# Broken Thermometer, wine safety concerns?



## cintipam (Jul 28, 2013)

Hi

I'm a newbie and I just noticed my thermometer (Beer and Wine Floating Thermometer by Alla made in France) has broken housing at the non business end top. What looks to be the working parts inside are still intact. Not counting broken glass shards in wine concerns does anyone know if inside that housing had either problematic gas or liquid that would be dangerous in the wine? I believe that between several rackings over several months plus my plan to run that batch thru several coffee filters glass would be non existent by bottling time (not to mention that my cleaning methods while working mostly involve using a turkey baster to jet the sulfite solution over the tools in a tilted bucket which would make any actual glass transfer highly unlikely in the first place). Just hoping some science oriented individual can guide me in how problematic my broken thermometer really is.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Pam in cinti


----------



## Julie (Jul 28, 2013)

Hi Pam,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. They use to use mercury in the hydrometer's but fortunately they don't anymore. I believe that you are safe since you have address the issue of the glass.


----------



## cintipam (Jul 28, 2013)

Thanks Julie

the thermometer clearly said mercury free, so no worries there. I am actually teetering between pitching it to be safe just in case. It's just so hard when you only have a couple batches fermenting and none near completion to pitch the entire thing. At this point I'm letting it sit anyway since I was experimenting for the first time with a yeast slurry so I might as well find out if I did that correctly or not. Besides, that gives me more time to hear more opinions.

Pam in cinti


----------



## Julie (Jul 28, 2013)

Don't pitch it! I do understand your concern but I do believe you will be ok. You are going to do filtering, so that helps. There have been others on here who have broken a hydrometer in their wine and did not throw it away. Hopefully someone who has had this experience will post.


----------



## cintipam (Jul 28, 2013)

Julie, good to know I'm not the only klutz in town. Anyway, it will sit and hopefully begin fermenting while I wait for either someone who also broke glass possibly into wine, or someone with chemical knowledge to reassure me that there was no gas or other harmful liquid in that thermometer that would make the wine a pitch only situation.

Pam in cinti


----------



## cintipam (Jul 29, 2013)

My carboy has started a nice ferment so I will need to make a decision within a couple days. if no one responds here about the possible safety issues of the inside air of my broken thermometer I guess I'll try posting my question in a different forum to attract the eye of folks not frequenting this forum. I am comfortable about the glass, but unsure what might have been in that airspace or coating the outside surface of the intact, inside working portion of the non mercury thermometer. Anybody else?

Thanks again.

Pam in cinti


----------



## robie (Jul 29, 2013)

To be safe, contact the distributor of the French thermometer and ask them about how safe it would be. Better still, if you can contact the manufacturer, that would be even better.

I do recommend filtering the wine, as you don't want to end up with glass slivers in your finished wine.


----------



## Runningwolf (Jul 29, 2013)

Your local LHBS should have funnels with very fine screens in them. This is what I would use. I Tried coffee filters one time and gave up quickly. By the way welcome to the forum and stick around and let us know how things work out. I doubt there is anything dangerous in the thermometer BUT I do not know that for sure.


----------



## cintipam (Jul 29, 2013)

Hi Robie

thanks for the reply. I did find the company on line, and there is a technical data section which indicates mostly that the liquid used as fluid is an oil distillate. That however does not answer my question enough for me to feel safe, so I went to the page which would enable me to ask a question. That page has so so so many questions I cannot answer including my job title, fax number etc all of which are listed as required questions. So to make this story come to an end I've decided to pitch the batch. I might shred a tear or two but better a tear now many regrets later.

thanks for the advice

Pam in cinti


----------



## cintipam (Jul 29, 2013)

Hi Dan

thanks for the welcome. Looks like you feel like I do, probably safe, but because I don't know for certain I don't want to risk it. That way I'll live to drink another day.

Pam in cinti


----------



## Julie (Jul 29, 2013)

Well I understand and so feel your pain!


----------



## Pumpkinman (Jul 29, 2013)

Welcome aboard Pam, unfortunately...I'd pitch it as well.


----------



## tonyt (Jul 29, 2013)

Yep. I'd pitch it too. Hurry and start again.


----------



## cintipam (Jul 31, 2013)

Thanks everyone. The deed is done. Good news is I now have an empty carboy.... Thinking about what to try next.

Pam in cinti


----------

