thoughts on painter buckets

I picked up a few painter pails from Home Depot. They are 5 gal with lids that give one heck of a seal... I have to wrestle the darn things to get the lids off.

I recall reading some info on plastic quality, which is determined by a # on the bottom of the pail. These buckets are a #2.

Whats everyones thoughts on their use?

Would you use it for secondary fermentation?

Cheers
-Kris

golden_milo said:

I picked up a few painter pails from Home Depot. They are 5 gal with lids that give one heck of a seal... I have to wrestle the darn things to get the lids off.

I recall reading some info on plastic quality, which is determined by a # on the bottom of the pail. These buckets are a #2.

Whats everyones thoughts on their use?

Would you use it for secondary fermentation?

Click to expand...

#2 plastic is HDPE (high-density polyethylene). Some uses are water pipes, hula hoop rings, five gallon buckets, milk, juice and water bottles, grocery bags, some shampoo / toiletry bottles.

As long as they have never been used for anything else (paint, cleaners, etc), I suppose you could use them. Personally I prefer to use glass carboys, because they don't scratch and let bacteria hide.

If you bought them at Lowe's or Home Depot and they're white, you bought the food safe ones. Their non-food-safe ones are blue/silver and orange, respectively.

Search for a thread named "Any Updates on Homer Buckets?" Tons of info there.

Paint buckets are highly valued in vineyards, they are a good size to fill with grapes and still be able to carry easily. I have filled many tonnes of buckets of grapes, but the seal won't be good enough for fermenting cider.

I disagree about the lids.

The plain $1 ungasketed lids suck. I've seen them at Walmart.

But every lid I've seen for sale where you bought these has been the nailbreaker pickle bucket type lid.

You'll be fine. Some people ferment mead in them for 6 months +. just be careful not to scratch it up too badly, and sanitize properly. Also, I'd that seal isn't as good as you state it is, don't post a thread about 0 airlock activity cheers!

I use the Lowes HPDE white buckets with their 2$ air tight HPDE lids. I also use those lids for my 6.5g ale pales because their seal is legit. Not once have a leak from them. Then while at lowes you can pick up the grommets for adding an airlock (1.30 ish) for two. Cheap and works well.

I wasn't aware that the lids have gaskets, but I still wouldn't use them to store cider for 6 months because the volume is small and the surface area large, a recipe for problems like film yeast. Also HDPE is permeable to oxygen. I would consider the time limit for that sort of thing to be 2-3 months.

I agree. I don't know if I'd age anything in a bucket longer than a couple of months. (personally I wouldn't use it for more than a couple of weeks, but that's just me)

Yeah I don't age in them. I'd transfer to glass or better bottle if ageing.

Better Bottles are PET, which is also permeable to oxygen. To a lesser degree, but it still is.

If you want zero oxygen permeability, you choices are glass or stainless.

That said, a while back I ran some calculations on the permeability of oxygen through plastics (specifically, FoodSaver bags) and came to the conclusion that both temperature and (in the case of fermenters) headspace are 10-times larger concerns than the miniscule O2 permeability that some worry about.

Oxygen permeability becomes more of a problem with small vessels. If you put cider in 2litre PET bottles you need to drink it soonish.

Right. Surface area vs volume. It's an exponential relationship.

Mojzis said:

Yeah I don't age in them. I'd transfer to glass or better bottle if ageing.

Click to expand...

Right- it's fine for short term. A cider is in primary (at least for me) about 5-7 days. Then, it's racked to a carboy and topped up for the clearing and aging process.

Once fermentation slows, a wide headspace is to be avoided. A wide headspace, as in a bucket, allows way too much oxygen contact and will ruin the cider by oxidizing it.