Willis European Conicals

[Aleman]

From US and A you can get:
http://brewhemoth.com/tri-clover-brewhemoth-chiller

Converted to £ and adding VAT = £458! ... only 83L though.

Looks nice . . .but No Valves, have you seen the price of tri clover butterfly valves You can easily double the cost of the conical with the fittings

Plus looking at the welds in the bigger picture . . .that damned quality issue comes up again. Although they may well have ground back the inside to 'sanitary' quality the 'staining' around the outside of the weld indicates some degree of heat damage to the stainless . . .enough to cause rusting . . .no idea . ..but would I be willing to put down £1K to find out . . . . for that reason I'm Out

[gregorach]

Looks like it's only a 45 degree cone too...

[jat147]

Hey thanks chaps, I better change my screensaver!

[testtube]

Yeah, all too much risk..

[MikeMarcus]

Did anyone ever buy one of these? I'm about to lay down the cash for 2x 65L models so would appreciate a review.

[barneey]

Nearly went down the Willis route but decided to get another one instead (still waiting for it to arrive) see thread viewtopic.php?f=6&t=45212&hilit=conical, dont know if anyone took them up on the Willis November offer?

[MikeMarcus]

Tim extended the November deal into December for me. I will be receiving 2x 65L conicals on Monday or Tuesday.

I will report on them etc as soon as I have possession. I have never seen the Blichmann conicals to compare them to but I have spent a fair amount of time around commercial brewing equipment so I feel confident in being able to assess weld quality, etc.

[Kev888]

Sounds exciting; I'll look forward to hearing about them!!

Cheers
kev

[T5FAU]

Tim extended the November deal into December for me. I will be receiving 2x 65L conicals on Monday or Tuesday.

I will report on them etc as soon as I have possession. I have never seen the Blichmann conicals to compare them to but I have spent a fair amount of time around commercial brewing equipment so I feel confident in being able to assess weld quality, etc.

Do you have these yet ? Any comments on their shinyness ?

[MikeMarcus]

So I have been brewing in these for well over 6 months and they are great as far as design goes, the weld quality is pretty shoddy though. I think that infections are rarer than most home brewers assume (after all, plenty of breweries conduct open fermentations with few problems) so I question if weld quality is as important as Blichmann et al make out in their marketing material.

When I first received the fermenters I had to scrub off a lot of black crud and rust stains, presumably from manufacture.

[barneey]

Mike,

Its good to finally hear back on the quality of these ones, I think yours is the first post I`ve seen with someone who has actually used them.

Judging by what you have said and my own experience of the olive oil conicals, for me the next conical I buy (if at all!!!) will be a Blichmann one or a http://www.toledometalspinning.com/products/hoppers/ one if I could get the shipping rates down.

[MikeMarcus]

Don't get me wrong - you get a lot of hardware for the price. Overall I have been very happy with them and would recommend them. The main point I was trying to make is that the weld quality, although lacking, isn't as important as people probably think.

Mind you, now I have said this, I will probably get an infection

[barneey]

Exactly the same can be said of the "olive oil" ones (I currently own). Its usable and I havent had a problem yet .

Its just the quality of the thing is let down with the internal welding if that could be sorted out on either design I think they would be onto a winner at the price.

[MikeMarcus]

Now if I could ever reach some sort of consistency in my brewing, I would be able to close off the blowoff valve 2 points before FG and naturally carbonate my beer before kegging.

[barneey]

Just one thing do you have any pictures of the welding issues?