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I bottle to flip top 750 ml bottles. Should I keep using the same ones forever, or do they weaken over time, and I should get a new set some day?

I'm not extremely careful with them, I often clean them in my stainless steel sink, stack them... I primarily do beer, but also carbonated hard lemonade and cider.

And please, for the love of science, don't even think of telling me that glass is a liquid. The two forum posts I clicked on when I started researching this had people saying that glass at normal temperature is a liquid.

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    Everyone knows glass is a vapor at room temp, and solid in the fridge. Sheesh!
    – brewchez
    Commented Jun 23, 2012 at 15:13

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I think you'll be ok to use them for a good few years to come. Glass is quite a tough substance...

To be honest i'd be more worried about the cap - the rubber seals on those will perish at a much faster rate than the glass will. Once you start seeing the rubber get dry, and/or start to crack then i'd start to think about replacing.

You might even be able to get replacement seals for the caps.

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    plus 1. It's the gaskets that are the weakest link. The glass will last for a long time. Yes, it is a liquid, but incredibly viscous at room temperature. If you look at some very old windows, you can see a small amount of "dripping down" of the glass. But for a beer bottle, just forget that it's a liquid. It will probably outlast you.
    – mdma
    Commented Jun 22, 2012 at 19:56
  • @mdma I warned you for the love of science to not spread that myth. Old windows are thick at one end because they were manufactured with the crown glass process en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_glass_(window). They put the thicker end at the bottom because it's simply more stable that way, but I would bet that you can find old windows installed upside down that are thick on the top
    – MStodd
    Commented Jun 22, 2012 at 20:12
  • ok, I didn't read your post as considering that to be a myth, and didn't see any warning. I was told this when I was a kid, and it's stuck with me. But regardless, which state of matter it assumes is not really relevant, the bottles will be fine.
    – mdma
    Commented Jun 22, 2012 at 20:39
  • @mdma think nothing of it. we are in the same boat
    – MStodd
    Commented Jun 23, 2012 at 5:21

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