broken bottles

[Brent]

Is it normal to have to pre-heat bottles before filling? Last year we broke a few.
One is too many.

If preheating is necessary how do you heat and to what temp ??

[Sugarmaker]

Brent,
I hear a lot of talk recently about heating bottles. Several local producers have been heating their bottles before and after filling. Not sure of the temp to preheat I would guess 120-140 deg F??? I would not have expected you to have breakage?

Chris

[gmcooper]

I've never preheated glass. I know one producer who does. Not sure what type of glass you are using as thinner glass might be different. I do try to let hot syrup run down the inside of the glass when filling rather than the stream hitting directly on the bottom initially.
Mark

Fogot to add the one who preheats is to make sure the syrup doesn't cool too much just warming the glass up.

[Brent]

these were bottles intended for syrup

had a beautiful maple leaf cast into them.

we must have lost 5 or 6 out of 100 last year.

[Sugarmaker]

Brent, I forgot to say but you probably pick up on it that we generally do not heat the bottles. But we are willing to learn.
The key to this is long term do you have any mold? If not then I dont see the need to preheat.

National Maple council is recommending heating syrup to 175 max deg F for plastic and 180 for glass, and preheat the glass, but I dont know the temp. I will try to ask at the maple meeting tomorrow,

Chris

[Maple Restoration]

Hi Brent I know I’m just the new kid on the block here, but just wanted to say the that I had broken a few fancy bottles at the start so I stop in to see a friend who run a 15000+ operation and does a lot of fine glass he showed me to per-heat my glass mason jags and up in size to 180 and for his fine glass he just used a heat gun and he has never had a problem, since then I haven’t broken any. Once fill we lay then on their side for a few minutes then we put them out side to cool with fans on them. But that just what I have pick up so far.

[MR Electrician]

if you are bottling in the cold then yes pre heat them as the temperature difference is allmost 200 deg.

i would plug in a large cofee pot and boil the watter in it then pre heat a dozen or so at a time
we filled mason jars up with extra syrup
didnt break any filled about a hundred we bottled indoors in the wifs kitchen

wow was she pissed when she got home.

[andyp]

Brent
We preheat all our glass bottles at 180 to 195. We have a gas range in the bottleing room and we just put them in the oven before we begin to bottle. That sterlizes them and it removes any water that may be in them from washing. We have never had one break.

Andyp

[Brent]

Thanks guys.

The consensus seems to be that we need to pre-heat to avoid breakage.


Memo to self:
Inject new step in process between step 1,122 and 1,123.

[mountainvan]

I don't preheat, I bottled around 1,000 glass last year. Only ones that broke, came that way to me. Usually it's a small crack that can't be seen because of the design.

[ennismaple]

Brent - We never preheat our glass. Make sure they're at room temp and not coming in from outside and you should be OK. It's rapid expansion caused by temperature differential that causes cracking in glass bottles.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

We can in the sugar shack and the canning room isnt very warm and we have to preheat our glass or they will break

RICH

[Webers sugar camp]

We pressure steam our glass in pressure canners. It sterilizes the glass and they are steaming hot when the syrup goes in. Helps for a good vacuum seal. We can in pint mason jars and our customers like to see what they are buying. The most important thing I have found to get the syrup to store well is to agitate the jars to reincorperate any condensate that lays on top of the syrup. we do this after the syrup has cooled. If we see any swirls in the syrup we shake them again.

[maplehound]

I have never had one break due to adding hot syrup to them but I too have found a few that come broken, or flawed. I have also found that small glass bottles and the thinner bottles don't need to be heated first if the are kept at room temp. ahead of time. However the Bisques and several of the other fancier types need to be preheatd or I get mold on the top of them within a month or so.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I haven't fooled much with glass but I would think that the smaller bottles would cool the syrup below 180 degrees too quickly if they were not heated some due to the temp of glass being low and its thickness.

[jemsklein]

here is a idea what if you place some bottles in your preheat hood whould that bring them up the the right temp