Anyone ever use a Fermentap?

I saw a Fermentap system at morebeer. It inverts your carboy into a conical fermentor and seems cool for harvesting yeast and not transferring from primary to secondary. Only drawback it seems is that your suppossed to empty the sediment every 3 or 4 days.... yeah thats gonna happen. Any opinions on this?

 

Bad reviews here:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=22272&highlight=fermentap

 

I got one but the spigot was broken. Midwest sent me a whole new one but while I was waiting on it to arrive. I found this forum and someone posted a question What is the worst piece of equipment you got since you started brewing? Many people listed it as the biggest POS they had purchased. I never even bothered using mine except as a stand for drying the carboy. Fairly stable for a 5 gal carboy using a 6.5 is an accident waiting to happen. Almost everyone said it leaks.

 

I actually use them. I too had some problems with them leaking at first but was able to work it out after the first batch. I use a electric drill to tighten down the screws that hold the spigot on. It's a little bit of a PITA the first couple of times you do it, but I've been using mine long enough I'm use to it now. Only takes me a couple of minutes to set it up, and put them in place. I put carboy handles on the carboys that clamp around the middle so picking it up and inverting it is fairly simple. You do have to drain it every couple of days to remove the trub, but since it's inverted, this is fairly simple. It also means I don't have to go to a secondary or set up a siphon. Eventually I get a couple of ss conicals made that will fit into my fermenting fridge. and get rid of them. I don't know if I would recommend it, but it does work for me.

 

How the heck does that thing vent CO2?

 

You put a racking cane (I use a ss one) up the middle. There is a nut around the cane that you tighten to stop any leaking between the cane and the spigot. I use two 6.5 gallon carboys ( do 10 gallon batches). Connect a bit of hose to the bottom of the racking cane and drop the other end into a flask of water. Makes for a airlock and blow off tube at the same time. Just have to make sure the flask of water doesn't dry out. Works pretty well actually.

 

Don't waste your money. They're junk.

 

Wow never heard so much bad press about a product. Good to know. Its too badbecause it seems like a good idea. Would be nice not to have to transfer to secondary, and if you put it up higher to ferment when its time to bottle or keg you just drain it into the keg.

 

I'm still pretty new to this thing. Just started checking this board and posting a few days ago. I've only got 2 bottled and drank batches under my belt, and I'm still using extract with specialty grains ( I loved both batches). I ordered one of these things a few weeks ago and have used it for two primary fermentations then I gravity drain to my secondary. While I was not real impressed with the quality of the unit I thought what the heck and gave it a shot. I've had no trouble with leaks and for a $30 investement I've fairly happy.

I do want to upgrade eventually to a true conical, but for a newb like me just to not have to siphon from primary to secondary has really made that part of the process much easier.

The mini-brew someone linked earlier looks like my next fermentor...just not sure where to begin with my equipment upgrades.

 

sounds like a poor execution/engineering of an excellent idea.