Problem
I bought 6 plastic Big Mouth Bubbler fermentors. My old Better Bottles have seen better days. These new fermentors are almost perfect for me - large mouth, 6.5g, taller/thinner, gallon marks on side, etc. However, it bugs me that the lid leaks around the threads. Not only do you not get any indication of fermentation in your airlock, which really isn't a big deal, but you get O2 intrusion at the same leak, and possible fruit fly intrusion as well (!).
Northern brewer just started selling a Big Mouth Bubbler Universal Lid for the fermentor that has a really nice tiered silicone seal. At first it looked perfect, but it wasn't. I thought this blue piece would merely replace the original white piece of the bubbler lid. I thought that the original blue threaded ring would fit around the new silicone insert and hold it down. Nope.
So, then I thought that it would work fine without the ring holding it down. I thought it would stay down with mere friction. Nope. It pops right back up on its own. It did this even when there was nothing in the carboy. It's much worse when wet. It pops right back up out of the bubbler.
To Northern Brewer: WTF.
Good news: there's two ways to fix this problem. The first is really simple, with no DIY needed at all. The second way is much better for me, but requires some tools.
Easy solution
Simply remove the silicone gasket from the new "universal" blue lid, and insert the gasket into the old blue threaded ring, right on top of the old white piece. It pretty much stays in there. It will seal the lid when placed onto the bubbler. It does feel like it could just fall into the fermentor, but it won't, at least not easily, as the gasket is about 1/4 wider in diameter than the bubbler mouth. I only briefly tested this, but it seems like it would seal great.
Better way, with some DIY
The better solution for me was to modify the new universal gasketed lid so that the threaded ring fit around it. You want the new blue lid to be the same diameter as the old white plastic one. So, clamp together, use a sharpie marker, draw outline, and cut with jigsaw. I used a bench grinder and a deburring tool to clean up the edge, but you could do the same with a file or similar. They don't have to be perfect. Keep trimming until it drops easily into the threaded ring.
I did 6 of them in about 15 minutes. I know they work - I've got 6 of them in service right now
When you're done, spray everything with starsan, press the gasketed part all the way down into the carboy, then screw the lid on. This part is important. It's really hard to screw the lid down if you haven't pushed the gasket all the way into the carboy. You'll see.
[late edit] @Mongoose gave me a great idea: cut the top ring off the silicone gasket. This is the largest one. Seems to make everything easier when getting this DIY assembly on and screwed down.
I bought 6 plastic Big Mouth Bubbler fermentors. My old Better Bottles have seen better days. These new fermentors are almost perfect for me - large mouth, 6.5g, taller/thinner, gallon marks on side, etc. However, it bugs me that the lid leaks around the threads. Not only do you not get any indication of fermentation in your airlock, which really isn't a big deal, but you get O2 intrusion at the same leak, and possible fruit fly intrusion as well (!).
Northern brewer just started selling a Big Mouth Bubbler Universal Lid for the fermentor that has a really nice tiered silicone seal. At first it looked perfect, but it wasn't. I thought this blue piece would merely replace the original white piece of the bubbler lid. I thought that the original blue threaded ring would fit around the new silicone insert and hold it down. Nope.
So, then I thought that it would work fine without the ring holding it down. I thought it would stay down with mere friction. Nope. It pops right back up on its own. It did this even when there was nothing in the carboy. It's much worse when wet. It pops right back up out of the bubbler.
To Northern Brewer: WTF.
Good news: there's two ways to fix this problem. The first is really simple, with no DIY needed at all. The second way is much better for me, but requires some tools.
Easy solution
Simply remove the silicone gasket from the new "universal" blue lid, and insert the gasket into the old blue threaded ring, right on top of the old white piece. It pretty much stays in there. It will seal the lid when placed onto the bubbler. It does feel like it could just fall into the fermentor, but it won't, at least not easily, as the gasket is about 1/4 wider in diameter than the bubbler mouth. I only briefly tested this, but it seems like it would seal great.
Better way, with some DIY
The better solution for me was to modify the new universal gasketed lid so that the threaded ring fit around it. You want the new blue lid to be the same diameter as the old white plastic one. So, clamp together, use a sharpie marker, draw outline, and cut with jigsaw. I used a bench grinder and a deburring tool to clean up the edge, but you could do the same with a file or similar. They don't have to be perfect. Keep trimming until it drops easily into the threaded ring.
I did 6 of them in about 15 minutes. I know they work - I've got 6 of them in service right now
When you're done, spray everything with starsan, press the gasketed part all the way down into the carboy, then screw the lid on. This part is important. It's really hard to screw the lid down if you haven't pushed the gasket all the way into the carboy. You'll see.
[late edit] @Mongoose gave me a great idea: cut the top ring off the silicone gasket. This is the largest one. Seems to make everything easier when getting this DIY assembly on and screwed down.
