BDC Spigot Failure: Crying over Spilt Beer. UPDATE

[John Sand]

I was having a great day. Took a drive, attended a tag sale, had lunch with my wife, enjoyed the rare warmth and sun. On return, Jane said the basement smelled like beer. Uh-oh. Nothing is in high ferment, the basement should smell like a basement. Bottle bombs? Nope, the BDC is drip drip dripping, onto the cooler, the little antique table (Poor finish anyway. Beer Stripper?), thence to the floor, where it ran under things. I was a first responder, so I stop the bleeding. I get a bucket and put the whole BDC in it. Then an old towel to mop what I can. then the speediest bottling prep on record. Now I can see that it is the spigot, so I use the autosiphon. Saved 11 bottles, not bad. But that spigot broke spontaneously, that beer was fermenting 7 weeks (I know that's long, I was busy!). If the spigots fail on both the BDC and LBK, at least the LBK fits into a baking dish or cooler or tote to contain potential spills.

[Brewbirds]

OMG the bad spigot epidemic is going to re-start with the BDC's now.

I just don't get this I mean these guys are try to sell kits to make it easy to brew beer for the passer by in a store and the main selling point is the convenient fermenters that they provide.

How can they keep putting out bad spigots????????? and ignore that it is an issue?????? If these were a car there would have been a recall by now.

Glad you saved some of the beer and hope it survives to drink-ability (do they?).

[Beer-lord]

I think this is the first I've heard of a Demon fermenter with problems.
Dude, my condolences.

[packerduf]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[John Sand]

Glad you saved some of the beer and hope it survives to drink-ability (do they?).
They should. The stuff that spilled is gone, even what went into the un-sanitized bucket. But I siphoned out 11.
Oh, the brew-manity.
I'm really more stressed about cleaning the spill (we had dinner reservations, a good clean up tomorrow) than losing the beer. It is discouraging about the equipment though. I'll contact the company, but I'll never again completely relax about a batch with a spigot.

[FrozenInTime]

This sux! Sorry to hear about the loss. Contact BD, the should replace the spigot me would thunk, maybe even the refill that u lost. I have one myself, I'm gonna search out a different spigot, don't want a repeat of the LBKs. I love my better bottles!

[jpsherman]

BD has given me great customer service. Give them a chance to make it right.

[mashani]

I'm sure they will send you replacement stuff. They were good to me when I had an issue.

It is unfortunately the same spigot as the "new" Mr. Beer (aka replacement) spigots. Those do still sometimes break. I think less likely in the BDC as the hole is machined better and the surface is seamless/flatter, so it doesn't take as much pressure for it to seal.

That's why I picked up some of the old style locking spigots I found on ebay (search for "water bottle spigots" or something like that and you will find them).

[Banjo-guy]

Has anyone enlarged the spigot hole and put in a better spigot?

[BrewDemon]

We understand that every time this happens, it’s a tragedy…but this does not happen as often as you may think. Out of twenty-three documented cases, twenty-one customers placed the washer on the inside of the fermenter. This will causes the tap to leak, and the result is to over tighten the nut. This can cause tap failure.

Even if this number was fifty-three it would still be less than .01% of kits and fermenters sold. I’m sure many don’t tell us about this problem…so we try and contact anyone purchasing a tap assembly on it’s own.

With that said…John, give us a call on Monday and we will do what ever we can to make this right. Or send me a private message and include your full name, address, email address and phone number.

FYI…I have personally brewed over 40 batches (in the past year), never even seen a spigot that leaked. It doesn’t take much to seal these if the washer is on the outside.

[RickBeer]

Sob. Sob. Sob...

[John Sand]

Thanks BD, I will. I did not mean to imply that this was a common problem, I'm glad that it is not. My washer was outside, and I'm surprised at the failure. The clean-up wasn't too bad either, my quick mop up yesterday did most of the work. Today I moved a couple of big boxes and a cabinet to find only damp spots. I think the beer dried or soaked into the concrete.

[haerbob3]

Sob. Sob. Sob...

YEP he is back

[BrewDemon]

No problem John. Give us a call tomorrow or send customer service an email and we'll get this handled. Cheers!

[John Sand]

Update: I spoke to Sam this afternoon. He was quite personable. He's sending a replacement spigot, and a recipe kit. He also has plans to expand offerings at BrewDemon. It was a nice conversation, and put a positive light on the whole thing.