At what PSI does a plastic soda bottle explode? (home CO2 carbonation)

[Elmo]

Anyone know at what PSI a typical plastic soda bottle explodes?

I've built a home carbonation system. The gauges say I've put in 150PSI of C02 into the Trader Joe's (admittedly thick) carbonated water bottles.

Nothing happened (with respect to explosions).

Yet, as I dig on the web, I find that plastic soda bottles are supposed to explode at 120 to 150psi.

Obviously I need more data.

Do you have data points showing when soda bottles explode?

PS: If there's a soda or carbon dioxide related newsgroup for home carbonation, please let me know.

[LM]

They do explode.

The question is the pressure at which they explode.

Glass bottles explode from 70 to 100psi. Soda bottles can go way over 200 psi.

Call Coca Cola's information line 800-438-2653, 800-638-3286, or

800-888-6488 and let us know what they tell you.

[mike]

If you don't believe your own gauges, why would you believe anonymous blather posted on the net? If you think your gauges are messed up, try different gauges and see.

[Elmo]

I'm on the line with them right now! They are very helpful!

They do the research for you, while you wait. So far, the woman says the maximum psi the package can withstand is based on the volume of carbonation and type of fluid it contains.

Digging more, she says every one of their carbonated PET containers from 20 ounces to 2 liters can withstand the industry standard 150 psi. In addition, some Coke products have PET packaging that can withstand up to

250 psi (it all depends on the type of product in the package).

They're gonna send me via email WHICH bottles can withstand 250 psi as the lady said she had to sent that over to the Research Department.

Of course, I'm using Trader Joe's (very thick) plastic bottles so I'm not sure how much of this applies; but, maybe that explains why I had no explosions at 150psi yesterday.

It's great to learn from everyone here. If you have any information about when a soda bottle explodes, please post the reference here!

[Stormin Mormon]

At 150 PSI, they would be useful as expansion tanks for air compressors. Now, someone to make a manifold so we can string together a bunch of two or three liter bottles. Watch. Harbor Freight will have them next week.

[Elmo]

My gauges are old. I don't want blather. I want facts. And references.

I always search first, so, I already did my search and posted the results. But maybe someone else out there is a better searcher than I am and can provide a reference. Surely I'm not the best there is.

I did follow up on the suggestion to call Coke (even though I'm using Trader Joe's bottles).

The Coke plastic PETE bottles (from 20 oz to 2 liters) are either tested to

150 psi or to 250 psi (I'm waiting for them to confirm by mail which ones).

It would be nice to have more references though as I can't be the best Internest searchist out there....

[DerbyDad03]

Stolen without permission from

Bottle Rocket Blast Off Myth: You can launch someone 30-40ft with a bottle-rocket-powered backpack.

"At 60 psi they would need 28 bottles, which is more than the 15 used in the game show clip, so they decided to see how much more pressure they could put into the bottles. Using a bike pump they were able to get a the soda bottles up to 95 psi before their arms gave out. In order to find the failure point of the bottles they hooked up the pneumatic pump from Grant's "Deadblow" battle robot. The soda bottles exploded at 150 psi and the water cooler bottles exploded at 95 psi, so they decided that using soda bottles was better for the test even though they got much more lift out of the water cooler bottle."

[LM]

Interesting idea!

1. Buy copper pipe
2. Drill ten holes 2 inches apart in the steel pipe for the threaded bolts
3. Tap the ten holes in the galvanized steel pipe for the threaded bolts
4. Drill an axial hole through the center of ten threaded bolts
5. Drill a hole through the center of ten soda caps for the threaded bolts
6. Screw the ten threaded bolts into the caps and then into the steel pipe
7. Cap one end of the steel pipe & place a chuck on the other end
8. Chuck the other end of the steel pipe onto your CO2 regulator hose
9. Screw ten 2 liter soda bottles onto the ten caps bolted to the pipe
10. Turn on the C02 gas and pressurize the twenty liters to 150psi
11. Remove the chuck
12. You now have 20 liters of 150psi portable C02!

QUESTION: How many liters of gas does a typical automotive car tire take anyway?

[Elmo]

That's interesing. Thanks for the reference!

I wonder why Coke said ALL their PET bottles (from 20 oz to 2 liters) ar

How can we find the "industry standard" for soda bottles?

[JIMMIE]

Coke bottles used for water heater expansion tank

Jimmie

[hallerb]

I can assure you having seen a sprite truck lose 100 or so cases out the back of a tractor trailer, its roll up door must not of been secured and his inventory fell out the back some bottles expoloded and many leaked at the caps.

explosion appeared to depend on agitating bottles.

the police got upset when I called 911 I asked for the reps ID number and pointed out the truck left, not knowing of the mess it was leaving behind it, and all this debris were going to cause a accident.......

telpehone cop said he woud send a car.

wish I had a camera it would of been nice for americas funniest hme videos or u tube.......

[Stormin Mormon]

I'd have to tape measure one, and calculate it out. I'd figure a passenger car tire at maybe 3 to 5 liters of air space, at 35 PSI. Starting at 150, you'd get some where.

When we used to be able to get freon tank conversions. I found that a 30 pound tank starting at 150 PSI would fill one car tire from zero to about 28 PSI.

Easier to make a sort of manifold by drilling through the cap, and then fasten the cap to the maifold. Use close nipple, and a fitting in and out of the soda pop cap. Then, screw the bottle on. Eventually, you'd need a new cap or a new bottle. But they are cheap enough.

Soda bottle as water pipe expansion tank sounds good. At least you can see if it's water logged.

[Roger Shoaf]

Not a news group but you may find the answers you seek here:

[salty]

I have a compressed air horn on my bicycle that uses a soda bottle as the presssure tank. It has warnings all over it not to exceed 70 PSI, and that is for a soda bottle that has had an additional safety sleeve on it to prevent flying shards.

The plastic gets brittle when cold, so that would be an additional factor to consider.

I cannot imagine why you would want anywhere near 150 PSI for soda.

[Existential Angst]

The horn proly doesn't need more than 20-30 psi -- I'da thought a hose straight to your ass would produce that easily, on command. I thought you were a Greenie, anyway....

[salty]

The horn needs 70 PSI. When it gets down to 20, it's not very loud.

[Elmo]

How do you pressurize it?

Do you use an air pump or C02 tank?

[salty]

compressor

[Judy Zappacosta]

Thank God for young boys. Empirical data is only a video away!

"A typical two-liter soda bottle can generally reach the pressure of 100 psi (690 kPa) safely"

How to make a soda bottle explode (slow motion): Blowing up 2 liter soda bottle (skip to 5:00 min for the explosion): Coke Bottle PSI Bombs Soda bottle bomb Launching Pressurized Bottle Rockets @100 psi Exploding bottles with Dry Ice: How to Make a LOUD Water Bottle Bomb

[Stepfann King]

It all depends on how much you fart into it, first.