Stainless Conical Budget of £500 to £800 Best One

[boingy]

I think your first step should be to contact the supplier and ask them to rectify it or replace it. That is not a sanitary weld and the conical is not really fit for purpose. The only way to clean up the weld is to grind it back until you get to clean metal and re-weld and unless you are skilled then that is a job for a pro.

[barney]

The poor weld penetration is purely cosmetic and ultimately provides no worse an environment for bacteria than the other weld penetration ripples.

Any TIG welder worth his salt should be able to smooth the excessive penetration out, with just the arc, in only a few minutes.

In any event I would not be happy, even the bits which do not have excessive penetration look like perfect nooks and crannies for bacteria.

Boingy has the right idea, contact the manufacturer about the "Poor Workmanship" tell them you have had a quote "for x amount" and ask for a refund of said amount. Then work out how you will get it all sterilized each time.

[barneey]

Guys, Thanks for all your replys, I have now contacted the original suppliers to see what can be done regarding the welding. in the interest of fairness I wont be posting the outcome until the problem has or has not been resolved.

Barney regarding the cleaning of the conical I was going to try "beermonsta" cleaning schedule he uses with his conical, with steam etc. time will tell if I get it right.

At the very least there are now some close up photos of a conical product available for members to see. Just wish other manufactured conical detail pictures were available for cross reference purposes.

It may well be the "blichman" conical is the better product but at nearly double the price it should be.

(Oh well back to the conservatory)

Regards to all

Clive

[Aleman]

I think your first step should be to contact the supplier and ask them to rectify it or replace it. That is not a sanitary weld and the conical is not really fit for purpose. The only way to clean up the weld is to grind it back until you get to clean metal and re-weld and unless you are skilled then that is a job for a pro.

Actually that conical is perfectly fit for it's original use . . . Storage of Olive Oil!! . . . . However the retailer should be aware of the requirements for a fermentation vessel and not accept anything from the supplier that fails to meet those requirements .

I have an electrical boiler with a weld like that . . ,.but it's a boiler so it's not important . . . for an FV

[barneey]

Well have recieved the replacement conical arrived today not only are the welds a lot cleaner but the overall item is cleaner, so with a good cleaning schedule I will give it a go.

Personally if I were to buy another conical / fermenter, I would save up the additional funds (loads more money) and just buy a blichmann striaght away, unless I could get a largish "Stout" american conical (shipping problems!!!), failing that the good old French stock pot and be conical free.

[bigrichlock]

On a different note has anyone seen or got there hands on the all singing all dancing MoreBeer Conical at $2500 each?!!

I would be interested to know hat makes up the cooling unit? Im assuming the heating side is just heat belts?

Cheers

Rich

[Aleman]

The cooling unit on the More Beer conical is a fancy Peltier chiller

[unclepumble]

Just speed reading through this post,:

a trip to a local S/S Fabrication shop and a beg for a little bit of Pickling Paste would have sorted out your dirty weld issues.
Just brush on then wash off with water , would have left a shiney new surface.

UP

[barneey]

Thanks for the heads up on the pickling paste a useful tip for cleaning up welds. Just been looking up the stuff on line looks very corrosive!

[Kev888]

Hi Clive,

Just wondering how this is working out so far?

I'm planning a brew shed layout, and deliberating on allowing space/height for a couple of conicals, or just enough for my existing french stock pots.

Cheers
Kev

[boingy]

I'm planning a brew shed layout, and deliberating on allowing space/height for a couple of conicals,

Kev, in order to give you some informed advice I've just been trying to calculate the probability of you not buying a shiny conical at some point in the future but, unfortunately, the world does not yet have enough computing power to calculate a number that small.

Of course you should allow space for the conicals, you fool. I'm surprised you have to ask....

[Kev888]

Heh-heh, yes you are of course absolutely right - think of the future..

To be frank, with all the time I've spent faffing around the edges of this, I should have just bought them ages ago and had done with it. But no, for some obscure reason even though its inevitable I have to drag it out as long as possible - instead of them lasting a lifetime I'll probably invest in some just before I'm hit by a bus and they'll have cost me hundreds of pounds per minute..

Not that it'd be bad value compared to what the shed costs seem to be escalating to

Cheers
Kev

[alix101]

Heh-heh, yes you are of course absolutely right - think of the future..

To be frank, with all the time I've spent faffing around the edges of this, I should have just bought them ages ago and had done with it. But no, for some obscure reason even though its inevitable I have to drag it out as long as possible - instead of them lasting a lifetime I'll probably invest in some just before I'm hit by a bus and they'll have cost me hundreds of pounds per minute..

Not that it'd be bad value compared to what the shed costs seem to be escalating to

Cheers
Kev

Thats what I have started to realise ...by the, time you have bought or mad e something inferior, you should, just if spent the dough on the thing you, actually wanted... If the budget allows.

[barneey]

Hi Clive,

Just wondering how this is working out so far?

I'm planning a brew shed layout, and deliberating on allowing space/height for a couple of conicals, or just enough for my existing french stock pots.

Cheers
Kev

Hi Kev,

For my conical I decided that I could either house the thing in a purpose made fridge (like your plastic one and beermonsta`s stainless one) or try and fit it in an existing fridge.

I went for the latter option, (worried about possible condensation issues + size of cupboard) with a standard 600 wide "tall" fridge, the progress so far is just the shelf to support the conical on, I need to add some additional support legs. The conical I bought has a support ledge half way down to use with the supplied base. The supplied base didnt fit in the fridge so hence the plywood shelf (very similar to your design).

So the actual space taken for the whole setup, apart from the height is no more than a standard under the counter brew fridge.

I`ve yet to use the thing for an actual brew, before I use the thing I will need to make some sort of racking arm to avoid too much loss as the tap hole is quite high

For my last brews I`ve been experimenting with using different yeasts on a split batch basis using smaller pot FV`s, one advantage of the tall fridge is being able to double deck smaller FVs.

I am still thinking about going down the immersion coil cooling route and housing the conical in its own heavily insulated cupboard, which will more than likely be at least the same size as the fridge - that and the 70ltr stainless pot "timber clad" project.... which again takes up the same footprint area.



If it was my brew shed I would allow the maximum footprint size possible, I dont think you can ever have enough room.



Cheers

Clive

[Kev888]

Really interesting, thankyou!

Good point about the racking arm v deadspace too - mines also quite high but I made a long racking arm on the inside, and I'd forgotten that was unusual. Its worked out quite well actually - higher is easier to reach down to from the inside for cleaning etc, and being pointy/conical the 'deadspace' volume tails off sharply as you extend the racking arm just that bit lower, so it doesn't have to be as long as I'd initially imagined (in mine at least, you can't have it too long if you want it to be 360degree without catching on the sides, so thats useful)

I'm warming to these - assuming the weld on your original one was an exception, they seem to have the key essentials in place and the potential for customisation too. Compared to my plain plastic conical tank with rubbish lid, surface defects and only one (slightly un-hygenic) tap/thread fitting, I'd consider them well worth the £extra even though its more than double the cost. Of course a tri-clamp uber-FV type of thing would be the bees knees so that would still be a dilemma, but relatively speaking thats more about subtleties than being fundamentally suitable.

Your sealed fridge also looks 'considerably' better than my extended effort, BTW. I got an overflow last brew and I 'thought' I'd cleaned it up, but it got behind my old fashioned fridge's cooling plate and also out onto the compressor (and beyond) through the condensation drain - there's green mould appearing at a rate of knotts from under my FV cupboard, and the entire garage reeks with a cloying/gagging stench now the fridge compressor has warmed up for the subsequent brew

Cheers
kev