Excellent way to hold on stoppers, airlocks, blowoff setups

[stickyfinger]

A friend of mine who is an organic chemist showed me a technique that they often use to hold down various "lids" such as rubber septa and other things onto flasks. It is a very simple design that works amazingly well and is cheap.

You just get a maybe 8" piece of solid copper wire (some scrap from household wiring projects works well) and fold it in half. Then, you twist the folded end up a ways, create a loop around your carboy neck and twist the other end tight. The non-looped end is a bit sharp, but can be filed a bit or covered with tape. I just leave mine as-is and use caution when handling the carboy.

Then, you can loop as many rubber bands as you want under the copper twists and over the carboy bung, etc. to hold it down securely. Works great for when the bung wants to pop out when it is wet with StarSan or when there is a heavy blowoff set up on it. I use more than one rubber band in case one breaks for some reason. Now you can be confident that the bung will stay in place no matter what!

The reason to use copper wire is that it will not rust and make a mess over time.

 

[day_trippr]

That'll work

But I've never had much problem with actual carboy bungs backing out...

Cheers!

 

[Hopsimus]

Nice idea!

I've used painters tape in the past, but you have to dry off the carboy first so that the tape will stick.

 

[stickyfinger]

That'll work

But I've never had much problem with actual carboy bungs backing out...

Cheers!

Hard to believe. I've seen the problem multiple times. It happens when the bung is just a bit too big for the carboy opening and when the bung is wet with StarSan.

 

[Eamster]

Use a bit of rubbing alcohol. Always works for me.

 

[kh54s10]

I use stoppers in my Better Bottles. Never had one move. 93 batches.

 

[stickyfinger]

I use stoppers in my Better Bottles. Never had one move. 93 batches.

better bottles dont have this problem.

 

[brew703]

I had the problem when the stopper was wet from a star san soak.. I use one of those orange caps for my carboy.
That's a good idea. Thanks for posting.

 

[V-Fib]

I have a thin piece of copper wire that is wrapped around my carboy handle, I pull it up and over the stopper then wrap the other end to the handle. I'm guessing we all have ways depending what we had on hand at the time.

 

[d3track]

That'll work

But I've never had much problem with actual carboy bungs backing out...

Cheers!

That's what I thought too. Good idea, but I guess I just didn't realize it was a problem for others.

 

[Inkleg]

You could screw some wire nuts on the ends. No need to file.

 

[stickyfinger]

You could screw some wire nuts on the ends. No need to file.

good idea

 

[Maylar]

I use stoppers in my Better Bottles. Never had one move. 93 batches.

My Better Bottle will pop a solid bung out, but not an airlock. I like to age my ciders without having to deal with an airlock, so I'm gonna give this method a try.

 

[stickyfinger]

just used it to hold a #7 stopper in a 6.5G carboy. it barely fit bit holds strong now!