So I just finished up my first batch with this thing, a Bavarian Hefe that was 1.050 OG and finished up at 1.013 in 8 days. I just love how convenient this conical is! I've had no issues with the lid, it comes on and off smoothly. My only real complaint was having to stick a wine thief in from the top to get gravity samples. Anyway, I dumped one ball of trub, stuck it back on, let it refill and settle for a couple hours, then instead of messing with the bottling bucket, added my racking sugar and just hooked up the supplied hose and racked the whole batch using the ball valve. I put 4.5 gallons into growlers and the last gallon went into bombers. Sample tasted great, can't wait for this to carb up!