I am not sure if they will suffer from being waterlogged. I normally remove mine once its in the cooler

I have this question too, I hope someone with some direct experience can chime in. I'm about to order one myself, I guess I can be the guinea pig and find out, but I don't want to be the guy to lift it out of my swamp cooler and have it fail on me if others know it won't work.

IIRC, they're made of polypropylene. Should be no issue with water.

Same stuff used to wick away moisture in long underwear. It does not absorb water. Water should not impair its functionality.

They should be fine. I'd be more worried about keeping them in bright sunlight, but I doubt anyone is dumb enough to leave their fermenters in bright sunlight.

Zero problems with underwater use, except the buckles have gotten slightly bleached over the past 3 or 4 years. I add bleach to the coolant water.

A full carboy would be nearly impossible to extract from a 10-gallon cooler intact without a Brewhauler.

The webbing that these are made from is almost always polypropylene or nylon. Both are not effected by water.

I would be concerned about treating either material with bleach though.

Have to follow up and agree with 944play and Gartywood. Used my recently acquired Brewhauler submerged and it's come out looking not at all worse for wear. I'm almost kicking myself for not getting one earlier - I used to dread picking a carboy out of my swamp cooler, now it's no big deal.

TyTanium said:

IIRC, they're made of polypropylene. Should be no issue with water.

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exactly this. polypro doesnt care about water.

ive soaked mine in water many many times.

944play said:

Zero problems with underwater use, except the buckles have gotten slightly bleached over the past 3 or 4 years. I add bleach to the coolant water.

A full carboy would be nearly impossible to extract from a 10-gallon cooler intact without a Brewhauler.

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+1 with bleach and maybe I over did it but after about 4 years the plastic buckle snap broke. I think the bleach weakened it.

The bleach also destroyed several submerged pond pumps I used to keep the water circulating. The plastic fins on the impellers broke off one by one. I no longer use bleach to control algae. I also have switched to Better Bottles so I no longer use the Brewhaulers either

Homercidal said:

They should be fine. I'd be more worried about keeping them in bright sunlight, but I doubt anyone is dumb enough to leave their fermenters in bright sunlight.

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Now you tell me . . .

Rather than bleach, use h2o2 (hydrogen peroxide) to control the nasties. That and an air pump and stone.

I find that they grow a little bit of mold/mildew on them (It looked just like it?) if you leave them inside a chest freezer to ferment a carboy (since you end up with some condensation when you cold crash or if its hot out). I sometimes run them through the washing machine :shrug: