Vacu vin for degassing

[WinBase]

Hi folks

has anyone used a vacu vin wine saver for degassing wine, and if so i have 2 questions before i click the amazon buy button

1) what do you think of this method as opposed to a degassing wand
2) where can i find a bung or adapter so that the vaccu vin stopper fits snugly in a 1 gallon demi-john. the universal bungs i've seen seem to be for 5 gallon carboys which appear a tad too large for a 1 gallon vessel.

I favour natural degassing by leaving to age in the demijohn for at least 6 months, then using a home-made wand on an electric drill to ensure it's all out, but it's a PIA getting the drill out of the shed every time i want to make sure it's degassed, and a drill is not the most sterile implement to have around my wine, so i want something simpler i can just pop in my winemaking kit.

Any advice appreciated

Bob

 

[johncrobinson]

We have been here before with this sort of thing,Usually with either vacuum cleaners to industrial pumps.

I will repeat what what i have said before.
Modern demijohns are not pressure vessels,
They can easily implode under a strong vacuum.

The Idea of pulling a vacuum in a demijohn is both dangerous and totally unnecessary.

Wine degassing is not an essential part of the process given you want to mature for about 6 months.
It is really only of use when you want to drink the wine in 2-3 weeks.
A la "Quick Kit"wine,

If you have (6)months to spare it is far better to use traditional maturing and racking methods to mature the wine for the following reasons.
(1) Wine requires small amounts of Oxygen for proper maturing,It can get this by maturing in oak barrels or from being racked ( it will degas during racking )at regular intervals during the first few months of maturation in demijohns.

(2) Wines sitting on small amounts of yeast for the first few months are vastly improved,Although fermentation may seem to be finished the yeast are not,They are in fact busy cleaning up after themselves.
A vital part of Proper maturation.!!!!

 

[WinBase]

I thank you for the reply, however from what i have seen these small hand held pumps don't impart too much vacuum, at least not enough to implode the vessel, and have a safety 'click' when done. Up to press the drill/wand method appeared to yield no bubbles after 6 months so what you say holds obviously holds true, but my aim was to have a way to double check & to satisfy my curiosity i suppose

 

[Chippy_Tea]

My view is as john said already -

Modern demijohns are not pressure vessels,
They can easily implode under a strong vacuum.

A wand is easy to make and makes degassing a minute job i dont see any reason to make it more costly or lengthy using a vaccume.