Lifting Glass carboy when full

[JamesGrape]

I have a neck handle on my 6.5. I use it to tilt the carboy and get a hand under as you say. But getting the carboy in and out of the chest freezer is an effort worth a weight lifter yell. I think the pump is a great idea. But my first rack would have had me swabbing out my chest freezer due to operator error.

 

[Ajmassa]

I don’t carry em full by the handle. But I do lift. Aside from neck tension i’d like to point out another issue.
— I swap them often since I only have a couple handles. Sometimes I don’t have a screwdriver within arms reach and just hand tighten the wingnut.
I had just windex’d the outsides and that sucker slipped right out the handle at waist high. A full 5 gal carboy! Fortunately I use rubber mats for this exact scenerio and only lost some wine. But This only hadto happen once for me to never cut corners while in a rush again.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I know this an old thread, but what about an engine hoist if you have the room? Here is an example that is foldable with plenty of lift. Put your chest freezer on blocks and roll right underneath. This example is pricey, but I’m sure there are others.

https://www.autozone.com/engine-and...-crane-includes-8-ton-capacity-ram/902288_0_0

For that price you could purchase almost 2 Allinonewinepumps !

I like to set the empty carboy in the freezer and transfer into using the allinone and I do the same to remove it also- I know they are heavy and they are even more slippery when taking them out ( depending on temp and humidity level s) and transferring them.

 

[sour_grapes]

I don’t carry em full by the handle. But I do lift. Aside from neck tension i’d like to point out another issue.
— I swap them often since I only have a couple handles. Sometimes I don’t have a screwdriver within arms reach and just hand tighten the wingnut.
I had just windex’d the outsides and that sucker slipped right out the handle at waist high. A full 5 gal carboy! Fortunately I use rubber mats for this exact scenerio and only lost some wine. But This only hadto happen once for me to never cut corners while in a rush again.

Dude, buy some more handles! Actually, this is true: I just went down and put the spare carboy handle I have (bought one too many) and put it into the box of wine I have set aside to send to you.

 

[FTC Wines]

Well besides handles for Empty carboys, I have the carboys on rolling carts and a vacuum pump to transfer the wine. There fore I don't need to lift a full carboy ever. Roy ps don't ask about breaking a carboy & losing 5gals of wine!! (The reason for above)

 

[JamesGrape]

Ok. I’m sold on the pump program

Then I need to get full carboys from my wine-making outbuilding across the grass yard and into the house where we have a 54-degree wine room for storage. I’ll guess for that i’ll use a two-wheel hand truck with foam pipe wrap on the uprights, and a strap to hold the carboy onto the truck. Luckily no steps involved here, just the normal doorway transitions.

 

[CDrew]

I thought it was just me! 250 pounds Primativo no problem!

 

[JamesGrape]

Nice CDrew!

 

[Donatelo]

Something I haven't seen talked about here is; " Why put it in a 6 gallon carboy when two 3-gallons will do."
easier to lift and if you decide to do something different, you can do it to half and let the other half continue .

Just my two cents.

 

[JamesGrape]

Sometimes the obvious escapes me. Thanks for that

Something I haven't seen talked about here is; " Why put it in a 6 gallon carboy when two 3-gallons will do."
easier to lift and if you decide to do something different, you can do it to half and let the other half continue .

Just my two cents.

 

[balatonwine]

Why put it in a 6 gallon carboy when two 3-gallons will do.

Half the number to clean. Half the number of airlocks to deal with. Half the number of setup actions to rack/bottle. Bulk aging is more consistent in one than two. Etc.

 

[balatonwine]

It is sometimes nice to be able to move things. Even carboys. For all sorts of reasons. A few ideas:

One can get a chain hoist for $50 or less. And even those are still way overkill for just a carboy. And it is pretty easy to attach to a ceiling joist (6 gal is really not that heavy). If need to move around, hoist the carboy onto a table on wheels, or dollies are fine. Or if one wants, a rail track around your workspace for the hoist is a pretty easy DIY weekend project (because, again, if you are just lifting a carboy you do not need an degree in engineering to build such, and to handle these "minor" weights).

 

[Scooter68]

15 lbs for a glass carboy (According to someone's actual measurement on a scale
6 gallons at approx 10 lbs per gallon (That's high but error on the high side is good)

So a total of 75 lbs. Seems like someone could build a simple lever and frame without all the need for the hydraulics. The key is going to be to determine the height needed for the final lift with knowledge of the available overhead space limits. As long as the base is stable to avoid tipping right or left of lift. Hmm time for some DIY design work.
I work with 3 gallon carboys so I'm looking at less than 45 lbs but still.... My bigger challenge is moving containers downstairs and upstairs between the kitchen (Upstairs) and the basement where I store bottles full (Aging wines) and empty, as well as post-bottling movement of the bottles. NOT fun carrying bottles in hands up and down some very steep old stairs. At least the thick oak stairs are solid as a rock. I've thought about a chute but then that means any container has to be sealed adequately to lay on at least a 45 degree angle.

 

[Arne]

15 lbs for a glass carboy (According to someone's actual measurement on a scale
6 gallons at approx 10 lbs per gallon (That's high but error on the high side is good)

So a total of 75 lbs. Seems like someone could build a simple lever and frame without all the need for the hydraulics. The key is going to be to determine the height needed for the final lift with knowledge of the available overhead space limits. As long as the base is stable to avoid tipping right or left of lift. Hmm time for some DIY design work.
I work with 3 gallon carboys so I'm looking at less than 45 lbs but still.... My bigger challenge is moving containers downstairs and upstairs between the kitchen (Upstairs) and the basement where I store bottles full (Aging wines) and empty, as well as post-bottling movement of the bottles. NOT fun carrying bottles in hands up and down some very steep old stairs. At least the thick oak stairs are solid as a rock. I've thought about a chute but then that means any container has to be sealed adequately to lay on at least a 45 degree angle.

If you have a vac. pump, get some long hose. Vacuum will bring the wine upstairs and you can rack it back downstairs with gravity. No lifting. of full carboys. Arne.

 

[pete1325]

I use the handles but ALWAS support with the hand under the carboy. Knock wood......

 

[Scooter68]

Carrying a single 3 gallon carboy is not terribly hard but the hassle is taking the bottled wine downstairs after bottling, corking and shrink capping. Guess I need to find a good carrier that I can hold better than 4 bottles in two hands walking down stairs. Of course this is an older house with short steep steps. We even have a cushion for the head when you pass under a floor truss.
Once downstairs I use a old typewriter stand to hold the carboy and set the empty carboy on a 1 x 12 wood piece on the floor. Eventually I'll work out a method for lifting full carboys (Other than the carry Web-straps)

 

[winepittsburgh]

Use a milk crate. The carboys fit perfectly into them. You can also consider transferring wine with a diaphragm pump, vacuum pump, or pushing it with inert gas so that you don't need to keep changing the elevation of your carboys...

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Yes milk crates work really well with wine-making . It can hold most carboys and bottles when filling and transferring to different stages ( sanitizing,bottling,corking,labeling, and boxing)

 

[Just_Jack]

Although I’m new to this, I have avoided lifting full carboys by using a regular autosiphon to remove half the contents to another carboy at the same level, subject to the laws of siphoning. Then I have a half carboy of wine still on lees, for example, and another of clear wine that was just removed, both on the ground. To complete my racking, I only need to lift a half full carboy above ground level onto a sturdy chair and resume siphoning. Seems a lot better than trying to lift a full one. Is this a common practice?

 

[ThreeSheetsToTheWind]

I lift them by keeping my legs straight, bending at the waist and lifting with a twisty jerky motion