Better Bottles... uh, why so expensive?

[badmajon]

Seriously its a 5 gallon Fiji water bottle. Why is it 30 dollars for something that probably cost some guy in China 5 cents to squirt out and press?

I mean if I want to spend $30, at least I can use a carboy and it'll look cool.

 

[SwampassJ]

That's too expensive. I'm grabbing a few this weekend for 10 each.

 

[TXCrash]

marketing

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

Compare one to a water bottle.

The Better Bottle is thicker, and better made.

Also, you can get 6 gallon Better Bottles.

 

[ScubaSteve]

That's why I went with buckets....and I'm now moving on to corny's. At least with a corny you can ferment, transfer, age, carb, and serve. Talk about value! Plus they can be cleaned pretty easily with a brush, keg cleaner setup, or the old oxyclean soak n' shake. I always hated messing with the neck and shoulders of a carboy...let alone buying the stoppers and messing with airlocks.

 

[IrregularPulse]

They are not the same as water bottles or everyone would be using them It's a different PET rating that is "critical" to brewing to to oxygen permeability. The accessories are ridiculously priced I agree and I will not personally buy one because I love the open mouth of buckets. But they are not the "same" as a water bottle both in material and size. Edwort did a great drop test on here with a video. Full better bottle pushed off a 3' table onto a concrete pad. Better bottle held up with just a couple scuffs. Minimal beer loss out the neck before picked up.
Do that with a carboy, hello stitches and good bye beer.
Do that with a bucket, good buy beer.

They do have some perks.

 

[homebrewer_99]

It's called "supply and demand"...though not the same SAD taught in economics classes.

It's more like "they supply the item and demand any price they want."

Realistically, they'll charge "whatever the market will bear". What that means is they'll charge the highest price possible as long as the customer is willing to pay the price.

Granted, it doesn't always work that way based upon intrinsic value and workmanship like gold jewelry and such. But something like a plastic bottle where supplies are readily available can not be expensive to make.

 

[NoNothing]

I paid $5 for 5.5 gallon water bottles at Culligan water. They are made from the same thing as better bottles (supposedly) Ive had no issues cleaning or fermenting in them.

If they get scratched and hard to clean, Ill throw them away and buy new ones, simple as that.

 

[DrawTap88]

I thought the same thing as the OP. I used my BB once, went to clean it, and scuffed up the area where the shoulder meets the opening. Just bought a bucket to replace it this past weekend for half the price which will be easier to clean.

 

[Bobby_M]

$30 is too much even for the 6g BB. You should be able to find one for $25. If you can find another "brand" PET bottle in 6 gallons, let us all know. You can't primary ferment 5 gallons in a 5 gallon Culligan bottle.

 

[TipsyDragon]

Seriously its a 5 gallon Fiji water bottle. Why is it 30 dollars for something that probably cost some guy in China 5 cents to squirt out and press?

I mean if I want to spend $30, at least I can use a carboy and it'll look cool.

its imported. thats why i buy American.

 

[NoNothing]

$30 is too much even for the 6g BB. You should be able to find one for $25. If you can find another "brand" PET bottle in 6 gallons, let us all know. You can't primary ferment 5 gallons in a 5 gallon Culligan bottle.

I should have mentioned, I primary in glass and secondary in my culligan bottles.

 

[Bensiff]

Seriously its a 5 gallon Fiji water bottle. Why is it 30 dollars for something that probably cost some guy in China 5 cents to squirt out and press?

I mean if I want to spend $30, at least I can use a carboy and it'll look cool.

It would probably be cheaper made in the US, importing is extremely expensive especially bulky items...not to mention tariffs. You can find non BB PET bottles out there that are a little cheaper, I have one and it works fine. I clean my with PBW, it works great and I don't have to worry about scratching it. To get the yeast scum ring off without making a wasteful 6 gallon batch of PBW I put one of those orange bungs on it to seal it and turn it upside down over a bathroom size trash can, it surprisingly doesn't leak.

 

[billc68]

Wow $30 in the US? we are only paying $20-$25 here by that math, they should be $15 there! (judging by other items ihave seen on both sides of the border) I hate the price but love the bottles.

 

[Montanaandy]

BB'S are fairly expensive because they have a corner on the market at this point in time. Once [if] a competitor comes out with a cheaper or better version (one that can withstand higher temps) the price will drop.

I have a number of basic (non-ported) 5 & 6 gal BB's and while they were not cheap per se, I don't feel that I was being ripped off paying $20-25 for one. The BB's are lightweight, durable, and easy to clean. Mine look as good as the day I purchased them.

The ported version is far too expensive as are the add-on's (blow off, etc.). Would love to have a ported BB with the blow off but not going to pay the crazy prices that they are asking for them. Don't quite understand the marketing idea behind that - "lets price the BB's fairly but gouge people on the ported version/add-on's". I bet 90%> of their sales are the non-ported version.

 

[Bensiff]

I got a ported one with the rotating racking arm and it honestly isn't worth it as it seems a little slow and it sucks up plenty of crud when you rotate it down. I usually use a traditional racking cane with one of those caps that invert the flow upward to keep from sucking trub from the bottom. My psuedo BB is unported. If you think about it though, you could cut your own hole and use a bucket style valve, you wouldn't have the fancy racking arm though, but would probably end up with the same amount of trub.

 

[Jethro]

I think if you compare the BB to it's "competition" (glass carboy) they are priced reasonably. There are lots of non-brewing marketed containers that are cheaper.

Also, I'll just say that I really like my BB with the racking adapters. I use CO2 to push the beer into a corny keg without moving/lifting and it works great. The racking accessories are expensive but they are well made machine plastic parts. Well worth it to me.

 

[SumnerH]

I got mine for $20 or so. In theory, they have much lower O2 permeability than a Culligan bottle; I've not tested that theory (I know Oldsock's had good results using BBs for long-aged sour beers, though).

I primary in buckets; the 2 BBs I have are for secondaries, which I used to do quite rarely but I've just finished an oaked barleywine and a RIS with peppers/vanilla bean/cocao/cinnamon and I'm about to rack a funked saison and an Oude Bruin into them. So they've been seeing some use recently.

 

[BeerPressure]

carboys are near the same price now and breakable.

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

I don't consider $25 expensive for a fermentor. If I go stainless steel I am paying $300+.

 

[Hethen57]

I've ordered mine from Midwest and they are not much more than $20, with free shipping if you order enough stuff. The LBS's around here sell them for $28 and glass for $40, so don't seem that expensive to me, and are much better to haul up and down the stairs full of wort to my basement "fermentation" room.

 

[blowmax10]

Hey guys, I work in PET manufacturing and I can tell you that it is an expensive process - believe it or not, plastic bottles actually cost more than glass. We are using three compressors with 500hp electric motors producing 650psi

Also it is a two stage manufacturing process. One machine, injection molder makes the blank called a Preform. The machine that I run is called a blow molder. We reheat the preform stretch it out and them its blown out to the final shape.

What I'm trying to get across here is that there is a lot more to it then people think

I do think part of the problem with the better bottles being so high is that there is not another company competing with them for the home brewer dollar - that would drive down prices more than anything

 

[TXCrash]

Of course it's an expensive process.
[opinion]
It's not, however, an expensive enough process to justify $20-$30 for a plastic bottle. Seems to me the manufacturing costs should be similar. I'd be interested to know why you say it's a more expensive process than glass - which requires a huge amount of heat (energy) and still requires molding, etc. As has been mentioned, there are some water jugs which are PET and cost a much more reasonable amount. It all boils down to my original comment: marketing. When I was entering homebrewing a year and a half ago, I was told that better bottles had a glass layer sandwiched between the plastic. I was told how much better they were. I've seen the better bottle crowd pipe up here constantly about how much a better bottle would be than (insert fermenter alternative here). Better bottle has done a kick-ass job of marketing - kudos to them! If I could sell a $7 product for $30 you bet your ass I would. When homebrewers latch on to something, it sells for a premium.

I've never used a better bottle, but wouldn't hesitate to use one if I was GIVEN one. That said, I'm confident that regardless of what I ferment in my glass carboys, regardless of how long I let them sit dirty and baking in the sun, I can get them clean quickly with hot water and oxyclean. I just have to be careful when handling them. Most of my carboys were made in the 70's and I'm confident they've got another couple decades in them - can the same be said for a better bottle? (hint - leave a glass carboy in the sun for a year and a plastic bottle in the sun for a year - which do you think you'd be willing to use after a year?)

Congrats to better bottle for awesome marketing - they've managed to sell a $8 product for $20-$30. Kinda makes me wonder, however, what the homebrew shops take is on the better bottles?[/opinion]

 

[zanemoseley]

One thing I can tell you is new glass carboys aren't made like the old ones. I bought one and soon realized it had tons of stress cracks around the neck probably from a manufacturing defect. Had the defect not been caught it could have hurt me or at least lost some beer.

I now have two 6 gallon BB's and one 5 gallon. I love them. Once I dropped one from about 12-18" and the air lock shot off with some krausen but the BB and beer was still fine. Granted I wouldn't have tried what I was doing with a glass carboy but bottom line is that they work.

 

[rico567]

I think the virtues of Better Bottles have been covered sufficiently in this thread to counter the OP. My BBs are used only for secondaries, and not a whole lot, since I've moved to primary only, and my primary fermentation is done solely in buckets. The safety, easy handling, and light weight of the BBs compared to glass is also a big selling point. The glass carboys that came with my starter kit are now used solely for bulk aging barleywines, imperial stouts, etc.

 

[SumnerH]

(hint - leave a glass carboy in the sun for a year and a plastic bottle in the sun for a year - which do you think you'd be willing to use after a year?)

Why would I do that, though? My secondaries sit comfortably in the basement, and there's never more than 5 minutes between when one gets emptied and when it's soaking in cleanser in the sink.

I mean, I could say "hint - drop a full Better Bottle from 4' high onto your foot and do the same with a glass carboy--which do you think will injure you worse". And you'd (rightly) object because, well, why would you do that.