It came today, double boxed. Looked pretty sweet when I opened it up. Ball valves are 1/2" thread. In the box were 4 silicone lid gaskets and 2 "0" rings for the thermometer.
Thermometer is huge and easy to read. I checked it with my 2 mash thermometers and all three are within 3 degrees f. This one reads the highest, but... Its still One degree from the average of the 3.
I inspected the welds and all looked good except the one in the bottom.
Next I took it to the kitchen sink and filled er up. It holds just under 6 gals 3 quarts. When it had 6 gallons in it, I had 1.5" of head space left. I will be buying a blow off hose so I can put 6 gals in it when I want.
The space between the racking valve and the dump valve holds exactly one half liter, or almost 3 cups.
I took a pic next to a corny keg for size comparison. My son was trying to jewel the keg. Its looking pretty good.
I washed it out with C brite and inspected the bottom weld better. It has POROSITY. I do some food grade welding and this aint it. I am going to boil the base of the fermenter so I can use it on Saturday, but will probably re weld the one in the bottom so its smooth. I did try to clean it up with roloc discs, but the holes in the weld are too deep. I can see stuff staying in there and causing problems.
Lid and gasket. It looks like it will be fine. If you look close the screw is on a bit of an angle. This affects (effects?) nothing. The hole for the bung is bigger than my #6 stopper. Its going to need the next size bigger. I bought some 1" OD blow off hose. Its too small, I need 1 1/4" OD.
I don't know how well you can see the holes in the weld. Here is a pic.
the rest of the welds look good. This is the worst spot for a sh*t weld.
You decide. I am going to write to the seller and see if all are like this.
Cleaning it and filling it on Saturday with a Boddingtons clone. Lots of heat will make me sure its clean for this use. Ad says can be returned for any reason even if you use it. The worst thing that could happen is I would cut out the bottom and weld it back in.
I will let you know what the seller says.
David