Beermkr

[Bad DNA]

Kudos to Joe at BeerMKR - helped me recover from a dead valve situation, found some spare white valves to sell to me while they are out-of-stock (supply chain pain is very real), and has been very supportive. This little company really is trying. For boutique beer devices, I still like this little machine. For larger batches, I'm trying a fermonster 6 gal for the first time. It remains to be seen if I can give up my 6gal white bucket

 

[Bad DNA]

My 10-month old BEERMKR cooling system just failed. It is being replaced under warranty, but bummed that it happened, and there seem to be more than a few cooling system failures listed on the BEERMKR Facebook group. Beginning to wonder how reliable a Peltier cooling system is in this use case.

How responsive were they to the warranty issue? Are you back to brewing batches? I really want to love this system, but I have some operator-error kinks to work out first.

 

[stealthfixr]

My 10-month old BEERMKR cooling system just failed. It is being replaced under warranty, but bummed that it happened, and there seem to be more than a few cooling system failures listed on the BEERMKR Facebook group. Beginning to wonder how reliable a Peltier cooling system is in this use case.

Follow up: I elected to change the Peltier cooling system myself, took about 30 minutes and it is now working perfectly. Brewing a Witbier MKRKIT already. Excellent customer service and responsiveness. Thank you, BEERMKR!

 

[Mike Howard]

Just had a club member from our brewery gift me one because he didn't have time to brew. Have not had any time to research this unit or even unbox it yet. But hopefully I can get to it within the next week or so.

 

[Bad DNA]

Follow up: I elected to change the Peltier cooling system myself, took about 30 minutes and it is now working perfectly. Brewing a Witbier MKRKIT already. Excellent customer service and responsiveness. Thank you, BEERMKR!

I'm really pleasantly surprised at their customer service. It's really been outstanding. I have a Jurassic Ale in process now -- hope to be at first pint Friday.

 

[MrKellso]

I'm new here, but I've had a BEERMKR (3 now) and TAP (3 working and 1 to fix), starting with one of each back in August of last year. There's usually at least one brew going at a time. This system has had some birthing pains, but I feel confident, with the character these guys have shown in compensating for losses, that a version 2.0 would overcome many of the maiden voyage trials.

I love this system, and the worst that has happened to me personally has been brew (black gasket) gray valves busting, never losing more than a couple of cups on a couple of occasions. I didn't care much for the pressure gauge on the TAP, so I modded my TAPs, which solved that issue. It's been a blast trying out kits and even doing some DIYs, some of which are non-standard and condescended upon by some, like mead, which seems to need at least 3 weeks for brewing. Presently, I'm trying to make a pawpaw wine which looks like it will have an ABV close to 10.0. Since I will likely tap it, it will obviously be a sparkling, dry wine, but I am hopeful it will taste excellent. Smells good.

 

[Bad DNA]

There's a pressure gauge on the TAP?

 

[MrKellso]

There's a pressure gauge on the TAP?

Sorry for that. I meant, "regulator".

 

[RobinAdair1956]

Hey, on the noise issue. On my unit I noticed that if I was facing the machine (door towards me), and put my hand on the right hand side grill area (all those little holes), the more annoying rattle of the sound could be lessened. Investigating further, looking into those holes, I can see a horizontal plate, about 1/16" thick and about 4 3/4" above the counter the machine sits on. I was able to feed a pipe cleaner between two of the holes (pulling the plastic housing out slightly), one above and one under the plate. The cushioning of the pipe cleaner between the plate and the plastic housing of the machine helped immensely.

Sound abatement challenges -- my BEERmkr makes an impressive amount of noise during the stage when its vibrating to drive trub down from the brew bag to the waste bag. I brew in a storage closet off of our attached garage. The other side of the room's rear wall is common with my home office. My internal walls do have sound insulation, but the vibration sound was substantially notable.

For the second batch, I tried to solve the issue by putting the BEERmkr atop a drip/spillage tray, and the tray sat on 1/2" carpet padding atop the workbench. Vibration on the table is way, way down -- but the sound is still significant. I'll have to try dampening methods (wall blankets, maybe sound tuning the room with some other absorbers. What is everyone else doing to resolve the vibration sung from their BEERmkr?

BTW -- I found a terrific drip/leak tray at Wallyworld: Robot or human?

Sitting the BEERmkr on little squares of wood gives me over 7L of spill volume -- so that's a complete batch mess up covered.