Anyone using a B3 heated and cooled conical?

I am brewing 20 gallon batches now and I feel that my brewing process is very consistent and repeatable. To me, the next logical step in improving my brewing is controlling fermentation temps. I also wouldn't mind brewing some lagers. I don't really have time (or space) to build a fermentation chamber and I am thinking about splurging big time on a MoreBeer heated and cooled conical.

I was searching YouTube to see if I could find any reviews or action shots of one of these in use and I couldn't find any. (I am a beer geek. We do these things)

Does anyone on here own one? What do you think of it? How low can you get it to go? When I start doing lagers, I would like to follow Jamil's advice from Brewing Classic Styles and use the Narziss fermentation and start fermenting around 44F. Can you get that low with one of these?

Thanks, guys!

Im not using one, but did some extensive research before pulling the trigger and ordering a non-heated and cooled more beer conical. The cooling system on these is a TEC (Thermo electric Cooling) system. on the more beer web site they say

it can get to and hold lager fermentation temperatures of 48-52 Fahrenheit all the way up to ambient temperatures of 80 Fahrenheit.

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I know with the TEC wine fridge I have, it is limited to 55º, and if its over 80º in the room it can't get to that temp.

But if you are looking to start fermenting at 44ºF, and If you had a way to chill your wort down to 44º before it went in to the fermentor, you can start at 44 and let it rise to 48º.

I'm having a 25' immersion chiller that fits through the 3" TC port on the top made for my 15Gallon conical, and planing on running 27º glycol through the coils. Others have used this technique and it works well. You can use a small freezer chest as a glycol reservoir,and a place to store hops too, the other plus with this rout is you can afford to buy two 27gallon conicals!

Thanks for the response, BSquared. Do you have a sense for what they use to heat the conicals? I definitely find the need to raise the temp of my fermentations near the end to finish fermentation and help the yeast clean up. My natural basement temp is 64 and I hate to heat the whole thing just for a carboy. I am guessing that heating is a simpler problem to solve than cooling.

I think it's the TEC too. The way these work is if you apply a current to it one side of the element will get hot and the other side will get cool. I assume the way they have it set up the Cool side is on the fermenter and the hot side has the cooling fan attached to dissipate the excess heat that is drawn out of the beer in the fermenter. One of the properties of a TEC or Peltier is that if you flip the polarity of the power then cooling side will become the heating side and the heating the cooling, effectively heating the beer.

Its a really cool set up, I think you would have a lot of success with it in a 64º basement. I think one of the biggest draw backs form people using this technology is its susceptibility to ambiant temperature, as well they are incredibly inefficient power consumption wise.

Have you emailed more beer with these questions or called their show rooms? Some times their customer service people don't know the answer to technical questions, they mostly will help with billing and shipping, but the guys in the showrooms I have found to be really helpful. Also if you are an AHA member call in your order so you can get a 10% discount. Thats what I did. my conical arrived today!

To heat it they use something like http://www.htdheattrace.com/pdfs/Type%20G%20Conical%20Systems%20brochure.pdf it don't think it is this companies though.
If I was to do over I would buy there normal conicals. Then find some way to use glycol to cool it. I think it would be more efficient and cost effective. Mine will not get cool enough to cold crash a beer or really lager it.