Glass bottling woes

[Greenbeast]

Anyone bottling in glass having lots of breakages this spring?
Bottom falling out of lots of bottles?

 

[upnortheast]

One of the reasons we have stayed on poly bottles. Must be a bloody headache.

 

[Greenbeast]

Well generally it's OK, we do lose a few to non returns and breakages, but in the last month it's just gone crazy and they're all breaking the same way.
We even bottle for someone else and theirs are going too

 

[balders]

Well generally it's OK, we do lose a few to non returns and breakages, but in the last month it's just gone crazy and they're all breaking the same way.
We even bottle for someone else and theirs are going too

We had similar, we found the water was too hot (85°+) its a lot better at 75° ish. Might not sound much but made a difference for us.

 

[Greenbeast]

We had similar, we found the water was too hot (85°+) its a lot better at 75° ish. Might not sound much but made a difference for us.

We had wondered about that, short while back there was a drive to maintain the temperature high for effective cleaning, we even bought a new immersion element to help.
But my boss pointed out the big firms will be using steam, which is obviously 100C.

Are you bottles breaking randomly, i.e. with customers, whilst bottling, delivering, etc... or only whilst cleaning at high temperature?
Do you find it adequate at 75C?
What machine are you using?
We're also concerned the wash pump is not powerful enough, perhaps that's our core problem causing us to need to wash hotter.

 

[Courier]

We had similar, we found the water was too hot (85°+) its a lot better at 75° ish. Might not sound much but made a difference for us.

Thermal shock …. Can be minimised if the rinse water has the chill taken off as well.

 

[Greenbeast]

Thermal shock …. Can be minimised if the rinse water has the chill taken off as well.

I mean this is the most obvious cause, but we had less problems in winter than we do now. The rinse water is usually pretty tepid for most of a day's washing. We are also careful to never wash bottles fresh off one of our closed vans.

 

[balders]

We had wondered about that, short while back there was a drive to maintain the temperature high for effective cleaning, we even bought a new immersion element to help.
But my boss pointed out the big firms will be using steam, which is obviously 100C.

Are you bottles breaking randomly, i.e. with customers, whilst bottling, delivering, etc... or only whilst cleaning at high temperature?
Do you find it adequate at 75C?
What machine are you using?
We're also concerned the wash pump is not powerful enough, perhaps that's our core problem causing us to need to wash hotter.

Yes we are using steam, it heats the soak water so not 100° .
All ours were breaking either in the washer, on the conveyor or on the filler, we didn't have any break outside the dairy really. 75° us fine as long as chemical % is correct.
We have a Send and return washer (not 100% what make it is) doing about 70 per minute.
Its also worth checking jets for being bkocked aswell.
What size bottles are you using?

 

[Greenbeast]

Yes we are using steam, it heats the soak water so not 100° .
All ours were breaking either in the washer, on the conveyor or on the filler, we didn't have any break outside the dairy really. 75° us fine as long as chemical % is correct.
We have a Send and return washer (not 100% what make it is) doing about 70 per minute.
Its also worth checking jets for being bkocked aswell.
What size bottles are you using?

hmm we're getting bottles losing their bottoms everywhere, on the round, on the way to the chiller from bottling, in the washer (although now we're looking for them when upending for washing, we spot them before they go in).

We've been suspecting manufacturing defect, which is why i decided to post the thread in case anyone with bottles supplied this year is having particular problems.

70/min sounds amazing, we reckon a crate of 20 takes 2 minutes currently

Yes we check jet every time we start washing (or should do at least)

1pt bottles

 

[balders]

hmm we're getting bottles losing their bottoms everywhere, on the round, on the way to the chiller from bottling, in the washer (although now we're looking for them when upending for washing, we spot them before they go in).

We've been suspecting manufacturing defect, which is why i decided to post the thread in case anyone with bottles supplied this year is having particular problems.

70/min sounds amazing, we reckon a crate of 20 takes 2 minutes currently

Yes we check jet every time we start washing (or should do at least)

1pt bottles

Although a defect is possible, chances are its something in your process, we have bottles bought this year although not used any yet so can't comment on that.

 

[Greenbeast]

Can you let me know what machine you are using if possible. At the rate you are washing we could recoup capital cost with saved labour quite quickly

 

[Greenbeast]

Out of interest, I have run the washer at 70-75C today (700 bottles and counting) and it has washed fine, but I've pulled 10 broken ones out!