Could this water jug be good for a secondary?

[joeboxer]

Hi, I know in the past people have talked about whether water cooler tanks can be used instead of a BetterBottle charboy, but I was wondering about this standard water jug that goes for about $2.50 at Target, and is available in other grocery store chains as well.

It's made out of HDPE plastic (#2), which is food safe. It's not as hard as the hard plastic PETE (#1) BetterBottle, but I'm not sure if that makes it no good for aging wine. Any chemists want to comment?

The only other issue I can think of is that, as you can see from the picture, there is going to be a little bit of air in the handle. Is that a fatal problem? Can we figure out a way to extend the spout to raise the liquid level above the rest of the container?

 

[ChshreCat]

#'s 1 and 2 are considered food safe, but I'm more of a beer person. If we have beer in a fermenter (primary or secondary) for a month that's a good amount of time. Wine making has your product in contact with the fermenters much longer. I'll let someone else speak to that, but I'd be a bit wary of having wine in that for a long period of time, mainly because it's the container they sell the water in so it's very thin due to it's intended "use once and dispose" lifespan.

 

[JewBrew]

It should be ok, but the only issue i see is cleaning inside the handle. I personally use a 6 gallon water cooler bottle without a handle. Cleaning it involves just filling it with solution and giving it a good shake.