Brewjacket

[Tall_Yotie]

Howdy folks. Posting here to hopefully reach more people that may be looking at these products.

Brewjacket, the immersive cooling/heating system seems amazing. However, their business sense is terrible. I ordered a unit, claimed 2-3 weeks delivery, and it has been 3 months. There is still no estimated delivery date. And their excuses are the same over and over again, to the point that it seems a scam.

They are claiming they need a new parts supplier, then gave up on them and went back to the old supplier, however did not get a stock of parts to hold over. Oh, and once they have that established, they need to fly internationally to inspect the parts. They have no idea when shipping will occur, have a huge backlog, but are still happy to take your money.

I've worked in consumer electronics manufacturing (as a Manufacturing Engineer) for over 8 years, and their excuses are either lies or show that they have absolutely no knowledge of how to run this type of business.

There are less elegant but still effective (and cheaper) options for temp control.

Sorry for the rant, but again, wanted people to know what's up as their website makes it seem like everything is all smooth.

 

[Bensiff]

If they took your money, have you asked for a refund? If they are holding your money hostage that is an issue and you can contact your credit card company to get some assistance. Yeah the probably need to update their website to reflect reality. On the other side, sounds like they are a new business learning how to do things and dealing with the hiccups along the way. It sounds like they are telling you what is going on, to claim they are scammers are liars because you think you can run a business better is a bit much, especially if you haven't asked for your money back.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

Funny thing, I JUST got an email from them telling me my part was ready and being shipped. But I had been hounding them constantly, so they may have pushed me up queue when they finally got a small quantity of parts to make me not a problem any more.

For them being a new business; these are basic issue they ran into when it comes to manufacturing. It seems from all comments I have found, since they started their 2-3 weeks means 2-3 months. Their bios claimed a lot of experience, but seems none of it applied in a business way. If this was their first round, sure, can see issues (like you get with people on Kickstarter who have no idea what they are getting in to). But this is post KS, with their own purchasing web page as well as purchasing options through homebrew shops. They should have figured out the basics of manufacturing.

As far as getting updates, I gained them as I was a thorn in their sides when the rare updates were vague and gave no info about actual ship dates.

For the liar/scammer thing, sorry for the wording; meant it felt that way, not claiming they were. I am not in the place where I needed the money back, and I knew I could cancel at any time (be it through them or block the payment through the bank), so I knew I was at no risk.

 

[IslandLizard]

Funny thing, I JUST got an email from them telling me my part was ready and being shipped....

Don't celebrate until you have a working item around your fermentor.

 

[DeLiquid]

My initial 2 cents-

I ordered 3 immersion pros in late June or early July 2017 as well as some fermenter lids- 2 fermonster lids and 1 bucket lid. Buying 3 priced the units at about 200$ a pop so it defrayed the cost a bit. The estimated delivery date was late August. All 3 units arrived mid August ahead of expected delivery by a week or so and in excellent condition.

I use the immersion pros with new ported 7 gallon fermonsters from morebeer. Prior to this I was using plastic buckets that I shuttled up and down stairs based on temp and then in a temp controlled spare fridge that has since been reclaimed by SWMBO. I was initially concerned about 3 things with my new setup- 1. the smallish blowoff tube, 2. the amount of rod submerged in the beer not being adequate for heat exchange, and 3. the port getting caught up in the brewjackets and causing a leak.

None of my fears have been realized...
1. The 7 gallon fermonsters provide ample head space so that krausen has not even come close to the lid despite pitching over 200 billion cells from a yeast starter per fermenter and very healthy fermentations;
2. Temps can adjusted and maintained without issue despite about 1/3 of the rod being above liquid level; and
3. I just make sure to press out a little pocket of space in the brewjacket where the port faces before inserting the fermenters, slide them in carefully, and slip my hand in after to feel that the ports have a little room.

One minor thing I don't love is that the head units rest on the blowoff elbows and tip the head unit a bit. This wouldn't be an issue if using plastic carboys with the blowoff in the neck or buckets. Regardless, it hasn't yet caused any issue as far as I can tell. Out of curiosity, on my last batch I left one unit a little higher in the bung collar so that it sits above the elbow and a little rod (~1/4") is exposed. That unit displays a 0.1 degree difference in temp compared to unit with it pushed all the way in and resting on the elbow. The temp differential may or may not be related and it could be causing the unit to cycle the fan more often but I haven't noticed it.

All told I have fermented 33 gallons of NEIPA with them in my basement; three 11 gallon batches split between 2 fermenters. I live in central Massachusetts and my brew dates were in late August, early October and mid November (November batch is on day 9 now in the fermenters).

Overall, so far I have to say that they have performed as well as expected and I am very pleased with my purchase. That being said, my basement has been in the 50 to 65 degree range so I am not asking a lot of the units. I have been fermenting at around 66 and then ramping up to the mid 70s after primary winds down. The units have been responding well and I find their simplicity of use to be great. I bumped temp from 68 to 74 in the morning just yesterday and they had hit 74 by the time I got home from work about 9 hours later. I cold crash in kegs in a kegerator so I cannot comment on how they would handle that function and cooling demand.

The only other thing I don't love so far is the fact that you can't use starsan directly on the rods. The first time I used the rods I made 5 gallons of IO and hated dumping it after because it seemed wasteful. The last 2 brew days I made a gallon of IO (easier to measure by the gallon) then filled a spray bottle and dumped the rest but it still seems wasteful. I see on the brewjacket website that they sell a 10-pack of baggies that slip over the rods so you can sanitize the baggies with starsan so I like that they responded to that consumer demand.

Compared to other more expensive or complicated options, I am very pleased with my set up so far. My brew buddy covets them whenever he sees them and wants to buy the 3rd unit from me. I am going to try a lager in the summer and see how they hold up to those demands but until then I dig them and have had no issues other have complained about on other posts.

 

[jschein]

You can now cover your rod!
https://www.brewjacket.com/product/rod-sleeves-10-count/

 

[surista]

I purchased a Brewjacket in late 2016. Delivery definitely took longer than promised, and communication was...poor, at best. However, it did finally arrive, and I've been really really really happy with it - it's definitely nowhere near as 'quiet' as they claim, but it does work brilliantly, both heating and cooling.

HOWEVER - the company is still rubbish at communication. Support emails are ignored. Questions posed on the forums are ignored - literally, it's crickets. I would have assumed that the company had essentially disappeared, except now they're promoting a new Kickstarter campaign for an automated desktop brewing machine. Any interest I might have had in such a piece of equipment is utterly negated by the knowledge that follow-up support from the company will be essentially nil.

Caveat emptor

 

[Tall_Yotie]

So THAT is how I got on that email list! Was wondering why I was getting emails about that product.

Sad to hear that they still stink at communication. Coming from the tech industry, I could tell htese are design engineers with no actual business knowledge. They can make a product that people want, but don't understand the nuances of customer care, production timelines, manufacturing headaches, etc.

 

[tbeazlie]

Their website sucks too. Can’t find out how or where to purchase or what is their cost.