How heat sensitive are carboys?

I am a noob I have read several threads that warn against thermal shock of carboys.

I did the following:

New carboy out of the box, filled and washed using hot tap water from the tap, ~120F (I have measured temp before)

While washing had 3 gal of water boiling on the stove in prep for a partial boil brew the next day

After final rinse of carboy with hot tap water, I shut down stove and poured the boiling water from the pot into the carboy, covered opening with foil and let it steep to sterilize carboy/ protect water from contamination until adding wort the next day.

By conservative estimate I shocked the carboy by 110F.

Was I lucky?

I don't know the tolerance of the carboy, but 110F seems like a lot of heat shock to the glass. I would guess you got lucky. Either way, it is no fun cleaning up a bunch of glass, and it can be dangerous when it shatters. Next time get yourself some sanitizer like iodophor or starsan and sanitize with that. Its relatively cheap and will do the job quickly.

That temperature difference won't hurt the carboy. I would be careful with very big temperature differences though.

You got lucky. I once cracked out the bottom of a carboy with hot water. I was filling the tub with 120 degree water to do some cleanup, and a dirty carboy was sitting in the tub with the water. It was too much for it, and the thick glass got a big crack horizontally through it.

Next time, I would have a gal of water already in the carboy to absorb most of the temp. 100F difference is really pushing it. Better yet have two gallons of chilled water, soak the hot pot in an ice bath for 20 minutes, then pour it in so you get some aeration then pitch and not have to wait till the morning.

EvilTOJ said:

It was too much for it, and the thick glass got a big crack horizontally through it.

Click to expand...

You and glass just don't get along it seems.
So have your found your piece with wine glasses at least?

Wine glasses are of the devil.