Typical 5 gal. Office Water PET Bottles

[lgtg]

okay, I've read this in multiple places. Most say "Dont' use it" Some books (I think Papazian's first edition) say "It's okay to use it". This thread;

http://www.thebrewhut.com/TBHforum.net/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=2524/

says (somewhat convincingly) "it"s okay to use it"

Is there any hard data saying that if you use it you'll be sorry? I mean, it's really tempting. It's safer, they are WAY cheaper and for me (LHBS is over two hours away) they are easier to find.

Anyone have anything that could "sway" it? I mean, even if it's not the plastic that's food grade, aren't there numerous other variables faced by the home brewer that can train wreck a batch even when dealing with 100% approved equipment? If you could say that there is always a 15-20% chance of contaminating or otherwise compremising a batch, what's the harm?

 

[the_bird]

It's not contamination, it's O2 permeability. You might be OK, you might not, you can't tell becuase the plastic used in the bottles is "other" (it could be anything, really). People here have had bad batches when they've used those bottles, because of the O2 issue (Cheesefood, for one, IIRC).

EDIT: Most would disagree, pretty strenuously, with the statement

there is always a 15-20% chance of contaminating or otherwise compremising a batch

If you're losting one out of every five or six batches to contanination, you need to revisit your procedures very carefully. That's far, far too high a "failure" rate.

 

[lgtg]

Thanks the_bird,

Did the link work for you? it's all messed up for me. Sorry about that. Yeah, I guess that is what I had heard about it. Oxygenation. Hm, I guess it's not worth the 50/50 if you're not brewing at least once a week or so. I'd rather spend and wait than dump and regret. Thanks for your insight.

 

[the_bird]

FWIW, you can buy Better Bottles (which ARE good to use, even for long-term aging) online from any of the major suppliers - and someone, I believe, sells them with free shipping. The water bottles I've seen at target are like $10 - $12 (and too small to use as primary fermenters anyway), the BB are about twice that but you KNOW they will work, you won't waste your time and ingredients. One lost batch with a water cooller bottle, and your "savings" are shot.

 

[lgtg]

I "shant" be using those...

 

[Buford]

The water cooler bottles that we ue here at the office for, well, the water cooler are bluish in color and are marked as 7 ("other") plastic, not PET which is I believe 1. Most of the bottles I've seen for water coolers are marked 7 and say "for water use only" or something like that on them.

 

[m_f]

okay, I've read this in multiple places. Most say "Dont' use it" Some books (I think Papazian's first edition) say "It's okay to use it". This thread;

http://www.thebrewhut.com/TBHforum.net/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=2524/

says (somewhat convincingly) "it"s okay to use it"

Is there any hard data saying that if you use it you'll be sorry? I mean, it's really tempting. It's safer, they are WAY cheaper and for me (LHBS is over two hours away) they are easier to find.

Anyone have anything that could "sway" it? I mean, even if it's not the plastic that's food grade, aren't there numerous other variables faced by the home brewer that can train wreck a batch even when dealing with 100% approved equipment? If you could say that there is always a 15-20% chance of contaminating or otherwise compremising a batch, what's the harm?

In my home country (Argentina), the glass carboy is non existent. Most homebrewers use 5G water bottles as primary and secondary.

Now, for primary the problem I see is that for a typical 5G batch a 5G bottle is too small. But if you brew say 4 gal. I do not see any problem.

regarding the plastic... if it is a water blottle has to be food grade material, right?

 

[olllllo]

I've seen (rarely) PETE 1 bottles, but there were so many indentations (especially to reinforce the bottom) and a hollowed out handle. I t just looked like a cleaning nightmare.

Lowes had 3g PETE which I might use for a mead or something that I'm going to forget about for a year.