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?
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.
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.
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.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.
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.
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.
*sigh* if I only had a loading dock.
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