Jacketed Conical Fermenter 200 Litre +

[thebigpeeler]

Hi Guys,

Been looking on forum posts about conicals but some of the links are stale but some are of some great use.

However I cant seem to find anywhere any jacketed 200L to 300L conical fermenters. Ideally id like a CIP fitting.

Budget is around £1500 possibly push to £2000 (if i reeeeeealy really had to)

Thanks in advance guys!

Oli

[Aleman]

Nothing available in your price range. Willis European do custom sizes but I was looking at 2K for a 150L working volume jacketed conical last year.

I'm in the process of trying to raise the cash. It's worth talking to Tim at Willis to get some idea of how much yours would be

Brupaks do a 300l non jacketed that is / was in your budget. Talk to Clive

[bigrichlock]

I bought a Willis conical and then took it back the standard of welding was terrible, so if you go down this route get it in writing that the standard of welding will be sanitary grade, and if its not you get a full refund. In Willis's defense they did not quibble my assessment of the welding, Tim pretty much agreed and said they had changed fabricators, and he then said they will prob change again.

From a different place i was quoted 3k for a 300L dimple jacketed conical fermanter, the funny thing was i could have something like a 7bbl jacket conical for 7k, came to the conclusion 300L for 3k was not worth it!

What you are after does not exist in the UK off the shelf you will need to get if fabricated, there lies the next problem trying to get 60deg cones manufactured!

For a off the shelf product try brewers hardware in the US the only issue you will have is getting the fermenter shipped to the UK.

Good luck

rich

[sbond10]

Doesn't scotia do freelance work

[bigrichlock]

i'm sure he will for the right price, and from his main kit post it looks like he can even do dimpled jackets

rich

[sbond10]

Sure he posted a cone he rolled could be mistaken tho. I personally almost fell over when I saw the price of a 25l conical think it was around 800 with various bits attached

[scotia]

Doesn't scotia do freelance work

I do dimple jackets and 60 deg conicals as shown although a 45 deg conical does the same job

I bought a Willis conical and then took it back the standard of welding was terrible, so if you go down this route get it in writing that the standard of welding will be sanitary grade, and if its not you get a full refund. In Willis's defense they did not quibble my assessment of the welding, Tim pretty much agreed and said they had changed fabricators, and he then said they will prob change again.

From a different place i was quoted 3k for a 300L dimple jacketed conical fermanter, the funny thing was i could have something like a 7bbl jacket conical for 7k, came to the conclusion 300L for 3k was not worth it!

What you are after does not exist in the UK off the shelf you will need to get if fabricated, there lies the next problem trying to get 60deg cones manufactured!

For a off the shelf product try brewers hardware in the US the only issue you will have is getting the fermenter shipped to the UK.

Good luck

rich

The difference in price between the smaller conical and a larger (bbl being an Anerican size) will be less material less welding but a similar time in manufacturing (rolling a cylinder and pressing a conical) so no way can you work on a percentage of volume 300ltr divided into 7bbl. I found the smaller the more troublesome in fabricating. The 100ltr pilot plant I am building was a pain to polish out the internal welds where on the 10bl I could get inside the vessel and work quite happily and more efficient.

[bigrichlock]

I fully understand the reason for the pricing of the small conical's i just could not justify it.

I have now got a couple of 170L conical's on the way at a much more reasonable price

rich

[williseuro]

[quote="bigrichlock"]I bought a Willis conical and then took it back the standard of welding was terrible, so if you go down this route get it in writing that the standard of welding will be sanitary grade, and if its not you get a full refund. In Willis's defense they did not quibble my assessment of the welding, Tim pretty much agreed and said they had changed fabricators, and he then said they will prob change again.

From a different place i was quoted 3k for a 300L dimple jacketed conical fermanter, the funny thing was i could have something like a 7bbl jacket conical for 7k, came to the conclusion 300L for 3k was not worth it!

What you are after does not exist in the UK off the shelf you will need to get if fabricated, there lies the next problem trying to get 60deg cones manufactured!

For a off the shelf product try brewers hardware in the US the only issue you will have is getting the fermenter shipped to the UK.

Good luck

rich[/quote]

I think your comments are a bit unfair.
When you left our unit you were raving about the quality of the tanks, and told us you were going to put some positive reviews on this forum!
It was the next day that you decided to return the tank, claiming that the welding you had inspected for nearly an hour the day before was now ,in your opinion, not acceptable.
Rather than have an unhappy customer, we refunded the purchase price to you.
If the welding had been that bad, then surely you could have seen this when you inspected at our place.
I would add that we have never had any other complaints about the quality of the tanks, and if anybody wants references, we would be happy to provide them...
The welding may not have been to your liking for whatever reason, but to class it as 'terrible' is simply not true as backed up by many fully satisfied customers.
A customer today told us that our tanks are by far the best quality he has seen!
The only way to make an informed decision is to see the tanks for yourself at the end of the day!

To the OP, we would be able to supply a tank to your spec within your budget if you are at all interested.

[bigrichlock]

I took the conical to a experianced fabricator who has been involved in sanitary welding in the brewing industry for years, he'd gave me a crash courses in checking welding. He pointed out a large number of faults in the conical.

Examples being - welds on all of the fittings had not even been back purged, welds had blown through into the inside of the conical, leaving coked up holes.

The units could be great if finished better.

I have had a steep learning curve in weld quality which I am now very greatful for, it has saved me the cost of an expensive fermenter which in my newly educated opinion is not fit for purpose.

Thanks

Richard

[darkonnis]

Well, there is a very simple way to solve this question of quality. Post some pictures of said tanks and the welds themselves. That would provide fair and indisputable proof of the quality and then, ( no offence to rich) no one here could argue their quality or, (again no offence) lack there of.

I must say though Willis, I was less than impressed with your customer service or rather, lack there of. Impossible to get a hold of, which in the end made me think that if anythign ever did go wrong, I'd never be able to right it.

[bigrichlock]

Some pics as requested.

Here is the weld on to the temp probe port, the weld has been polished back - does not look to good!


A blow through on one of the welds attaching the leg, you cant see it in the pic but there was a black coke deposit in the hole, chances are this goes all the way through


Black deposits can be seen all over the inside of the cone,i originally thought this was just polish paste that was not cleaned out, after using industrial detergent it was weld splatter/slag which would have required a fair bit of work to remove


I do not have any pics of the racking arm and other fittings to show the lack of back purging with gas but coke deposits were visible on all the internal welds.

Like all things i have my opinion on the welds and that may differ from anyone else, when i first saw the units my knoledge on welding quality was pretty poor and i was impressed by the shininess of the conicals hence my initial comments to Tim at Willis. However i took the conical to a commercial fabricator (brewery equipment and general sanitary welding) and i was given a crash course in what to look for in the welds.

These conicals are not cheep at £1050, but they are still produced on a budget so that they are affordable to home brewers, they are very close to being great vessels but they are not quite there but could easily be if finished better.

[treble9man]

Since conicals are expensive and generally not easily available in homebrew size, has anyone had any joy with stainless dish-bottom vessels? For years I used the good old PVC buckets with lids and had no problems, other than the odd yeast overspill, but that was down to my overfilling in the first place.

A 200-500L, stainless, beast would be nice - even better with cooling, but unless prices tumble I cant see us getting any

[darkonnis]

I've got some 100L keg-tanks but thats about as high as you go before the stupid money starts.