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David, A sure fire method is to: (1) remove the top of the lock and then remove the "bell." (2) Then remove the liquid from the lock with a syringe. (3) Then remove the lock from the bulk storage container.

I use a pump siphon.

I have never had that problem.

Dick

Two things you can do.

1. Use a siphoning tube with a larger diameter. This will increase the flow and reduce the chance of CO2 "locks" forming.
2. Increase the "head". This is the difference in level between the surface of the wine in the container which is being emptied and the end of the siphon tube from which the wine is flowing ( or the surface of the lower vessel if you tube end is below the level of the wine in that vessel ). The greater the "head" then the greater the difference in atmospheric pressure between the input and out put levels of the siphoning tube and the greater the rate of flow. i.e. put your emptying bucket higher and your receiving carboy lower HTH

I can imagine this happening but I have never seen it happen. Curious. If there is a good flow, even with a very strong ferment this should not be a problem. This is a new one.

You are filling the air lock too full. It should not be so full that this would happen. When you start pulling up on the airlock, you are correct, this will cause a partial vacume in the carboy which will tend to pull the fluid in the lock back toward the carboy. If the airlock is too full, some of the fluid will spill into the carboy. If it is filled properly, before this happens air will bubble into the carboy in the reverse process to what happens when gas bubbles out through the airlock. After all the airlock is a 2-way street. You should always fill the valve slightly LESS than half full. This will allow gas to bubble either way without the fluid spilling one way or the other.

After all the fluid in the airlock can become contaminated. It is in contact with air and you do NOT want it to get into your wine. This could happen as you describe when you remove it. It could also happen during a wheather change. A change in temerature could cause a presure change in the carboy that would draw the pressure down. If the airlock is too full this can draw fluid in the airlock toward the carboy and it may spill in.

An airlock should be filled correctly. Not too full and not too low.

Ray

Curious. If

I've had this happen too once or twice, when I used to make kits and racked from the primary fermentor to a carboy. The flow seemed okay, the fermentor was on a table and the carboy on the ground, about 3/4 m difference. I had to either restart the flow or as Trevor suggested, lift the fermentor higher up - that could get the flow going even if the racking tube was completely empty.

I switched to the S-shaped airlocks for this reason - it's much easier to see where the water level is and what it is doing in terms of pressure.

Pp

One could also cool the wine as much as possible before siphoning, which would minimize the formation of CO2 bubbles - the CO2 would stay in solution.

I used to have a problem of a small air leak in the seal of my pump siphon, which would result in air being entrained in the flow. This was a lot of air, but it never stopped the flow - the air bubbles just pulled all the way through to the new carboy. I'd agree that increasing your flow (more head height or larger bore tubing) is a good way to minimize the liklihood of shutting off the flow.

Rob

The only drawback with this idea is that this sort of problem is usually encountered when racking into a secondary fermenter and the must/wine is still actively undergoing fermentation ( hence the problem of too much gas in the siphoning tube). It would not be a good idea to cool the must at this stage and perhaps slow or even stop the fermentation.

I have certainly had this problem at the first racking stage but rarely, if ever, after fermentation is completed.