Breathable Carboy Bungs?

[crushday]

I got fed up a few weeks ago. Since I started my winemaking career, I've lost gallons of wine using glass carboys. To date, I've had seven glass carboys, full of wine, break for various reasons. None of which I was around to witness - only left to clean up the mess. For you who have experienced this same dilemma, you'll agree it's frustrating, tiresome and sad.

Recently I purchased some plastic carboys for long term aging. My regular bungs don't fit the necks of the PET carboys. The ones I could find that fit the new carboys are "breathable". I'm not sure I trust breathable...

Does anyone have any failure experiences? Or stories of long term aging success? I plan on 12 months aging at a minimum. Do these things really work for that? Link below:

https://morewinemaking.com/products/silicone-bung-breathable-pet-carboy-10.html
Any reviews would be appreciated.

 

[DPCellars]

I use these following secondary and through aging. Granted, I've only completed 2 bottlings and my longest aging was about 5 months, I really like them.

They were recommended to me by a local winery who use them in some of their barrel aging. I'm pretty impressed with their wines, so I guess they're okay.

 

[scruff_farrier]

I had watched this youtube video a while back and have been thinking about switching. But it's a little 3 minute long review on the silicone bungs.

 

[Johnd]

I’ve been using glass carboy and silicone bungs for aging wine for years. Never lost a carboy, a bung, or an ounce of wine as a result. If you’ve broken 7 carboys, you’re doing something wrong.

At any rate, the bungs work great on my glass vessels, never tried on plastic.

 

[Boatboy24]

I've gone through the journey, starting with the 3 piece airlocks, moving to the S shaped, and, within the last year or so, trying out the 'breathable' type. So far, so good. With each order from MoreWine, I'll likely continue to pick up more and phase out the others. Plenty of support for them from members here if you dig around.

Curious how/why you lost 7 carboys.

 

[jumby]

I've been using them for the past 2 years, in PET carboys with no ill effects. Most all of my wines stay in the carboy for about a year before bottling. I love the fact that I don't have to worry about my air locks going dry. I currently have 8 carboys, at various stages of aging with breathable bungs in them.

 

[stickman]

Were the broken carboys produced in China?

 

[crushday]

Curious how/why you lost 7 carboys.

Ok, my fears around the bungs have subsided. Since I did have seven broken glass carboys, I agree with @Johnd - I WAS doing something wrong. Remember about a year ago I was asking about the tensile and compression strength of carboys because I was stacking them? You might remember too how many alarms went off on the forum when I posted pictures...

I think staking did enough structural damage that eventually the lower tier, four carboys, cracked and emptied their contents. A positive outcome discovery is that wine beautifully stains concrete a dull purple hue. Really nice for those who like dull purple hues on their concrete floor...lol. BTW - I stopped stacking after this fateful event.

The most recent three were from a bad carboy purchase. It has been my practice to purchase Italian made carboys. However, through CoVid the supply for those has ground to a halt. A couple months ago, I bought six inferior copy cat carboys manufactured in the world's most populous country. Three of them cracked and I lost all the contents within a week. This is what led me to purchase three plastic ones and I transferred the wine in the three remaining copy cats to the PET carboys.

Upon inspection of the now empty copy cats, two had cracks. It was a close call... Never again!

Thanks for taking time to answer my initial question...

 

[crushday]

Were the broken carboys produced in China?

Indeed, Stickman. And, never again will I purchase them. But to be fair, four broken ones were of my doing from when I was stacking carboys.

 

[reeflections]

OK, this thread just scared the hell outta me. How does one know (after purchase) if a carboy was made in China?

 

[stickman]

Most of the carboys made in Mexico and Italy will be stamped on the bottom accordingly.

 

[MiBor]

I had two 5gal carboys crack on me this spring. I have about a dozen 6gal Italian carboys that I've been using for years without problems. They all have the words "Made In Italy" molded in the glass. The two that cracked were the only ones made in "you know where" and they looked and worked fine for about 6 months, until they cracked out of the blue. I have to say that I never stacked them unprotected and that I make a beefy wooden crate out of 2x4s with insulation foam on the bottom for each one of them. The crates make the carboys stack-able in vertical position (for storage) and the wood takes all the stress away from glass.
I also use the breathable bungs after secondary and never had a problem with them.

 

[mainshipfred]

What scares the crap out of me are demijohns. I was gifted Two 54 liter ones and the glass is so thin I can't bring myself around to using them. They are currently decorations in my office.

 

[stickman]

I have two of the older demijohns and one new one, they are all made in Italy, but as you indicated the older demi's are thin. I compared the empty weight from old to new and found the newer one to be 700 grams heaver. I also looked at my carboys, I've got 14 total, 7 of them are older carboys made in the US by Owens-Illinois Glass Company. Based on the date codes, most of these carboys were made in the early 50's, though one was made in 1934. They are thin compared to the more current Italian carboys, and they have had no protection other than a paper bag, but in the 30 years that I've used them I've never had one break.

 

[reeflections]

That's interesting. I have a total of eight 5gal and one 6 Gal carboys. I just did some bottling so I have 4 empty 5 Gal that I can read the bottoms on. 1 is stamped “made in Italy” and 3 say nothing.

What is odd is that the Italian one is much lighter in weight than the 3 unmarked ones. The unmarked one came with yellow stickers that highly recommend moving them only with a harness.

I have no plans to ever stack them. When I carry them any distance full, I use a milk carton. I could live with losing 5 gallons and a carboy, but my wine room is upstairs in a converted bedroom and the thought of 5 gallons of wine on that cheaply carpeted floor is frightening.

 

[bstnh1]

And this is why I use only PET carboys.

 

[Johnd]

Indeed, Stickman. And, never again will I purchase them. But to be fair, four broken ones were of my doing from when I was stacking carboys.

Sounds like you bought inferior quality carboys, and abused some of the good ones that you had. That’s a reason to purchase only quality glass, and use it as intended, not abandon the whole farm.
Kinda like adding a Toyotas to your fleet of Mercedes, putting diesel in the Toyotas instead of gas, driving them off road, and having major service issues. Solution? Easy, just buy a new fleet of Kia‘s. To each his own.

If you really do abandon the glass carboy for plastic (oh, the horror, I can scarcely type the words), just remember that they do allow some measure of O2 exchange. Probably not a lot, but more than you’re accustomed to. Carry on.

 

[crushday]

Sounds like you bought inferior quality carboys, and abused some of the good ones that you had. That’s a reason to purchase only quality glass, and use it as intended, not abandon the whole farm.
Kinda like adding a Toyotas to your fleet of Mercedes, putting diesel in the Toyotas instead of gas, driving them off road, and having major service issues. Solution? Easy, just buy a new fleet of Kia‘s. To each his own.

If you really do abandon the glass carboy for plastic (oh, the horror, I can scarcely type the words), just remember that they do allow some measure of O2 exchange. Probably not a lot, but more than you’re accustomed to. Carry on.

John, your analogies and conclusions are very persuasive. Not to mention fun to read!

 

[Scooter68]

I've broken one carboy, apparently they don't bounce off concrete floors well, let me correct that. It bounced once and when it hit the second time it spread itself out over the floor. (Slightly soapy hands will do that.) Learned my lesson. Keep my body between the sink and the carboy when washing, and rinsing them Fiberglass utility sink isn't going to break a carboy very quickly.

BIGGER problem to me is the size variation. up to 18 oz difference in 3 gallon carboy volume. Measured most of them but I have to repeat that since the markings washed off. I would imagine that as long as you don't stress them by using those Neck lift handles, dropping, or stacking them, even the China made carboys should hold up. As for a stacking - If I needed to do that I'd start with a wooden pallet and use 2x4s screwed in as supports

[QUOTE="Johnd, post: 768351, member: 33054" If you really do abandon the glass carboy for plastic (oh, the horror, I can scarcely type the words), just remember that they do allow some measure of O2 exchange. Probably not a lot, but more than you’re accustomed to. Carry on.
[/QUOTE]

I've just seen too much plastic get scratched and stained by juices. I've got an Omega juicer and the juice collection container is now a slightly golden color from Apple Juice. I've washed it, soaked it etc. Other than resorting to bleach, I think that stain is there to stay.
IF you go with PET, I'd suggest keeping one aside, unused for a year and then comparing it to the ones you do use to see if you pick up juice colors. IF you are picking up the color of the juice at all, that means other things can stick to it too. I'll stay with glass, even if it's from China, as long as it doesn't have lead or other 'toxic's' contents, a glass container cared for properly will last and clean up nicely

 

[shoebiedoo]

I've used silicone bungs on my PET carboys. They work great