I decided to upgrade my immersion chiller a while ago and contacted Jaded Brewing about their Hornet chiller, which was sold out. They said they were no longer making it, but that they were going to be putting a new replacement chiller on the market and offered to sell me a pre-release version of the Mantis. Based on the review they sent me I decided to pull the trigger. Since this was a new product, I asked if they would waive the shipping fee in exchange for a review and they agreed, so here it is. I pinky swear that my opinion was not influenced by this deal, but I wanted to be up front about it in case it matters to you.
The Mantis mimics the design of many other Jaded chillers in that it has two 25 foot sections of 1/4 inch copper tubes that run in concentric circles and are soldered to a larger single pipe for input and output.
It is approx. 9 inches across and the coils are approx. 4 inches high. It's optimal for 5 or 6 gallon batches. I got the keggle sized version and it fits great.
My old 3/8 inch hand made chiller (on the right)would get a batch of wort to 70 degrees or so in 35-45 minutes. The Mantis does this in 16 minutes using approx. 24 gallons of water. I expect much better times/water usage in the fall/winter/spring. Regardless, I'm very happy shaving 15-20 minutes off my time to pitch. It will really add up over time. You can see some detailed data about my chilling times below.
While this might not be as quick as a plate chiller or a counterflow chiller I think it makes up for any difference in the ease of cleaning and sanitizing. Just drop it in the boiling wort for 10-15 minutes to sanitize and dunk it/swirl it around in a bucket filled with water from the chilling session to clean it. I like being able to see that my chiller is clean and not worry about what might be hiding inside.
Overall, I would recommend this to someone who brews 5 gallon batches wholeheartedly. The only criticism that I could post would be the connections. In the brulospher's review he had brass garden hose connections for input/output and my unit came with vinyl tubing with a female garden hose connection for the input and nothing for the output but the tube. This actually works fine for me since I use a kitchen faucet with a hose adapter, but having male and female hose connections soldered to the pipes would allow for more flexibility in set up. I think the dual garden hose set up would possibly cool a little faster since there would be greater throughput of water. I'm pretty sure they would add some for a small fee if asked.
There are some more photos and data here if you are interested.
The Mantis should be up on the Jaded site in the next month or so. As of my last correspondence with Jaded, the standard version will retail for $105, and the keggle sized cooler will be $115.
The Mantis mimics the design of many other Jaded chillers in that it has two 25 foot sections of 1/4 inch copper tubes that run in concentric circles and are soldered to a larger single pipe for input and output.
It is approx. 9 inches across and the coils are approx. 4 inches high. It's optimal for 5 or 6 gallon batches. I got the keggle sized version and it fits great.
My old 3/8 inch hand made chiller (on the right)would get a batch of wort to 70 degrees or so in 35-45 minutes. The Mantis does this in 16 minutes using approx. 24 gallons of water. I expect much better times/water usage in the fall/winter/spring. Regardless, I'm very happy shaving 15-20 minutes off my time to pitch. It will really add up over time. You can see some detailed data about my chilling times below.
While this might not be as quick as a plate chiller or a counterflow chiller I think it makes up for any difference in the ease of cleaning and sanitizing. Just drop it in the boiling wort for 10-15 minutes to sanitize and dunk it/swirl it around in a bucket filled with water from the chilling session to clean it. I like being able to see that my chiller is clean and not worry about what might be hiding inside.
Overall, I would recommend this to someone who brews 5 gallon batches wholeheartedly. The only criticism that I could post would be the connections. In the brulospher's review he had brass garden hose connections for input/output and my unit came with vinyl tubing with a female garden hose connection for the input and nothing for the output but the tube. This actually works fine for me since I use a kitchen faucet with a hose adapter, but having male and female hose connections soldered to the pipes would allow for more flexibility in set up. I think the dual garden hose set up would possibly cool a little faster since there would be greater throughput of water. I'm pretty sure they would add some for a small fee if asked.
There are some more photos and data here if you are interested.
The Mantis should be up on the Jaded site in the next month or so. As of my last correspondence with Jaded, the standard version will retail for $105, and the keggle sized cooler will be $115.
). If we notice that someone has ordered and has unanswered questions, we will make sure a response is our top priority before we ship out their order, so that we make sure they are getting the best product for their setup. We get hundreds of emails a month and we really do try our best to get back to everyone as fast as we can.
