Do glass bottles weaken over time?

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GHW

Landlord.
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I read some article on BYO today that said glass bottles weaken over time and repeated use, making them more likely to explode.

I tend to reuse the same bottles a lot as I store empties in the house then when I'm bottling a batch, I just reuse those and get any additional I need from the shed. Am I priming myself for bottle bombs?

Anyone else heard this or experienced a problem? It's making me think I should ditch a load.
 
According to the missus, who has a degree in glass and ceramics, that's total cobblers. Glass is actually a super-cool liquid whose lifespan is effectively infinite. The only risk is one of heat shock. If heating and cooling ar done gradually and controlled, there is no risk of bottles weakening over time through natural weakening.

I knew she'd come in useful one day.
 
According to the missus, who has a degree in glass and ceramics, that's total cobblers. Glass is actually a super-cool liquid whose lifespan is effectively infinite. The only risk is one of heat shock. If heating and cooling ar done gradually and controlled, there is no risk of bottles weakening over time through natural weakening.

I knew she'd come in useful one day.

I bet she has another use :wink:
 
I bet she has another use :wink:

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According to the missus, who has a degree in glass and ceramics, that's total cobblers. Glass is actually a super-cool liquid whose lifespan is effectively infinite. The only risk is one of heat shock. If heating and cooling ar done gradually and controlled, there is no risk of bottles weakening over time through natural weakening.

I knew she'd come in useful one day.

In that case could you ask your useful missus a question for me. I tend to sterilize my bottles by ovening them. What I usually do is put them in the oven from cold turn the oven on to 150 then leave them there for 40 mins, turn the oven off then leave them to cool naturally till I can take them out again. Another forumite reckoned that the heating and cooling "anealed" them therefore weakening them over time. I do this process gradually. Is this "anealing" again cobblers

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54300&page=4 post 37
 
In that case could you ask your useful missus a question for me. I tend to sterilize my bottles by ovening them. What I usually do is put them in the oven from cold turn the oven on to 150 then leave them there for 40 mins, turn the oven off then leave them to cool naturally till I can take them out again. Another forumite reckoned that the heating and cooling "anealed" them therefore weakening them over time. I do this process gradually. Is this "anealing" again cobblers

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54300&page=4 post 37

The annealing temperature after glass is north of 450°C so ovening does nothing to either strengthen or weaken the glass. If your oven is very efficient it could heat up too quickly and slightly stress the glass, but it's unlikely. To play even safer, stagger the temperature rises and drops. Raise to say 80°C and gold for 5 mins, then raise to 140°C. Then reverse when cooling again. It's just about reducing the risk of heat shock. Even with heat shock, a bottle is a LOT more likely to just crack as opposed to weakening.
 
The annealing temperature after glass is north of 450°C so ovening does nothing to either strengthen or weaken the glass. If your oven is very efficient it could heat up too quickly and slightly stress the glass, but it's unlikely. To play even safer, stagger the temperature rises and drops. Raise to say 80°C and gold for 5 mins, then raise to 140°C. Then reverse when cooling again. It's just about reducing the risk of heat shock. Even with heat shock, a bottle is a LOT more likely to just crack as opposed to weakening.

Thanks notlaw :thumb:
 
from experience i would have to add most bottles have a "limited" shelf life my rolling stock is prob in the region of 5-6 hundred bottles a mixture of oxbars and glass....glass tends to fair well..up to a point i have had necks chip. im assuming from repeated capping...
 
from experience i would have to add most bottles have a "limited" shelf life my rolling stock is prob in the region of 5-6 hundred bottles a mixture of oxbars and glass....glass tends to fair well..up to a point i have had necks chip. im assuming from repeated capping...

All my bottles commited suicide and through themselves in the bin when they seen the kegs turn up
 
All my bottles commited suicide and through themselves in the bin when they seen the kegs turn up


much as i like my kegs....ive no temp control....and hate suds


so i will keep bottling (much as i hate it) last batch was 112 of the wee feckers and that hurt......labled last night .....so alls good
 
much as i like my kegs....ive no temp control....and hate suds


so i will keep bottling (much as i hate it) last batch was 112 of the wee feckers and that hurt......labled last night .....so alls good

Well you will make ridiculous amounts of beer (I'm only jealous).

Sounds like there is no real issue but I think I'll improve my rotation anyway.

I've got about 200 bottles and never have more than 120 or so full so there's spare capacity in the system

Cheers dears
 
I use boiling water to sanitize my bottles. Filling them via a plastic funnel, but running the water in quite slowly. If you're too fast there's a bang and a lot of boiling water running everywhere.:lol:
Having said that I've been using this method since at least 1980 and you can count the number broken like this on your fingers. Much less than the number I've broken by snapping the neck off whilst capping. By the way, about half the bottles I currently use have been in use like this since the early eighties and still going strong.
 
In that case could you ask your useful missus a question for me. I tend to sterilize my bottles by ovening them. What I usually do is put them in the oven from cold turn the oven on to 150 then leave them there for 40 mins, turn the oven off then leave them to cool naturally till I can take them out again. Another forumite reckoned that the heating and cooling "anealed" them therefore weakening them over time. I do this process gradually. Is this "anealing" again cobblers

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54300&page=4 post 37

I read your instructions to do this elsewhere on this forum before I started to brew and as a result, this is how I sterilise my bottles too. It just seems much easier than sanitising each bottle individually.
 
One thing I've noticed when reusing commercial breweries bottles; the bigger the brewery, the thinner and sh*ttier the glass is. The new bottles I've bought from the LHBS are proper thick glass, you could club seals with them!!

*I am in no way condoning the clubbing of seals. How could I, what with their cute little faces and all.
 
One thing I've noticed when reusing commercial breweries bottles; the bigger the brewery, the thinner and sh*ttier the glass is. The new bottles I've bought from the LHBS are proper thick glass, you could club seals with them!!

*I am in no way condoning the clubbing of seals. How could I, what with their cute little faces and all.

That's because they have been under pressure to be more sustainable and thinner bottles use less natural resources, but are more expensive to make, so only bigger breweries use them.
 
I still have a few of the pint bottles left which I bought from Boots with a starter kit and a separate box, about 25 years ago.
Many of them have disappeared due to non-return from family and friends. I still use them and can't see any issues. If there are chips in any bottle I discard those for recycling.
 
That's because they have been under pressure to be more sustainable and thinner bottles use less natural resources, but are more expensive to make, so only bigger breweries use them.

That makes sense I suppose.

DYK - Glass is one of the longest lasting man-made materials? If a glass bottle was left to decompose, it would take 1 million years..!! :ugeek:
 
That makes sense I suppose.

DYK - Glass is one of the longest lasting man-made materials? If a glass bottle was left to decompose, it would take 1 million years..!! :ugeek:

A million years is not a long time, geologically speaking, only when compared to human existence.
 
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