I get all of the arguments he makes against the grainfather, but missed a couple of things. First, all of the parts on the outside make it easier to possibly upgrade parts, such as a new controller, in the future, where as you are more likely stuck with what you have having it all built in. also, I hate the idea of having the controls on the bottom. It is only really conducive if you have the unit set on a counter top. Otherwise you are bending over every time you need to change temps, turn on/off pump, switch elements.
The only thing I would say this unit has over the grainfather, aside from possibly better heating ( which I dont care about because I am using 120v), are handles (as well as price). sure the ball valve is nice, but I have been brewing on my GF for a little over a year now and cant ever remember a time thinking I would need one. also It looks smaller than the grainfather, which would suck because I have already brewed some beers maxing out the grain capacity and wish I could do more. I could be wrong, they say the have the same liquid capacity but the grain baskets look drastically different. I really think what needs to happen is GF needs to see they have competition now, and price accordingly.$900 was ok when it was the only option, but times are a changin. Having said all this, if I was in the market now and had not been an early adopter, I would probably end up with a robobrew if the market a 120v version. That is until GF realizes they simply cannot charge the near $1000 now for their offering. I think WITH the connect controller, an $800 price tag would be reasonable, and continuing to offer the cheaper alternative. I think its a bad move on their part to ship all units with connect controllers and charge more. This would not have been a big deal if they were the only player in the game, but they are not. Sorry for the rant, seems like the forum took a drastic swing recently.
also one other note, I DO really like that "second" false bottom. This is an idea GF should "borrow" from them and produce as an add on. I would love to not have to worry about knocking my filter off.