Preferred Primary Fermentation Vessel?

I've been using a Glass 6.5 gallon big mouth and it's held up to 10~ batches no problems yet. The plastic ones were not available when we bought our equipment but I would buy the plastic ones if I could or needed to do it again.

 

My choice depends on what I am expecting during primary fermentation...if it's a big beer that will likely require a blow off, I use a 6 gallon carboy with 1-inch hose leading to a bucket. Lower ABV less vigorous fermentation, I will throw it it a bucket and later transfer to a glass carboy. Longer fermentation periods are in glass also.

 

Yeah, I think I am on batch 5 with mine with no major issues. That said, I do see lots of imperfections in the glass, thin spots and air bubbles. Like you, when I bought my glass big mouth the plastic ones weren't available or I would have went that route.

 

Darn you! You made me buy it. I blame you.

 

I've got buckets I've brewed in for 20+ years, my newest buckets are at least 12 years old. I do change the spigots every 20 or so batches, or if they develop stains I can't get rid of.
I clean them with bleach, rinse and put put away. I've never had any off flavors in my beers.
The spigot is for pulling a hydrometer sample and then for draining my beer into kegs. As soon as I've got my sample, I use a spray bottle to thoroughly rinse the spigot tube with water. Then before I drain the fermenter I'll rinse the spigot with water, then a liberal dose of Starsan. In 22 years of brewing I've never had an unintentional infection in a bucket.

 

I use buckets for almost everything. Standard ale pail, no spigot.
I do have some carboys, glass and plastic, that I use for bulk aging and so forth, but I used one of them for primary, and found it to be a major hassle cleaning it out afterwards.
I do have an all-brett IPA brew in the fairly near future that I will do all in glass, but that's about it.
The glass carboys live in milk crates full time, and the plastic ones go into crates when full.
The buckets with handles are way easier to move around.

 

With dry-hop: plastic bucket

No dry-hop: glass carboy

 

do you have one of these: http://www.homebrewing.org/Carboy-Dryer_p_1711.html
Throw in some oxyclean with with hot water, cap with a solid stopper and turn it over in the dryer...carboy comes clean in an hour with a quick scrub.

 

I went from buckets to better bottles and back to buckets again along with my 7 Gal Speidel and 6 Gal Big Mouth Bubbler. The ease of cleaning was the biggest factor in going back to buckets and fermenters with large openings. The only draw back of the Bubbler is that its pain to haul. Nothing really to grab on to makes for a tricky transport to the fermentation chest.

 

Buckets because it's
Safer to move around
Never break
Easy to clean
Simple gravity reading, hydrometer straight in the bucket
Airlock free
Cheap to buy
I specially like the 6 Gallon ROPAK that come's with soft easy to open lid.