Ropak Bucket Failure (reported)

I did a search on here to see anyone had posted anything about this and I did not come across anything. I just wanted to let everyone know about this. I recently brewed a Pliny clone only to have it all go down the drain, literally. (See attached pictures and weblink for more.) I had the Pliny fermenting in a bucket in my bathtub. I went to add my dry hops and noticed a strong beer smell coming from the bathroom. I looked in the tub and noticed what looked like hop residue in the bottom of the tub coming from the bucket. I went to open the lid and noticed the bucket didnt have any heft to it. Once I got the lid open, I was PISSED. All of my precious beer was gone, down the drain. Upon further investigation I noticed what you can see in the pictures. Further investigation resulted in the finding of the listed webpage.





Be sure to read this

I just hope some of you guys read this and check your buckets before having one of beers flow down the drain. Thanks guys and best of luck!

 

Wow, that blows...glad i checked the link, cause i was gonna flame you for being too rough on your fermentor sorry for the loss...looks like they just glued the bottom on instead of welding it

 

Man, that really stinks. Fortunately, at least, you were fermenting in your bathtub so you didn't have to mop up 5g of beer off the floor.

 

I don't use this brand of bucket (I'm going to double check when I get home), but thanks for the heads up!

Does anyone know if other brands of buckets (ale pale, etc) are made by the same manufacturer?

 

I have one of those I use for a bottling bucket. Got it from Midwest. So far it shows no cracks but I may ask Midwest what they plan to do.
Thanks for the post. Sorry about your beer, that is so sad ... home brew is too good to see it go like that!

 

I doubt they do either. That would cause melted plastic or glue bead or possibly voids.

I'm fairly certain the bucket is a single injected plastic piece. The design of the newer bottom probably allows flexing of the plastic, which creates a small crack as you use it (pick it up and down and the bottom "bounces" slightly)

The ribs around the bottom edge would distribute that force across more surface area, which would help prevent this eventual damage.

Removing the ribs could be a way to save plastic. Every bit of material saved is money in the pocket. However, in order to keep the flexing from damaging the bottoms, they would have to increase the bead area that transitions the bottom to the side, which saves less plastic.

They may have removed the ribs to help keep the ribs from sticking in the mold, although that material is not really known to be problematic, and the ribs are pretty hefty, so I don't see a problem unless they somehow get damaged on the mold, which would require occasional repair. Not a big deal as this would be a relatively simple fix I think, and not one that would happen often if the mold and ejection system were designed properly.

More than likely, they did it to save plastic and make a "cleaner" looking product and simply did not foresee the consequences of the bottom flexing over time.

Another small possibility would be "Flow Lines" or "Knit Lines" where two areas of melted plastic meet. The cooler plastic from where two areas of melted plastic come together during the shooting process, and don't quite form a complete bond across the surface. This leaves a tiny line which can sometimes be a weakness, depending. In this case, I believe they shoot from the center of the bottom and the plastic spreads across the bottom and then up the sides, with really no chance of causing a Flow Line that I can see.

 

Actually, looking at those pics, it kind of does seem like they are 2-piece. Odd. I would not want a welded or glued seam in any of my fermenters.

 

subscribed, I have two (one bottling, one fermenting) of the "new" style (no ribs) but with the clock symbols pointing to "0" and "3." No signs of cracks on either, yet.

 

Glad you guys are finding this helpful. I just dont want any fellow members to go through what I did. I'm still bitter about it. I was really looking forward to sipping on some pliny this weekend.

 

Ive actually been in a Ropak bucket manufacturing facility. They do not glue the bottoms on. They are blow mold cast in one piece. Yours just broke.

 

But mine is not the first to do it. According the website I linked above, it is a known failure in the newer style Ropak buckets. They removed the ribs on the bottom of the bucket for one reason or another and this change has made the bottom much weaker. Hopefully they have fixed this issue or are in the process of fixing it as I can see it becoming a huge problem.

 

It's obvious why, to cut corners and cut costs. The price hasn't gone down, but they're using a hair less plastic by not molding the re-inforcement ridges.

Some pencil necked geek in accounting probably calculated they'd save a ton of money by changing the mold in such a way to use less plastic. Just like some gallons of milk no-longer contain a full gallon, but the cost has gone up on them.

 

. . . like 15 oz cans of veggies, 7 oz cans of tuna, and when did anyone actually buy a prepackaged "pound" of coffee? Don't even get me started on my biggest "shorting" pet peeve of them all, the 14 oz "Pints" that are sold at most bars/breweries/brewpubs.

 

That really sucks about your beer.

Thanks for the heads up. I checked mine because they're the same kind and they do have the newer bottom but they were manufactured in 2006 and didn't have any cracks. I can't tell from the website you linked if they thought it was the new bottom alone that was the problem or if it was that combined with a bad batch of them. I don't use mine much anyways but I don't want to either if they could fail that easily.

After thought: It sounds like it was just the 2008 one's. They must have changed the design long before the bad batch of them.