A ball spring plunger, or simply ball plunger, is a type of airlock used for sealing round vessels. The term can also be used to refer to the device itself. This style of airlock was commonly used by homebrewers before the popularization of high-quality sanke kegs with built-in poppet valves. For these brewers, it remained the vessel of choice for secondary fermentation and temporary storage during aging.

The typical design consists of two flanged pieces (often brass) -- one larger than the other -- serrated around their perimeter so they can be rotated against each other using pliers or channel locks to create an airtight fit between them without requiring a gasket.

The inner piece is hollow with a hole in the center, and the outer piece is solid around the hole with a smaller threaded center to accept either a rubber stopper or an airlock. In use, water is filled into the plunger until it reaches the top of the inner tubular chamber. Next, an appropriately-sized hole is drilled through both pieces from one side so that it lines up over this chamber when they are rotated closed by hand. A short length of plastic tubing is then pushed into this hole, which makes it possible to fill or drain air from below without disassembling the plunger.

As the yeast ferments beer in the small chamber, CO2 flows through the hollow plunger and out of the hole in the bottom.

The airlock is also designed to release any pressure that builds up in this vessel so there is no danger of an explosion damaging equipment or injuring people nearby.

The ball and spring plungers serves as a simple and inexpensive alternative to traditional 3-piece and poppet valves, but if not used with care it can result in incomplete fermentation due to poor drainage or suffocation from clogging when using wooden vessels such as a carboy. Like all types of airlocks, it will not prevent carbon dioxide leaks resulting from oxidation - usually at either end of the vessel or due to damage.

Some homebrewers will also prefer the sealed lid of a bucket fermenter over the open top of a carboy. However, if they cannot afford more expensive equipment, they may choose to use ball plungers with buckets anyway.

To make sure your fermentation is safe and complete, it's recommended that you monitor CO2 production at least twice per day after pitching yeast - preferably every six hours in order to catch potential problems before they develop into serious ones. If there is no pressure release when checking airlocks after an hour, this means fermentation is happening rapidly and gas has nowhere to go so opening the fermenter could be dangerous. The next check should be made only after the previous one has emptied - just in case.

After fermentation is complete and there is no pressure on the plunger's airlock, it may be replaced with a regular stopper and transferred to secondary for aging or bottling. While you're waiting for those beverages to age, you can use this small fermenter as a yeast propagation or storage vessel. If by some misfortune your beverage becomes infected during aging, you'll still have plenty of healthy yeast to pitch into another batch once this one is dumped.

For more detailed instructions on how to build and operate a ball nose spring plunger system using standard kitchen tools, check out our website techni-toolproducts.com.

For More Info :- https://www.techni-toolproducts.com/about-ball-spring-plungers/