Carboy Dangers (and potential death)

Yesterday I asked in the beginners forum, what was better, a Carboy or a Bucket? It only took a couple of responses to remind me of the dangers of carboys. I will be sticking with buckets. Back in 1980, my brother, who was back from the military and starting his life a civilian, was killed by a carboy. Only he (20 yrs) and I (17 yrs) were home at the time. He was sleeping on the couch in the family room when I woke him up. He saw the time and realized he was late for work. He got up quickly and slipped on a throw rug and fell onto a carboy that was on the fireplace threshold. It was used for keeping spare change. Used as a decorative piece. Well, the carboy shattered and a sliver of glass shot into his leg hitting, I think, the femoral artery. He bled to death before the ambulance made it. It is amazing how fast it happened. And how life is so truly precious. While time is supposed to heal wounds, it doesn't. I try not to think of that day, but, when I do, it's tough. He was my only brother and I just wonder what type of a relationship we would now have. He would have been 53 and I am now 50. I am sure he would enjoy the brew I am now making.

Anyway, stick to buckets, I forgot how safe they actually are....

sorry for your loss man

I use buckets, carboys scare me

superjunior said:

sorry for your loss man

I use buckets, carboys scare me

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Thanks!

BTW, I love the picture.....

I'm sorry you had that happen in your family.

I started with glass carboys, but quickly realized the potential dangers they posed. I've switched to better bottles, and am much more comfortable with them.

I'm very sorry for your loss.
I also switched to better bottles after realizing I was moving my beer while my kids were running around.

I quit using the handle on the neck thingee, a while back. I keep mine in a "muck bucket" most of the time for blowoff containment and use two people to move it around when full.

Ya'll are making me worried about the 6.5 gal carboy I just ordered.

Msarro,
Carry that carboy in a milk crate and be damn careful. I've used one for 3 years and it's great but be careful.

I wonder if it'd be worth it to look into a demijohn tub. The type that you usually see wine fermenting in.

Wow, what a crazy freak accident. Sorry to hear about your brother but I am still going to use my glass carboys. We have a baby boy on the way and I have full intentions of having all of my beer stuff (carboys included) to be tucked away where he can't get to when he is old enough to be moving around and getting into trouble.

I would surely hate to see that happen to anyone else. It wasn't a pretty scene. It certainly was a freak accident. I remember the Dr. in the emergency room said that the only way to have saved him was if a surgeon was on the spot...

Just be careful, everyone!!!!

(Sorry to bring people down. It wasn't my intention. )

I was hiking in death valley once. We stopped for lunch and I was handing my brother a jar of jelly when I slipped and fell. Shoved that jar right into my hand. Being twenty miles from the nearest road and hours from a real hospital, I was lucky I didn't cut myself worse. I don't carry glass in my pack anymore.

But I do have five glass carboys. This brings up a good point and I will probably buy the better brewers if I need more, but i am not giving up my glass carboys.

NJtarheel said:

I would surely hate to see that happen to anyone else. It wasn't a pretty scene. It certainly was a freak accident. I remember the Dr. in the emergency room said that the only way to have saved him was if a surgeon was on the spot...

Just be careful, everyone!!!!

(Sorry to bring people down. It wasn't my intention. )

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When I first read your post I though "Oh no... another one of those 'Make it illegal to ride a bike without a helmet" people." Actually, after thinking about it - I applaud your post. Truthfully, when I first started brewing I had NO idea of how dangerous those glass carboys can be. I broke one myself, drunk, stumbling around in the dark in my kitchen. I was lucky I did not fall on the sucker and slice myself up BAD!

Thank you for letting us know just how careful you need to be when you use the glass carboys! Your bro certainly would want us all to know.

Peace

I must say that this thread has been an eye opener for me. I have a glass carboy for use as a secondary but I seldom secondary anymore. I'm getting lazier with age I guess.

Sorry for your loss and what must have been a horrific experience. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thanks for all the support from the forum. I really appreciate it!!!!

I just broke a 6 1/2 carboy a few weeks ago - got lucky and just had to clean up glass shards - no lost beer, no blood. I'm replacing it with a Better Bottle.

One thought to those of you with little ones & buckets - those can be deadly too. Keep the brew gear where it is safe for all...

Wow! what a tragedy....
I use Sanke kegs and BB for fermenting. I do have one glass carboy that I use 1 or 2 times a year and it always freaks me out a little.

I use Better Bottles, but do have one glass carboy. My rules for handling it (in no particular order):

1. I always use a milk crate or BrewHauler to carry it.
2. I never handle it out of the crate with more than two or three quarts of liquid in it - I always siphon out most of the contents before picking it up and upending it to drain.
3. I don't handle it if my hands or the outside of the carboy is wet - dry off first.
4. I'm careful about thermal shock - hot liquid into a cold carboy or vice versa.
5. I'm damned careful not to bump it against anything while I'm holding it.
6. I don't pick it up and shake it to agitate - I only use this for seconday, but if I did use it for primary, then for aerating, I would use an airstone with pump or oxygen; for cleaning (after soaking) I put about a half gallon of cleaning solution in it, lay it on its side and roll it back and forth (this works well on my 5 gallon, don't know about the 6.5 gallon ones).
7. I don't handle it if I've been drinking.

Wow... I have two glass carboys that I've been using and always had this tingly sensation when I moved them, especially when full. I wrote it off to being a noob and just being silly, but not any more.

I've been thinking of getting a few buckets. Sounds like it might be time. Thank you, NJ.

This is the type of story that realy make me tear up and hurts my heart! My thoughts go out to you my man. I have seen one of my best customers and great friend almost die from a glass carboy. It slipped while he was cleaning it, he tried to catch it. It broke and severed his wrist almost killing him. I have broke 1 and dont use them in my brewery at all. I have 3 kids and just dont see the need. I LOVE MY BUCKETS AND PET CARBOYS.
Man My heart goes out to you. Sad Sad story!
Jay

These things don't just spontaneously explode. Well it might if you dump hot water into it. It's a big, heavy, awkward, object made of glass. Use appropriate caution and you'll be fine.

Sorry about the fatal accident. That really sucks.

I am truly sorry to hear that your family had to endure such a tragic loss. With that being said and with all of the respect in the world, I have to disagree that a carboy should be classified as dangerous to own, let alone life threatening.

A glass carboy is perfectly safe as long as it is handled with care, moved with caution and stored thoughtfully. We live in a world where potential dangers are around every corner. If you start to dwell on the potential dangers in life, you are going to have to live in a padded room with a straight jacket on, as it might be the only truly safe place to you.

Again, I am not trying to disrespect the original poster or anyone in this thread but I think this topic gets way out of hand. This same conversation could be had about so many things that we use when we brew. How many houses have burned down because of propane burners? How many people are scalded by boiling water? How many people die of alcohol poisoning a year? As long as precautions are taken, the things I listed, and many other examples, are perfectly safe.

Sorry to hear about your loss!

Carboys are pretty safe until they are not: OP's brother wasn't exactly acting foolishly around the carboy. Buckets for me all the way: I have two carboys I bought for cheap when I started, anyone in the Quebec region can buy them from me for 10$ each.

DeafSmith said:

I use Better Bottles, but do have one glass carboy. My rules for handling it (in no particular order):

1. I always use a milk crate or BrewHauler to carry it.
2. I never handle it out of the crate with more than two or three quarts of liquid in it - I always siphon out most of the contents before picking it up and upending it to drain.
3. I don't handle it if my hands or the outside of the carboy is wet - dry off first.
4. I'm careful about thermal shock - hot liquid into a cold carboy or vice versa.
5. I'm damned careful not to bump it against anything while I'm holding it.
6. I don't pick it up and shake it to agitate - I only use this for seconday, but if I did use it for primary, then for aerating, I would use an airstone with pump or oxygen; for cleaning (after soaking) I put about a half gallon of cleaning solution in it, lay it on its side and roll it back and forth (this works well on my 5 gallon, don't know about the 6.5 gallon ones).
7. I don't handle it if I've been drinking.

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I think I do the opposite of everyone of your points. Just getting into brewing beer and just bought a second glass carboy. I never knew there was such dangers. I have picked it up by the neck, full, shaking it. I will definitely handle with more care.

I think one of the recurring themes in the posts I have seen where someone has gotten hurt, aside from the OP which was a freak accident is people trying to catch a carboy that they lost there grip on. I always keep in my mind when handling mine that if it starts to go I am not going to try and awkwardly catch it, I can clean up some broken glass. I am always ready to jump back out of the way. Also like others have said, use an egg crate or one of the strap harnesses made for carrying carboys and always have someone help you. I try to never lift a full carboy by myself and like I said if a carboy full or empty starts to get away from me I am jumping back.

Again not to downplay the OP's post but like others have said, if we dwell on the things all around us every day that could hurt us we wouldn't be able to function. He fell on that carboy and that is terrible but he just as easily could have slipped and hit his head on the bricks of the fireplace that carboy was sitting on and died from head trauma.

Paramecium said:

I think one of the recurring themes in the posts I have seen where someone has gotten hurt, aside from the OP which was a freak accident is people trying to catch a carboy that they lost there grip on.

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Here's an incident where the guy wasn't trying to catch a dropped carboy - this is why I don't pick up one with any appreciable amount of liquid in it and turn it up to drain:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/broke-carboy-today-123232/

DeafSmith said:

Here's an incident where the guy wasn't trying to catch a dropped carboy - this is why I don't pick up one with any appreciable amount of liquid in it and turn it up to drain:

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Damn, the bottom just broke off with no clear reason?... scary. Looking at that thread Yooper said nearly the same thing happened to her friend.

That's another one of the reasons glass carboys scare me. Of course many say they're fine if you exercise proper caution, but what about in those instances where the person appeared to do nothing wrong. Obviously we weren't there so we don't know if there was any user error involved (water too hot, etc). But there does seem the potential for a defective product that doesn't appear defective in any way until something like that happens. While I have no problem with people's choices in using them I will say I'm glad that risk is out of the equation for my homebrewing - though of course there are always others. Can't escape all risk, but I definitely like to minimize it where I can if possible.


Rev.

Jaybird said:

This is the type of story that realy make me tear up and hurts my heart! My thoughts go out to you my man. I have seen one of my best customers and great friend almost die from a glass carboy. It slipped while he was cleaning it, he tried to catch it. It broke and severed his wrist almost killing him. I have broke 1 and dont use them in my brewery at all. I have 3 kids and just dont see the need. I LOVE MY BUCKETS AND PET CARBOYS.
Man My heart goes out to you. Sad Sad story!
Jay

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Thanks Jaybird. I appreciate the warm thoughts.....

If anyone thinks that their constant thoughts of "dont grab the carboy as it breaks" is going to avoid injury your fooling yourself.

I was emptying my carboy in my apt sink last new years eve and bumped it on the sink, it literally shattered in my hands while full of water. As it broke, I just slightly flinched and sliced my palm open. Glass from a broken carboy is insanely sharp, jagged and thick. I got of extremely lucky and refuse to use another carboy again. New years eve resolution I bought 4, 6 gallon SS bayou pots for fermenters and havent looked back.

One thing to assist with avoiding injury is using hot or warm water in carboys. For some reason it makes them incredibly weak.