Fermzilla 2 Conical 7.1gal- Reviews Wanted

[cpham574]

I could be wrong, but it appears that there is a rubber washer missing from the inside of that carb cap. Was that part of the pressure kit, or did you buy that separately? It should not need much tightening. Should be similar to a garden hose.

-Mark

I removed the washer before taking the pic, sorry for the confusion. The carb cap is from the pressure kit. Thankfully, morebeer is sending a replacement lid. Do you think maybe this time I should put some plumber’s tape on the threads?

I reached out to Kegland as well and they were not helpful at all. They sorta implied I was doing something wrong.
I also bought mine from MoreBeer and they gave me zero issues with the return. Only problem is it took several emails and a week of waiting for my refund.

Thankfully, morebeer is going to send a replacement lid. I expressed my frustration a second time to kegland and made it clear that the threads stripped from hand tightening. Maybe my grip is stronger than theirs? Haha. They still accused me of using a “spanner” and said they would send a replacement lid with my next order from them. Yeah...like I’m going to order from them after they keep insisting that I did something wrong

 

[brew703]

I tightened with the included strap wrench. I didn't have any leaking from the lid. Only from the collection cup.

 

[nick sekerak]

I would look at the female threads of your carb cap before screwing it on the new lid. If there are some rough/sharp spots on the carb cap threads or burs from when the threads were machine cut, that could easily lead to damage on the plastic threads of the lid. Also not seal up air tight even.

Seem incorrect to me that hand tightening the carb cap to do any harm.

 

[SanPancho]

Question for owners- is it possible to dump trub using something other than the container? Something like a bit of tubing? Could you connect it to the butterfly with an adapter ?

 

[Nick M.]

Has Anyone tested out the new Fermzilla 2 yet???? I am looking for a new conical to replace my fastferment and the price looks pretty reasonable. I see it on beveragefactory.com for $135.00

Reviews wanted please share what you may have discovered of found out.

I received my Fermzilla and the corresponding pressure kit last week. I brewed on Saturday, and similar to brew703, I am having issues getting the fermenter to seal.

I noticed after fermentation had started taking place that I wasn't getting a reading on my spunding valve's gauge. I put my ear down to the fermenter and heard an audible leak somewhere on or around the lid. I was able to pinpoint the leak by spraying soapy water on it, and sure enough, it is a bad seal around the lid. In an attempt to fix it, I unscrewed the threaded lid ring, rotated the lid slightly and hand-tightened the ring back down. Once the vessel began to pressure back up I was still able to hear the leak. I decided it might be a bad O-ring so I swapped it out with one of the replacements that were provided. No luck. In a last ditch effort, I replaced the thin, hard O-ring with a thicker soft O-ring. Bingo, I was able to get a seal (or I thought). I am now able to get the pressure up to about 10 PSI before I get a leak around the O-ring. I assume at this point that the leak is happening because the O-ring I have on it is soft and simply can't hold back that much pressure. Sadly, now that I'm holding the pressure at 10 PSI, I'm getting a slow leak from the collection container which is sufficiently tightened down.

I reached out to morebeer (the supplier I bought from) and they sent me the instruction manual that shows "how to secure the lid" and told me I should try plumbers tape. I generally feel like spending $160 on something should mean it simply "just works" and shouldn't require nylon tape every time I replace the collection jar.

Similar to what brew703 said, I generally like the idea of the fermenter, but I'm not sold on it at this time. I'm wondering if the molding on the one I received might be out of tolerance, but can't confirm yet. I may try to get a replacement and see if I have better luck with it. If I do, I will shoot an update.

 

[brew703]

I received my Fermzilla and the corresponding pressure kit last week. I brewed on Saturday, and similar to brew703, I am having issues getting the fermenter to seal.

I noticed after fermentation had started taking place that I wasn't getting a reading on my spunding valve's gauge. I put my ear down to the fermenter and heard an audible leak somewhere on or around the lid. I was able to pinpoint the leak by spraying soapy water on it, and sure enough, it is a bad seal around the lid. In an attempt to fix it, I unscrewed the threaded lid ring, rotated the lid slightly and hand-tightened the ring back down. Once the vessel began to pressure back up I was still able to hear the leak. I decided it might be a bad O-ring so I swapped it out with one of the replacements that were provided. No luck. In a last ditch effort, I replaced the thin, hard O-ring with a thicker soft O-ring. Bingo, I was able to get a seal (or I thought). I am now able to get the pressure up to about 10 PSI before I get a leak around the O-ring. I assume at this point that the leak is happening because the O-ring I have on it is soft and simply can't hold back that much pressure. Sadly, now that I'm holding the pressure at 10 PSI, I'm getting a slow leak from the collection container which is sufficiently tightened down.

I reached out to morebeer (the supplier I bought from) and they sent me the instruction manual that shows "how to secure the lid" and told me I should try plumbers tape. I generally feel like spending $160 on something should mean it simply "just works" and shouldn't require nylon tape every time I replace the collection jar.

Similar to what brew703 said, I generally like the idea of the fermenter, but I'm not sold on it at this time. I'm wondering if the molding on the one I received might be out of tolerance, but can't confirm yet. I may try to get a replacement and see if I have better luck with it. If I do, I will shoot an update.

If you haven't tried yet use some keg lube around the threads. It helped the lid but that's not where my problem was. It's the collection cup and the two side caps.
In the end I just got tired of messing around with it not to mention what could happen during fermentation.
More beer was great about returning it. Just took a week before they credited my card.

 

[Raythebrewer]

Has Anyone tested out the new Fermzilla 2 yet???? I am looking for a new conical to replace my fastferment and the price looks pretty reasonable. I see it on beveragefactory.com for $135.00

Reviews wanted please share what you may have discovered of found out.

 

[Raythebrewer]

I Just finished first batch of beer. Started with six us gallons. Worked great. Held 12 psi throughout. No leaks. Lube well and don’t over tighten. Filled keg with pressure transfer using pressure kit and floating ball. As far as yeast collecting on lower cone area I just pick it up by the stands handles and twist back and forth quickly to loosen yeast and it falls down. I emptied trub and refilled with boiled water with hops (to sterilize) and opened valve. Hops went up and spent yeast settled down and hops came down after a couple days. Beer cleared nicely and i started transfer to keg. Now the only problem I had......The silicone pickup tube was too long. It curved back up sucking air leaving 2 liters of beer. With the Fermentasaurus it was good to the last drop. Just saying.

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

"Brew703" sounds like a new unit should fix the problem.

I have one too but have not had any leaks from the collection cup. I use the cup to dry hop and really like it. I pressurize the collection jar to purge and leak test before adding hops in. I just have been hand tightening as tight as i can until it will not turn any more and it has worked fine for me so far. I have run two batches through mine and i have to say i love this thing, low O2 fermentation has really stepped up batches in tasting even better. I could really notice the difference with my NEPIA recipes!

My fermzilla setup consists of the floating dip tube, pressure kit with three screw on keg posts( two on the lid and one on the collection jar). i use a temp controlled ferment chamber also. I like the visibility you have with the clear plastic, for checking on the fermentation activity and how cold crashing is coming along. It really helps to know where you are by just taking a quick look at the fermzilla, especially not having to open the lid up exposing O2 to your brew. One sweet thing i like with the floating dip tube is, that you can hook a picnic tap line up to the keg post to take samples for tasting or checking the SG. This makes it not only more sanitary by not having to use a thief to extract the brew but also no O2 enters your beer from opening the lid. the only thing i still want to do to modify mine is to put some kind of blow off valve on the second opening of the collection jar. So when purging the jar i do not have to unscrew the cap on/off. Has any one found something that works good for doing this?

what are you using for temp control on this? Looks too tall for a chest freezer

 

[nick sekerak]

Made a custom chamber

 

[nick sekerak]

what are you using for temp control on this? Looks too tall for a chest freezer

I have also seen guys build a wooden shelf with a hole cut it it that they put in a full size fridge

 

[Bart Kindt]

How’s your replacement holding up? I had to email keg land and morebeer about my lid. I hand tightened the carb cap with plenty of lube and could still hear it leaking from there. When I unscrewed the cap, it took a bunch of the plastic threads with it. I know it wasn’t cross threaded either since i was extremely careful with it. Not sure how I feel about this design since it looks like this area could easily just keep failing.

I have also the new unit. There are several issues I have, but one of them is that the stainless steel caps *have a different thread!* than the plasic cover! They Do Not Fit. I could not get mine to stop leaking (very badly) even when I tied them down real hard, by hand. If you would use a tool, you will destroy the thread (which you did).
I made an emergency fix (while brewing) by inserting a fat O-ring inside the steel caps, so it now seals *before* the thread locks up. (I was lucky to have a box of O-rings at hand)
I find it unbelievable that they supplied incompatible parts with the unit.

The other issue I have is that the unit I have collapses onto the stand, the plastic bottom is *way to thin* to hold the (currently 40 liter) batch without getting very badly pressed in at the steel support. The 55 Liter unit made of way thinner material than my previous FermentoSaurus.
I wonder if this is a manufactury fault of my unit?? Does anybody else find it is extremely thin and soft?

 

[Bart Kindt]

 

[cpham574]

I have also the new unit. There are several issues I have, but one of them is that the stainless steel caps *have a different thread!* than the plasic cover! They Do Not Fit. I could not get mine to stop leaking (very badly) even when I tied them down real hard, by hand. If you would use a tool, you will destroy the thread (which you did).

LOL so you’re going to acknowledge that the caps have different threading than the plastic cover and say that I used a tool? Pretty sure I know that I only used my hands. It’s obvious there are quality issues with this unit but hey props to you for continuing to use it even with all of the problems that you are already experiencing.

 

[Bart Kindt]

LOL so you’re going to acknowledge that the caps have different threading than the plastic cover and say that I used a tool? Pretty sure I know that I only used my hands.

You clearly have very strong hands I made them as tight as I could, and never even got close to getting to the seal...