US Plastics Fermentor

[dblee50]

Has anyone built a conical fermentor out of the US Plastics polyethylene mix and fill tank? http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=USPlastic&category%5Fname=20726&product%5Fid=3863
I'm just about to get a 15g version and build one, but have a couple of questions.

1. I need to adapt down from 2" to 1" and want to add a 90degree to bring out the bottom valve horizontally. I can find polypropylene fittings to do the job, but is it ok to mix the polys?

2. I see on other conicals an upper 1/2" valve and want to add one also, but at about what height should it be? Probably subjective. I am thinking of just drilling a hole and adding a bulkhead fitting to bring out this valve. Is that ok?

thanks for any advise.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

This seems to be coming up a lot lately. There has been quite a bit of chatter about these things. Search first before posting a new thread.

Try these:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=27974
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=14410

 

[dblee50]

Yuri,

Sorry, I should have mentioned I read the threads you referenced, but as you probably know, they don't answer the questions I asked. If I should have tagged on to one of those, I appologize, but would like to hear from someone who has built one of these. Again, thanks.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Eh, it's cool. I was being grumpy again.

Dunno the answer to #1.

As far as your racking port - 6" is the recommended height I've seen, and it's what I use for my stainless conicals.

 

[seawort]

okay so... the thing is that yes these can be used and:
1. It doesn't seem like mixing polys should be a problem as long as you use something food grade.
2. It does not matter too much where you put this for the same reason it does not matter much where you put the valve for your keggle. That is... You will be making a siphon basically that makes the liquid travel out as long as it is balancing the volume that you are transfering too. As simply as I can put it you will be fine, come close to your placement and adjust your dip tube to just over where you want to stop drawing off the fermentor (because you will want to leave any yeast cake in the bottom.)

These look like a great way to go for the money tight and seems like at least blaze379 has used one successfully.
Perhaps we could make a sticky thread with plastic conical and a bit of advice on them. A article on keggles likely wouldn't hurt either. Perhaps I should do something like that since i've recently finished mine... but anyhow.