Question about Steve's (the Vacuumpumpman) headroom balloon filler

[BernardSmith]

Steve, Was just thinking about the balloon you invented to help fill headroom. I know you had said that there had not been a great deal of interest in it but I wonder if there was some way of adding weights to this device so that no matter how much air was pumped into it it always sat near or on the bottom of the carboy rather than near the top and so the space it filled was towards the floor allowing the liquid reach up into the mouth of the carboy... I suspect that there might be a lot more interest in the device...

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Steve, Was just thinking about the balloon you invented to help fill headroom. I know you had said that there had not been a great deal of interest in it but I wonder if there was some way of adding weights to this device so that no matter how much air was pumped into it it always sat near or on the bottom of the carboy rather than near the top and so the space it filled was towards the floor allowing the liquid reach up into the mouth of the carboy... I suspect that there might be a lot more interest in the device...

Good question -
The bag actually sits below the neck of the carboy pushing the wine upward and eliminating headspace.

I'm in the process right now to flood a carboy with CO2 and then put a vacuum on it and keep it under vacuum so no oxygen can enter the vessel. So far the results look positive -

if interested please PM me and we can go from there

here is the original post -
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f3/carboy-air-space-bladder-trial-version-18124/
.

 

[richmke]

I wonder if there was some way of adding weights to this device so that no matter how much air was pumped into it it always sat near or on the bottom of the carboy

You would need about 0.04 pounds of weight per cubic inch of balloon volume.