Reusing bottles - How many times?

[MarzBock]

That "frost" is probably due to some hard-water stains of some kind. It's INorganic, salts and what-not. Like lime-stains in the bathtub, they are hard to get rid of.

Try a strong acid or base bath. that should do it. Sodium Hydroxide is sold as "drain opener". we clean glassware in the lab with Potassium Hydroxide/isopropanol (rubbing alchohol). If THAT doesn't get it clean, it AIN'T coming clean... well, maybe chromate cleaner would be stronger, but you probably can't get your hands on that (VERY toxic stuff).

Oh, yeah, and that CLR cleaner is probably geared toward this kind of stain as well..

 

[MarzBock]

You may be quite surprised to know that the THINNER the glass the STRONGER it is, with respect to heat resilience.

put an empty beer bottle and a wine glass in your freezer for an hour. Then take them both out and immediately drop them into a pot of boiling water. Your wine glass will (probably) survive. your beer bottle will explode.

Also, note that I never said you couldn't put them in the dishwasher.. I said to just not use the sanitize or heated dry cycles, which, if you check your dishwasher's manual, are cycles not recommended for most items.

This is only true for heat-shock/ thermal change effects. Thicker glass will expand at different rates on the exposed side, thus breakage. Any glass will perform the same if it is allowed to heat/cool at a slower rate, not shocked like you describe.

Pyrex can handle this kind of change, that's why it is used in lab-glass (boro-silicate). Soda-lime glass can't deal with it (beer bottles).

 

[dvdanny]

You may be quite surprised to know that the THINNER the glass the STRONGER it is, with respect to heat resilience.

put an empty beer bottle and a wine glass in your freezer for an hour. Then take them both out and immediately drop them into a pot of boiling water. Your wine glass will (probably) survive. your beer bottle will explode.

Also, note that I never said you couldn't put them in the dishwasher.. I said to just not use the sanitize or heated dry cycles, which, if you check your dishwasher's manual, are cycles not recommended for most items.

Again, as long as you are not filling up burning hot bottles or cooling them by dipping them in cold sanitizer, i don't see how they can be fatigued by the heat process, glass isn't like metal, the main reason it is 100% recyclable is because this property. You can introduce or strip minerals from glass by heating it BUT it'd have to be at or near molten levels, something your dishwasher or oven cannot do (unless of course you have a kiln).

Glass is only weakened when it is heated then quickly cooled (causes micro cracks within the structure) or vice versa. If you are letting the bottles cool slowly (like you should) you can use and sanitize (oven or dishwasher sanitize cycle) your bottles 100 times would still have 100% confidence that they can do another 100 batches.

When I used the oven, i'd let the bottles cool over the period of an hour or more inside the oven itself. This is at 350 degrees and not a single break to date from bottles that had already been used about 50 times before I got them.

 

[Hockeyhunter99]

anyone have problems with certain brands?

i personally like the guiness (both draught and ES) and Sam Adams bottles. but are there any brown pry-tops that should be avoided?

 

[logan3825]

I run thin wine glasses through the dishwasher on the dry cycle all the time, much thinner glass than beer bottles. No weakening of glass. If this was true I wouldn't be able to pick up my wine glasses, they are 10 years old!

Maybe it weakened maybe it didn't. You are not putting wine glasses under pressure like you do beer bottles.

 

[damnyankee]

This is only true for heat-shock/ thermal change effects. Thicker glass will expand at different rates on the exposed side, thus breakage. Any glass will perform the same if it is allowed to heat/cool at a slower rate, not shocked like you describe.

Pyrex can handle this kind of change, that's why it is used in lab-glass (boro-silicate). Soda-lime glass can't deal with it (beer bottles).

You're partially correct.

Let's remember we're talking about ovens temps here (only up to 500 degF)...not bunsen burners and kilns. I've spent years in a chemistry lab - you don't have to worry about thermal issues with beer bottles at 250 or 300 deg F from an oven unless your taking a 300 deg bottle and immediately pouring ice water in to it. And I don't know ANYONE who does that.

 

[dvdanny]

anyone have problems with certain brands?

i personally like the guiness (both draught and ES) and Sam Adams bottles. but are there any brown pry-tops that should be avoided?

I used a whole mix of bottles (macro, micro and european, even coca cola bottles), although some of the macro bottles seem thinner (Michelob comes to mind), i never had a crack or break using either wing or bench cappers. Now I'm switching over to all sierra nevada bottles because I like their beer and the bottles look sweet with the labels I print out for them. Only ones I stayed away from were the ones that my wing capper couldn't cap (I don't like using my bench capper)