I ordered a 7.5 Gallon Chapman fermenting bucket (Well, my wife bought it for me for my birthday) and I've had several occasions to use it so far. Thought I'd chime in and give the rundown on it.
First impression, the thing arrived in good order and is pretty clean and everything looked fine. When I opened it up, though, I noticed something I did not like. The spot welds for the handles and lid clamps had left sharp points on the inside of the bucket.
Now I did not want to deal with a return over it, and certainly didn't want to have them sticking out in there to a) cut my fingers when I forgot they were there, or b) have a place for bacteria to hide in the shadows of.
So I took a 2" abrasive pad and went to work carefully removing the sharp points and restoring the inside finish to a smooth, if not perfectly undetectable finish.
Other than that relatively minor negative, I don't have anything bad to say about the device. The lid seems to close tightly, with a large silicone seal. The handles are decent sized and work well. The airlock port on top is a good size. I dislike the tiny ports on most of the buckets they sell these days. I usually drill them out bigger so I can use a rubber bung instead. The airlock hole on this thing is quite large, and makes it easy to pop off and look inside if you want to see what's going on in there.
One nice feature that I haven't got to try is the ability to bake at temperatures hotter than any bacteria can withstand. I don't anticipate having to sterilize it, but it's nice to know that I can.
It's not REALLY thick and durable, but I think it's plenty strong enough for homebrewer use unless you tend to throw your fermentors around or something.
*Note that I have not actually checked the volume markings for accuracy. I have meant to, but haven't gotten around to actually doing it.
First impression, the thing arrived in good order and is pretty clean and everything looked fine. When I opened it up, though, I noticed something I did not like. The spot welds for the handles and lid clamps had left sharp points on the inside of the bucket.
Now I did not want to deal with a return over it, and certainly didn't want to have them sticking out in there to a) cut my fingers when I forgot they were there, or b) have a place for bacteria to hide in the shadows of.
So I took a 2" abrasive pad and went to work carefully removing the sharp points and restoring the inside finish to a smooth, if not perfectly undetectable finish.
Other than that relatively minor negative, I don't have anything bad to say about the device. The lid seems to close tightly, with a large silicone seal. The handles are decent sized and work well. The airlock port on top is a good size. I dislike the tiny ports on most of the buckets they sell these days. I usually drill them out bigger so I can use a rubber bung instead. The airlock hole on this thing is quite large, and makes it easy to pop off and look inside if you want to see what's going on in there.
One nice feature that I haven't got to try is the ability to bake at temperatures hotter than any bacteria can withstand. I don't anticipate having to sterilize it, but it's nice to know that I can.
It's not REALLY thick and durable, but I think it's plenty strong enough for homebrewer use unless you tend to throw your fermentors around or something.
*Note that I have not actually checked the volume markings for accuracy. I have meant to, but haven't gotten around to actually doing it.
