what kind of plastic are ale pails?

Hey hows it goin guys?

I'm going to start doing 3 gallon batches and wanted to pick up 2 or 3 plastic 3.5 gallon fermenters....

question is what kind of plastic are these made of? Since I'm on a WICKED budget do you think I could pick up some 3.5 gallon buckets at home depot? I saw that those are HDPE 2. I know that PETE 1 is prefered but I was wondering if ale pails are even PETE 1...

thanks guys

hmm well i did some more googling and found this...

http://www.tastybrew.com/forum/thread/52137

HDPE should be alright, i guess..

anybody out there using HDPE?

ale pails are HDPE 2. Not sure about Home Depot buckets but I do know I asked the same question on here once and I was told they would not be good enough for brewing as they would let in too much oxygen.

hey I found this too......guess there was no real reason for this post then??

http://www-gatago.com/rec/crafts/brewing/41289541.html

Thanks ToddK!

I've got a coupld HD buckets for other reasons and I checked the bottom of one....HDPE 2

Thats awesome...should mean that they are the same type of plastics...

I read earlier that to be "food grade" a company has to register and get qualified and all that...


I also read that the pigments won't start leaching out unless it is held at 180 for a while (who knows how long though..) and that white pigments (like ale pails) would be the same as orange pigments (like HD buckets)