BeerBorg

Just suffered my third broken spigot. First was prior to the recall/replace, but the last two have been with new spigots (at least I think they are... the equipment was from contest winnings, and they have the little notch braces). This was the second use of this particular spigot... followed the recommended processes as recommended by Mr. B folks (hand tighten while holding the spigot at 3' o'clock and then turn the spigot to 6 o'clock for the final tighten). Very frustrating. Half a batch o' beer on the counter and floor before I could (hopefully) salvage the rest into a different fermenter. Likely aerated the snot out of it in the process. Grr.... I need to throw out any of these failed spigots that I have left... I have one on a fermenting beer that I intend to bottle in the next week, but nevermore... I have been phasing out the Mr. B fermenters in favor of Better Bottles, and this just speeds up that process.

Sorry for your loss Swen.

I guess I'm due soon since I have 5 LBKs and the conical reportedly uses the same spigot.

Will better bottles fit in an ice chest?

3 gallon better bottles are tall and narrow. I can just fit two of them in my fermenting fridge, so they are darn near perfect in size for me. Though, if I have more than 2 things fermenting at a time, the Mr. B fermenters scale nicely for that purpose, as I don't have a great place to put the better bottles outside of that fridge. Maybe I'll drill the Mr. B fermenters to accept regular spigots... Or maybe I'll switch back to the old ones (that don't really accept tubing as well, but are very sturdy)...

That sucks.My brother had this happen twice and they made good on it but it's still painful.

I posted on their site as well. Don't know if I'll hear back. On one hand, it was a free spigot, so I can't complain from that front. And it wasn't their ingredient kit, so I'm not sure they can/would/should replace anything. but....

Ouch!

Make sure you email them at customerservice@mrbeer.com. They don't respond to posts.

FYI: You can find the old style locking spigots on ebay - look for 3/4" water crock spigot or something like that. I got a handful of them and am actually using them on my LBC's now because the BrewDemon spigots are the same thing as the new Mr. Beer spigots.

The LBC has a better drilled/more seamless/flat hole, so perhaps the new spigots are safer on them - they don't need much tightness to not leak - but I don't trust the things.

swenocha wrote:I posted on their site as well. Don't know if I'll hear back. On one hand, it was a free spigot, so I can't complain from that front. And it wasn't their ingredient kit, so I'm not sure they can/would/should replace anything. but....

When mine broke I was making an El Blanco Diablo with their HME. The rest of the stuffs I purchased from the LHBS. They replaced both their HME and the stuffs I bought elsewhere. I do have to give them credit for that.

Just irks me that both MrB and BD both use that non-standard spigot rather than the one that comes on every ale pail out there. Would be so much more convenient to be able to sport on over to the LHBS and pick up replacements.

I lost my second spigot about three weeks ago.
Luckily all I was using the keg for was storing Star San.
Got a lager going with two LBK's right now and I've only got a week left before bottling, and I
nervously check them bad boy's every day, a couple of times a day!

I would like to enlarge the hole so that I could put a standard size spigot on the LBK. It seems like it's not worth the bother. I can imagine creating little scratches that would hold bacteria. I've found that it's always harder than I expect when I try to enlarge an existing hole esspecially on thin plastic.

I like the shape and size of the LBK but I'll probably get a Better Bottle or Speidel when I am through with my two LBKs. The LBC is too tall but the conical design is useful. Brew Demon should be changed to allow an upgrade to a more sturdy and standard spigot. It would give people another reason to buy the LBC instead of the LBK.

Is anyone listening?