how can i tell if hydrometer is lead or steel shot?

I have this hydrometer here:

Oak Barrel Winecraft > Beermaking > Triple-Scale Hydrometer

Any ideas on how I can tell if it is lead or steel shot?

I just broke it and spilled all over the floor. I vacuumed, swept, and wiped some up with paper towels, but I think there's still some shot lying around.

Just wondering if I just poisoned the house or not.

thanks.

I gotta guess that the hydrometer is made with steel shot. It is unlikely that in this day and age, a consumer device to be used with food/beverage would be made with lead shot. Too much foreseeable liability there if you ask me. That said, if you want to be sure, the only way would be to call the company and ask. Start by calling up the dealer you bought it from, and if they are not absolutely sure, then ask them how to get in touch with the manufacturer. I probably wouldn't bother with this, but I don't have kids crawling around on my floor. If you do, I would look into it. Good luck.

Take a magnet to it.

Eat it and check for lead poisoning side effects..... jk. I think a magnet would work to but I'm not metallurgist.

Just a thought, Lead is very pliable, if you try crushing one with pliers, and it smashes easily like clay, maybe lead, if it crumbles probably pot metal. Not very scientific, but they are probably not lead, as someone said, food safety issue.

Umm...maybe it's just my LHBS, but the paper instruction sheets that were included with my hydrometers look like they have been copied and copied and copied ... since the '60s . Who knows.

Mine have all been lead. Most definitely.

marubozo said:

Take a magnet to it.

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I took a fridge magnet to some of the pellets, and it didn't pick them up...

but then I looked around online and people say that lead is not magnetic and steel is not necessarily magnetic... but then there are a lot of devices out there that use magnets to pick up steel shot.

So who knows... it didn't fall in any beer so at least I'm not drinking it I guess.

Got a torch?

Lead melts rather easily with a torch. Steel just gets really hot.

I wouldnt worry about it you wont die from that little bit. been spitting out bird shot since I was a kid and im just fine. Well thats what the voices in my head tell me hehe

all steel is magnetic to some degree, even stainless, it just all has varying degrees of it(i seriously doubt that they would use stainless in a hydrometer though). A fridge magnet might not be strong enough to show any definitive results about steel vs lead. I can tell by the weight of mine that it is lead, considering the volume vs the mass of the metal. but as sub-zero said, don't worry about it. I too have spit out plenty of bird shot and use my teeth to crush split shots onto my fishing lines for years....

Yep and all my kids came out with no more than three arms each lol

ya it not like you spilled a quort of mercury on the floor
just run the vacume.
lead really only hurts babies and kids,
after you are done growing it takes alot of lead to get
acute lead poisoning, ALOT.

I broke a floating thermometer in a batch of beer on time. I called the company up and they said that the thermometer uses steel shot. I am surprised that people have a hard time believing they would use steel shot rather than lead. Drank the beer and it was great. If the thermometer uses steel, I don't see why the hydrometer couldn't.

You have an irrational fear of lead anyway. I wouldn't want to swallow lead shot, but it's not plutonium. What about SCUBA divers that strap 16 pounds of it to themselves and handle it bare handed? Oh noes...

And Led poisoning shows on your nails before it gets dangerous in any way.... You are in no danger at all.

Clayton said:

lead really only hurts babies and kids,
after you are done growing it takes alot of lead to get
acute lead poisoning, ALOT.

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Bolti said:

And Led poisoning shows on your nails before it gets dangerous in any way.... You are in no danger at all.

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These statements are not entirely true. Although acute lead poisoning is most common with children chronic poisoning is just as common with adults especially men and DOES hurt adults. Secondly, lead poisoning most likely will not appear in your fingernails before it is a problem that can cause profound and often irreversible problems to your health. I do not feel that you are at risk for lead poisoning but these statements are not accurate.

Toxicity, Lead: eMedicine Critical Care

Bobby_M said:

You have an irrational fear of lead anyway. I wouldn't want to swallow lead shot, but it's not plutonium. What about SCUBA divers that strap 16 pounds of it to themselves and handle it bare handed? Oh noes...

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+1 Its not like Mercury!

jigidyjim said:

I have this hydrometer here:

Oak Barrel Winecraft > Beermaking > Triple-Scale Hydrometer

Any ideas on how I can tell if it is lead or steel shot?

I just broke it and spilled all over the floor. I vacuumed, swept, and wiped some up with paper towels, but I think there's still some shot lying around.

Just wondering if I just poisoned the house or not.

thanks.

Click to expand...

Metallic lead, in the form of lead shot or otherwise, is almost completely innocuous, particularly in the form of a few pellets hiding here and there. No worries. Lead does its damage when compounded in ways that make it easy to be absorbed into the body; this isn't one of them.

RDWHAHB - Lead has to have a way to get into your body to harm you. Unless you are sucking the lead pellets up with a straw, you and your kin are going to be OK. The fear and misconceptions about lead came from the lead that was used to whiten paint last century. Kids, as they do, stick things in their mouths. Lead paint ingested, will poison. The fingernail idea comes from the history of workers who regularly handled lead every day without protective gear showed the effects of poisoning in their hands first.

Lead is not volatile or water soluble. Relax and vacuum.

Holy crap, worst paranoid thread ever. You could eat all the"lead" in a hydrometer and be fine. This is what you get when you make your kids wear bicycle helmets.

wildwest450 said:

This is what you get when you make your kids wear bicycle helmets.

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What, brains on the insides of their skulls?

beerkrump said:

What, brains on the insides of their skulls?

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No, a generation of weenies, (not referring to the op). No helmets or seat belts when I grew up, and I made it.

Hell, I remember riding around in the back of my dad's pick up. That doesn't mean it was a good idea. Maybe it's being a dad, but removing a variable that can kill my kids is a no brainer.

Damn right, that pun was intended!