Any Fastferment conical FV users out there?

[chuffer]

I've decided to purchase one of these but am wondering if I've made a mistake having now come across lots of bad reviews on amazon about leaks etc....has anyone on here had a good or bad experience with them?

 

[AdeDunn]

Not here (as in not me...), as every review on here and anywhere else was pretty damning....

You'd be doing yourself a favour to look into a fermentasaurus, fermzilla, or if you never plan to ferment under pressure (I don't either...) something like the Brewmonk stainless steel conical (which sell for about the £170 mark and will last way longer than any plastic FV.).

 

[chuffer]

Update: wish i'd read the reviews before purchasing. I was hoping those giys had been unlucky and got a dodgy unit but it looks like they're all crap. Wish i hadnt wasted my money on the cheap plastic crap. Ade dunn is right, if anyone's thinking of going down the conical route, get a steel one!

 

[AdeDunn]

Yeah I eyed them up when they first came out, but it wasn't long before the bad reviews had started to roll in, and luckily I didn't have the cash at the time. lol

There IS a plastic FV of an ilk that is probably quite good, made by Spiedel, called the Kellermeister. However given that the 30 litre one costs about £217 (almost £218), it's actually more expensive than just buying a stainless steel one. I genuinely can't think of a reason why anybody would chose plastic over steel unless the plastic one was a lot cheaper... lol

Sorry that you had already taken the plunge and bought one. If you look around, there are posts about how to solve some of the issues with them.

 

[chuffer]

I spent hours trying to resolve the issues (i.e. stop the leaks) and followed the assembly instruction videos which basically say to keep wrapping PTFE tape round all the threads until the leaks stop. Trouble is, when you're using up a whole roll of PTFE tape and still seeing little leaks appearing, there's no way I'm trusting a whole brew in there. Have sent it back, hopefully the refund will go through and I'll save up for a stainless

 

[AdeDunn]

Fingers crossed. I got my stainless from Geterbrewed, my wife bought it for me for my last birthday. £173.50 might seem a lot for something to ferment your beer in, but compared to the PET ones, seems like an investment to me.

 

[Hoagie]

I’ve got one of the 3 gallon ones for smaller batches and had no issues?
The only mistake I made was my own - I didn’t read the instructions properly and didn’t know the red tap came off and could tighten the inner valve, so it leaked after I tried to dump the yeast as the valve wouldn’t close. I’ll admit that was really annoying but not a fault of the product - actually quite a clever valve and having a tool to tighten it to hand all the time is good as long as you know it’s there.
Even if it leaked gas I wouldn’t be overly concerned - a lot of people don’t fully close the fv anyway so gas can escape and don’t bother with an airlock.

 

[parpot]

I purchased two 30lt SS Conical Fermenters for less than £120 each delivered, one from eBay and the other from Amazon both unbranded and from abroad. I have been very impressed with these FV's easy to clean handy tap at the bottle which I use to bottle and because the Trub is concentrated into the Conical, fermentation is usually completed in 11 days although I always use the 2+2+2 system

 

[chuffer]

My one was a 50L one and it's that version that seems to have all the bad reviews whereas the 30L one seems to be fairing better out there.

 

[Dano]

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