Advice needed for purchasing conical

I found out that I am getting some gift certificates to midwest for Christmas....so I would like to purchase a Blichmann conical. I have been investigating/researching for a while, but would like some more recent feedback/advice. Would you recommend buying the 7 gallon conical or the 14.5 gallon conical (for just $40 more)? I am leaning towards purchasing the 14.5 gallon conical for the value.

I mostly brew 5-gallon batches, but I do have a 15-gallon brew kettle and have brewed a few 10-gallon batches in the past. Is the empty headspace a concern for a 5-gallon batch in a 14.5 gallon conical? Should I just purge the conical (similar to a keg) with CO2 before racking my wort? Thanks for your help.

wow that's awesome. Do you have many beer guzzling friends? How about temp controls? maybe the smaller one would fit in a fridge where the bigger one wouldn't? Head space is probably not an issue at all unless your talking about leaving a batch in there for 6 months. Queensbury? I'm like 20 minutes from there in Greenwich.

I did not think the 7 gallon conical was worth the effort for only a 5 gallon batch.
So I swapped it out for better bottles.
But for a 10 gallon batch, the 14 gallon conical makes more sense.
Ymmv.

I don't think you need to worry about purging the head space.
Seems like it would fill up with co2 pretty quickly.

+1 regarding the 14 gallon; I've got 2 of them and thinking about a third.

BTW, you can find small tri-caster casters (brown furniture casters I first found at Wallmart) on line that will easily bolt to the bottom of the legs. I first tried a single caster that bolted through the existing hole. The weight was too heavy and the stems bent.

Not really that much difference in price, and you won't ever regret going large. When your ready to start doing larger batches you'll be set. I went too small, and now am going to sell my smaller stout fermenter and get a 27 gallon.