Most often broken piece of brewing equipment

[IanP]

I broke yet another auto-siphon last weekend . You may have heard the swearing. Clearly I'm a thick-handed klutz who shouldn't be allowed near semi-delicate plastic, but which is your most-often-broken piece of brewing equipment?

 

[carnevoodoo]

I gave up on auto siphons. I break them too much for my own good. I now use the carboy cap with the stainless racking cane and the sterile filter. My big lungs make short work of it.

But I think that hydrometers break more than almost anything.

 

[2bluewagons]

4 brews, 4 hydrometers...

 

[Revvy]

I've lost count of the thermometers that have given their lives in service of my beer....I've also lost count on the number of rants I've posted about said busted cheap-ass thermometers.....

 

[Evan!]

I clicked "thermometer", because two of my digital ones have failed (I got a refund, though) through no fault of my own...and I've broken a couple floating thermometers too.

 

[flyangler18]

I've broken one hydrometer and one auto-siphon.

 

[Saccharomyces]

The floating thermometers are preprogrammed to break on their second use triggering another 'is my brew contaminated with lead' thread.

If you clicked 'thermometer', my advice is go to ThermoWorks.com – Temperature experts. Home of the famous Thermapen See us for digital, infrared, logging, and any other type of measurement need. and place an order NOW, you won't regret it.

 

[babalu87]

Auto-siphons are right up there with those carboy blocks

USE
LESS

Practice siphoning with water/star-san until you are a master

 

[Edcculus]

I have gone through so many thermometers since I started brewing. They break, I drop them in hot wort, they become completely inaccurate. The list goes on. Hopefully my Thermapen (with wrist strap) will hold up.

 

[IrregularPulse]

I've broken one floating thermo and lost one digital one, Of course the wife good cooking one, and had one fail out of the package (walmart). I've taken pretty good care of my Hydro keeping in the padded tube it came in. But I feel it's doom coming soon as I've now lost said padded package.
I don't know how one breaks an autosiphon.
And I can't for the life of me understand those that call them useless. It is my most beloved piece of brewing equipment I own! I could sub in a makeshift component for any other aspect other than this.

 

[woollybugger2]

1 racking cane, 1 auto-siphon, 1 hydrometer

I voted for the auto-siphon....

 

[jgln]

4 brews, 4 hydrometers...

How is that possible?

 

[ChshreCat]

I haven't broken anything.

Now that I've said that, my entire collection of beer making equipment will burst into flames next time I touch it.

 

[BaldAssCat]

Only 2 racking canes so far but this thread is bad ju-ju. I’m going to start breaking things now.

 

[jgln]

I have the same hydometer I had since back in my 20's (I will be 49 in August). But then again I have not brewed ALL that time. I did break one used on my fish tank though. Sorry, having a hard time coming up with an answer. Does wine glass count? Broke a few of them but I don't think any beer glasses. Had lids to fermenters break their seal due to age of the plastic and use but you can't help that.

 

[MMW]

I can't wait to break my hydrometer...will use it as an excuse to buy a refractometer :cross:

 

[Arkador]

I use metal thermometers. the only thing i have ever broken in about 30 batches, has been about 3 hydrometers.

I bought a refractometer when the alst one broke.

 

[Trubadour]

I've only broken one racking cane, though I expect a hydrometer to hit the ground any day now.

I have this thermometer and have been using it since the beginning with 0 problems... highly recommend.

Amazon.com: Maverick CT-03 Digital Oil & Candy Thermomter: Kitchen & Dining

 

[IrregularPulse]

I've only broken one racking cane, though I expect a hydrometer to hit the ground any day now.

I have this thermometer and have been using it since the beginning with 0 problems... highly recommend.

Amazon.com: Maverick CT-03 Digital Oil & Candy Thermomter: Kitchen & Dining

Looks like a nice thermometer option. Can is be calibrated?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

the only brewing tool I have broken yet is, my schedule.

 

[flyangler18]

For a thermometer, I highly recommend anything with a type-K thermocouple.

 

[Jumbo82]

One hydrometer w/ test jar, two racking canes, and three carboys. I voted hydrometer because I think that I am done breaking racking canes and carboys. No, really. I have a new setup that is much better. But hydrometer breaks are inevitable.

 

[bubbachunk]

I have only broken a few bottles.

 

[JPicasso]

I"ve busted one thermometer and one hydro meter, but I'd say the most often
broken piece of equipment is teh hoses. I find that I need to replace them every
year, lest they get contaminated and become "broken", and unusable.

 

[weirdboy]

I guess I'm the only one who voted "other". I've broken one thermometer, but the one that gets me is tubing.

Due to the relative positioning of the important, necessary features in my kitchen (i.e., stove, sink, electrical outlets), I have managed to melt holes in (and thus perform emergency repairs on) my tubing at least 5 times while trying to chill the wort. In fact on my last two batches in a row I melted the damned tubing. I am thinking about making a new wort chiller with really long intakes/outlets so I can keep the tubing as far away from the pot as possible in the future.

 

[golfguy819]

I've only broken a virgin carboy that was about to get de-virginized. Oh how sad to die a virgin. At least my pumpkin ale wasn't in it yet. That turned out to be my best brew and SWMBO bought me a new carboy so I didn't have to mourn very long.

 

[conpewter]

Do beer mugs/glasses count? I do consider them essential parts of brewing. I did break one hydrometer test jar, I'd only used it once or twice. Back to using the tube the hydrometer came in.

 

[Hegh]

I went with thermometer, but I've never actually broken it permanently. I just let some liquid get into the probe and suddenly it's reading 100* hot. Stick it in a 350* oven for 30 minutes and it's all better, but usually the brew day is over by then.

It's happened three times, two of which were during wort-chilling.

 

[shecky]

I haven't broken anything yet, though I did have an autosiphon delivered to me damaged.

Of course, today my 4 yo knocked my hydrometer off the table onto the concrete garage floor. Fortunately it was still in its tube. Despite the top being off the tube, the hydrometer survived.

Now that I've jinxed myself ...

 

[Confucius]

I put airlock, I've somehow broken a few of them. One I put in some hot water to wash and it slumped all over to the side, and several have lost parts to overzealous fermentation.