I just bought one of the 25L BMW fermenters from Bunnings. Two concerns though:
1) There is a strong "plastic" smell inside. I hope I can remove this with some no-scent Napisan. Also, I can't see anywhere on it where it says it's for water. Perhaps it's not food-grade.
2) The lid seal looks like it's made from a straight piece of rubber that has been cut to size and glued together to form a ring. Mine looks like it wouldn't take much for it to break at the seal where glued.
I did a big search of the local Bunnings and posted the results in the Mead thread.
I finally found the BMWs but they were in the river rocks/outdoor gravel in bags section not in the pool section.
I looked at various food grade products in the supermarkets and read the stamps on the bottom.
Bunnings sells Plastic Fish trays (ice + fish in tray is the norm) and most places I know sell these as "food grade" however the product, made in New Zealand has no identification stamps nor any markings to deem its food worthiness.
Bunnings also sells lots of plastic tubs and other items designed for storing and washing veggies. Again no markings on the bottom (made in Thailand, made in China/PRC) again no idea if food grade.
Bunnings sells plastic small round rubbish bins with lids. These are marked with 2-symbol for High Density Poly Ethelene. The same stamp on the bottom of LHBS plastic fermenters. I am sure the plastic smell comes off with napi san and you get a 50+ liter fermenter
but I just couldn't bring myself to get one and try it. Its green, its in the rubbish bin section, its just a mental block for now
I have seen supermarket plastics for juice bottles, milk, etc marked with 1, 2, 5, and I believe 9?
I have not see any stamps on the vinyl tubing we use to siphon, or the siphons/racking canes, stir paddles, funnels, etc. sold at the LHBS. The only thing with the stamp is the Primary Plastic Fermenter at the LHBS.
Food Grade means virgin plastic (no recycled) so that you can guarantee what constituents went into its production.
A bag or lining from the rain water tank collection people (they make liners for rain tanks why not line a whole big rubbish bin or giant crate and brew?!
Then again for those that feel plastic isn't cool to brew in even if it is HDPE or stamped "2" symbol etc.: As your plastic bottles sit, there may be some migration of chemicals from the plastic into the water, but FDA spokesman Mike Herndon says the levels are well within the margin of safety. You may have heard about health problems caused by plastic leaching into water from bottles. However, that applies to containers that have a high percentage of polycarbonate (like many of the hard bottles people buy at camping stores to use over and over).
