Great Transaction - eBay Stir Plate

Bought a stir plate after futzing with one I tried to make myself that never worked (got it for $42). Ordered on Fri...Arrived Today w/ Lifetime guarantee on the product. Good to have a lifetime guarantee, plus lightning fast service, with info on the product on how to get in touch with Dan Jeska in case anything goes wrong.

Customer service is a lost art form, and I really appreciate it when someone obviously cares about making a great transaction and reliable product.

Here's what I got: http://www.ebay.com/itm/StirStarter-Yeast-Stir-Plate-For-Home-Brewers/140593839175?ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1&ih=004&category=38172&cmd=ViewItem

Highly recommended - and no, I had no idea who dan jeska was before purchasing this unit from him.

:rockin:

I bought 6 from him for my brew club. Everyone loves them, and every now and then someone else does another group buy.

Dan's a good guy and I have been using one of those for a couple of years now.

About the lifetime guarantee: your lifetime or his?

I bought one directly from his website: http://www.stirstarters.com/

I'm very pleased. Was going to build one myself, but I've got plenty of other projects in the hopper right now and could not beat the $42 w/shipping. Seems like a good quality product and a good guy to do business with.

I plan to get a one of these from Dan sooner rather than later.

That thing is great. I used one for the first time to make a 1056 starter for a barley wine, fermentation took off faster than I have ever seen. I definitely was wort the 42 bucks.

Here's the funny thing. I ordered the stir plate because I couldn't get my home made version to work. Tried it with the nylon stir bar that Dan ships with his, and presto! So now I have 2 stir plates, and I ordered another 5 of the stir bars from the man. LOL...oh well...at least now I can do 2 starters at a time

I bought one from Dan several months ago. Very happy with it. It works great.

I bought one a couple of years ago from him. I'm very happy with it.

I still use it often, but I have to try to remember to order more stirbars. I also seemed to have lost my "keeper magnet", so it seems like I'm always trying to remember if my stirbar is in a fermenter, or where the heck it is!

This beats anything for retrieving stir magnets.

https://www.cynmar.com/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=15023300

The keeper magnet concept didn't work for me. I kept forgetting the spinbar when I pitched the yeast, and again when I tossed the trub. I lost the tiny keeper, too. Now I use the (linked) magnetic spinbar retriever to grab the stirbar the moment I take the starter off the stirplate. I haven't lost a stirbar since.

I started out with a Stirstarter. You can't beat it for price. I still use it occasionally. I bought a second heavier duty stirplate for making bigger starters. Seems I'm always up-sizing my equipment. Never downsizing.

I find wide mouth Erlenmeyer flasks easier to work with than the regular. I wish I had a 4 Liter. I currently use a two 2 liter flasks for making big starters. Thus having 2 stirplates is handy.

I had a similar score on craigslist. I got a Mistral Magnestir model 1150 for a $20.00 bill. Talk about a GREAT deal. Had I not found that I was planning on buying the one you listed or attempting to make one. Kudos!

ChickenHops said:

This beats anything for retrieving stir magnets.

https://www.cynmar.com/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=15023300

The keeper magnet concept didn't work for me. I kept forgetting the spinbar when I pitched the yeast, and again when I tossed the trub. I lost the tiny keeper, too. Now I use the (linked) magnetic spinbar retriever to grab the stirbar the moment I take the starter off the stirplate. I haven't lost a stirbar since.

Click to expand...

What I do is use the keeper magnet to pull the stirbar out of the starter and up onto the side of the flask when I take it off the stirplate. That way I always see the stirbar sitting there and I don't lose it. I don't see how it is much different from the retriever, except I wait until after I pitch before rescuing the stirbar. So far as losing the keeper, I just stick mine onto one of the metallic screws on the bottom of the stir plate. It sticks there just fine, and I always know where it is.

weirdboy said:

So far as losing the keeper, I just stick mine onto one of the metallic screws on the bottom of the stir plate. It sticks there just fine, and I always know where it is.

Click to expand...

I'm all for doing what works best for someone. I keep my the retriever in a graduate filled with starsan right next to the stirplates. I have several stir magnets in the graduate, too. If I need magnets I use one of those. If I need to get one out of a starter I just dip the retriever into the flask. I grab the stir magnet before I put the starter in the fridge to cold crash it.

Sometimes when I grabbed the flask of crashed yeast the magnet disturbed the settled yeast. I ended up decanting more yeast, or pitching more starter wort. The retriever was worth the $8.50. (Although maybe not worth that plus shipping unless you can bundle it with more stuff).