Conical Fermenter?

I am thinking about getting a conical ferementer, what are the advantages to it other than not having to rack to your secondary, does it improve your efficiency? and where is the best place to get them? should you use food grade plastic or stainless?

Dave

I was obsessed with getting one for awhile, and I realized the main reason was for the ease of harvesting yeast. I realized it just wasn't worth the extra expense.

I would never buy a plastic one. People say "fermenting in plastic is fine" which I agree with from a materials standpoint, but they also say "make sure you replace your plastic buckets with regularity." How often will you be willing to replace a plastic conical?

Most importantly, don't even consider a conical unless you have a way of controlling the fermentation temp.

Like kanzi said, yeast harvesting is the primary benefit, along with their size (you can get them from 7-42+ gallons), and the bling factor.

I'd love to have one. But with buckets costing $10, BB carboys $30, and glass carboys $40, it's kind of hard to justify spending $600-$900 on a stainless conical with all the goodies, for brewing 5-10 gallon batches.

If you want to start brewing 1/2 barrel and 1 barrel batches and want to get serious about yeast culturing, then it starts to make sense financially.

Just my opinion.