bucket...microscratch or surface roughness.. Dishwasher sanitation

Hi all,

I got some free cake icing buckets from Wally World and plan to use it for my primary. Before I hand wash them, I soaked in hot soapy water without any physical cleaning. Today, I emptied the bucket. I noticed there are some microscratch or surface roughness inside the bucket. Is this a concern at all? I can't even see the scratch, but I can feel it for sure.. .kind of like bubbles on the surface.

On a separate topic, I wonder if I can use dishwasher to sanitize these 5 gallons bucket. I know it would waste some water and electricity.
Or is it too much work.

Thanks
Newbies..

Sounds like good places for bacteria to hide. I would advise against it

Yeah.....if they are scratched I wouldn't risk it....Use them for "slop" or sanitizing/cleaning buckets instead...

one of my buckets i use for primary has a few small scratches in it and i have never had a problem. i first noticed the scratches about 15 batches ago and all of them have turned out fine.

I know most others here will disagree with me and will tell me to throw it out. But i am really clean and sanitize the sh*t out of it and never have a problem.

I use recycled icing buckets and mine do have that sort of slightly rough finish inside, they're not smooth and shiny like my bottling bucket is. If that's all you're talking about I wouldn't worry too much, I've had no problems at all with mine. Now if you can visibly see scratches on the inside of the bucket then I would avoid them.

thanks... I think it is rough finish without visible scratches....
I look it up close and it looks like micro bubbles...I'll get some more buckets and use the best one for a 2 gallons small batch to test it.

Homemade equipment is fun.

hhmm do tiny little scratches like that really matter ??? man I hope I don't have any in mine...

undallas said:

thanks... I think it is rough finish without visible scratches....
I look it up close and it looks like micro bubbles...I'll get some more buckets and use the best one for a 2 gallons small batch to test it.

Homemade equipment is fun.

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There is a certain satisfaction to making your own, at least for me. It's one of the reasons I brew to begin with.

Your "micro bubbles" description is exactly what the inside of my primary buckets look like. I think if anything they probably help keep it from getting scratched as easily. No problems here with them.

ifishsum said:

There is a certain satisfaction to making your own, at least for me. It's one of the reasons I brew to begin with.

Your "micro bubbles" description is exactly what the inside of my primary buckets look like. I think if anything they probably help keep it from getting scratched as easily. No problems here with them.

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Thanks for the confirmation on the micor bubbles. We'll let my first batch make the call. I'm going to do a 2gal hefe in them.

in my car audio days, we used to "weld" with plastic and such. we even had plastic "irons" for fixing stuff. so I'm sure there is a way to fix your scratched fermentor bucket without spending another $15 on a completely new one...