Anyone Purchased from The CHI Company

Looks like they have very reasonable prices on kegs and associated equipment (4 cornies shipped for $92), but I have never heard of them before. Any experiences?

They do have excellent prices and claim to be the supplier for other homebrew stores.

The information I found showed $92 before shipping. I'm in WA state and my cost per keg was going to be about $30 if I ordered from them.

Hey, check out the single handled ball-locks. $20 a piece ($16 shipping to the Seattle area for 4), so it should be similar for you.

Yeah, single handle is what I was talking about, I should have specified. I actually like them better than the doubles, as the posts are more accesible and the handles are replaceable, and cannot seperate from the keg.

I think I'm getting 4.

Edit: Hey McK, do you know of a cheaper place shipped? If I buy them locally, they are $40 apiece!!!!

I do not. I pay $35 +tax locally myself. A couple of the e-bay retailers are comparable with the CHI company, but I think they are probably the cheapest overall.

McKBrew said:

I do not. I pay $35 +tax locally myself. A couple of the e-bay retailers are comparable with the CHI company, but I think they are probably the cheapest overall.

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kegconnection has pairs of used ones going for $50 + shipping.

I have used them a couple of times now. No problems to date

I ordered 4 cornies from them a few months ago. I got what I ordered, eventually, but their communication is lacking, to say the least. My order did not ship when originally promised. I found out later that I caught them between shipments from their supplier.

They also took a few days to answer emails, which is frustrating. After I emailed several times, they did finally reply with a shipment date. When I got the kegs, one didn't hold pressure, despite the fact they say they test each before shipping. They did ship me a replacement, free of charge, but it also took about 2 additional weeks for me to receive it.

You will get what you order, eventually. It just may take several weeks, and you shouldn't expect a quick reply to your questions. The keg quality was ok. From their website, I expected more. Of the 4 kegs, 2 had rubber that was cracked quite a lot. After scraping off the stickers and some barkeeper's friend, they look pretty nice though.

cdburg said:

I ordered 4 cornies from them a few months ago. I got what I ordered, eventually, but their communication is lacking, to say the least. My order did not ship when originally promised. I found out later that I caught them between shipments from their supplier.

They also took a few days to answer emails, which is frustrating. After I emailed several times, they did finally reply with a shipment date. When I got the kegs, one didn't hold pressure, despite the fact they say they test each before shipping. They did ship me a replacement, free of charge, but it also took about 2 additional weeks for me to receive it.

You will get what you order, eventually. It just may take several weeks, and you shouldn't expect a quick reply to your questions. The keg quality was ok. From their website, I expected more. Of the 4 kegs, 2 had rubber that was cracked quite a lot. After scraping off the stickers and some barkeeper's friend, they look pretty nice though.

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So, considering the price, would you order from them again?

I'll order from them for sure if I can get four kegs for under $100. I can't find a deal like that anywhere around here. Even if they need some work, I'd still come out ahead. Maybe next month.

I ordered 4 kegs from them today, and already received my tracking number. They also state that their July special is free gasket replacements for each keg. Came to about $30 a keg with shipping and tax ( I am in CA, and so are they). My LHBS has kegs for $39, so it worked out for me.

I will let you know how they turn out when I get them.

Paulbill

Since they did take care of the faulty keg by replacing it with a new one, I probably would order from them again. I just wouldn't expect to get my kegs for about 3 weeks.

There are other options in the same price range as well.

http://www.homebrewing.org/5-Gallon-Cornelious-Keg-Ball-Lock_p_21-70.html

I haven't ordered their kegs, but I've ordered other items from them. They were great to work with, and I got my items when promised.

cdburg said:

There are other options in the same price range as well.

http://www.homebrewing.org/5-Gallon-Cornelious-Keg-Ball-Lock_p_21-70.html

I haven't ordered their kegs, but I've ordered other items from them. They were great to work with, and I got my items when promised.

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I just ordered 4 kegs from them. Super fast shipping and they were very helpful and easy to reach by phone. I ordered them Wednesday; they shipped the same day and would have arrived yesterday (Friday), but UPS won't deliver to an unoccupied house (I'm moving and wasn't expecting them that soon - I wish I'd had blinds on the windows already). For reference, they're in Michigan and I'm in southeast Missouri. Total with shipping was right at $100. I haven't seen the kegs yet, but so far Adventures in Homebrewing has been awesome.

I just got two more kegs this week. I was looking at CHI, but their shipping charges seemed kind of high, so I went with Brewer's Discount (http://brewersdiscount.com/) instead - this is the second time I've ordered from them, and I've been pretty happy.

gabeweisz said:

I just got two more kegs this week. I was looking at CHI, but their shipping charges seemed kind of high, so I went with Brewer's Discount (http://brewersdiscount.com/) instead - this is the second time I've ordered from them, and I've been pretty happy.

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Really? I guess location matters a lot. I'm on the same coast as CHI, so they only wanted like $15 to ship four kegs! Anytime I look at shipping from the midwest, or east, it's a killer

Well it took 5 days from click to package at the doorstep, Pretty good!

They e-mailed me my tracking # the day after I ordered, and included free gasket replacements. The kegs are a little dinged up on the outside, but very clean on the inside! And who can argue with a clean keg with new gaskets, on your doorstep for $23 apiece? My LHBS charges $40 for one that still has soda in it, and I have to drive 20 min each way!

I would deffinately recomend The CHI Company!

There was another thread discussing this.... Rumor has it that CHI bought all of Pepsi's stock of ball-locks, lock-stock-and-barrel. If this rumor is true, once CHI runs out, prices are gonna go way, way up. I plan to try to weasel at least 4 more by Christmas, that'll put me at 14 kegs. I might try to go for 18 though. I have a cellar I can keep them in.

Chriso said:

There was another thread discussing this.... Rumor has it that CHI bought all of Pepsi's stock of ball-locks, lock-stock-and-barrel. If this rumor is true, once CHI runs out, prices are gonna go way, way up. I plan to try to weasel at least 4 more by Christmas, that'll put me at 14 kegs. I might try to go for 18 though. I have a cellar I can keep them in.

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I don't doubt the rumor since they are selling 1100 keg pallets wholesale also.

*sigh* if I only had a loading dock.

Chriso said:

*sigh* if I only had a loading dock.

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I know, I was eyeballing those pallets too!

*DROOLING*

I ordered a 4 pack from CHI and while the kegs are decent, I still haven't been able to get the new gaskets that were suppose to come with them. I realize the gaskets are cheap, but if your special is to include them for free and then you don't it's kind of irritating. Their communication is really crap too. It takes them forever to respond to e-mail if they ever even do. I guess I'll just keep bugging them in hopes of getting what was promised.

To those of you having problems with email communication, try calling them on the phone.

I ordered 12 kegs and sundry other items on Saturday 8/2 and got an email acknowledgment of my payment immediately. I got three UPS tracking numbers on Monday. I received my kegs on Friday 8/8, and all were in good condition and holding pressure. There was an omission from my order, so I called and talked to Matthew. I caught him right as he was closing up for the day. I explained the omission, and he mailed me the missing parts priority mail on Monday.

My experience was great. I was very pleased with the processing time, shipping time, and the customer service. I will buy from CHI again if I decide to expand my keg holdings beyond the 12 I have now.

They were also very promt and responsive with my order as well. I believe it came as ordered in about 5 days. One of the four kegs I ordered was in particularly poor condition, but it holds pressure, And it's not like I'm using it to go to the moon.

I have e-mailed at least 4 times about the new gaskets that I never got. I have only gotten one response saying they are on the way and to let him know if they didn't show up by Friday (last Friday). Friday cam and no gaskets so I e-mailed a couple more times with no response. I called and left a message yesterday about 1:00 pm CA time and still no response.

I'm going to have to drive in to the LHBS if they don't somehow show up today so I can get a couple kegs ready for beer. At this point I'm still not very happy with CHI. Next time around I think I will purchase from elsewhere even if it costs me a few extra bucks per keg. Getting what was promised and good customer service is more important to me than saving a few bucks and I shouldn't have to fight this hard to get it.

Well I will hold off on my final judgment. I finally got another e-mail saying that he is resending the gaskets. I don't know what happened to the first set, but they didn't make it here. They just appear to be busy doing other business related things and don't have full time staff to deal with issues like this. In the long run I think you will get what you pay for, but it may take a few extra weeks to get everything if it doesn't show up the first time around.

Finally got the gaskets for my kegs so all is well with CHI for me.

Sounds like a lot of people were missing their o rings. Mine also shipped without them. I called then and had them in hand 4 days later. Although their claims of no small dents seem to have been exaggerated they all held pressure and the price was reasonable.

I know this is an old thread but I thought I would share my experience with Chi Company.

I purchased 4 kegs, an air manifold, and a tap and shank assembly for a tower.

One of the keg lids was banged up pretty good and is difficult to put on, the other kegs were okay. The air manifold looked okay but one of the check valves wasn't working, the tower shank assembly is where I ran into problems, but I'll get to that later.

Chi Company sent everything out pretty quick and I received it shortly there after. When I went to assemble everything that weekend I noticed the problem with the check valve and realized that I didn’t have all of the parts for the shank assembly. On Monday I called but there was no answer so I went to the website and filled out the contact us form. Over the next two months I filled out the contact us form about a dozen times with no response, emailed about half a dozen times, and pm’d him on this website (he responded to the pm by telling me to email him, which he never responded to!). I called weekly and talked to Matt about half the time, the other half the time had no response and no answering machine.

A few weeks later they tried to send out a new check valve and the replacement parts for the tower. I immediately got a UPS number but the package was never sent. I followed up with emails, contact us, and phone calls, about a week or two later I got a hold of him and he had them actually sent. The parts for the tower were wrong again and I followed up with emails, contact us forms, and a phone call. We found out the part that I needed and he said he would send it out immediately. It has now been two weeks and I have given up and purchased the parts from elsewhere.

The prices are good but it is a discount shop so you’re not paying for customer service and you’ll have to follow up with them, which is not always easy. I am now in the market for another 4 kegs and will unfortunately be paying more locally so that I can inspect them before hand and know that I will have some customer service if I need it.

A lot of people have had great luck and I hope this was the exception and not the rule with Chi Company, Matt seems like a nice guy but the follow through left a lot to be desired.

I havent ordered kegs from CHI but have had great experience with some other items Ive purchased from them Perlick faucets.shipping was timely.and all was good with the order.Just my 2cents