I got the filler today, and to be honest, I was a bit disappointed when I opened up the packaging and had a good look at it. it's build quality looks like it was made by a 12 year old chinese slave worker

lots of bits that needed work on my part to get fully functional. I very nearly sent the thing back because for £185 I was expecting something ALOT more robust and in thicker STAINLESS steel, not out of something as thin as a tin can. i think it's description is misleading, and will be ringing up Winepress4U tomorrow about it because frankly it is not completely stainless steel as the description suggests. the lid is clearly blued as it has the rainbow colours, and the working pieces are also blued, and showing early signs of oxidisation.
the fourth spout appeared to have had the end stop put in twice (ie it had two end stops crammed in the spout) which obstructed the small cut to let the beer/wine flow through. i had to spend 20 mins with a stanley knife to try and remove the obstruction as it was taking 8 times (i timed it) longer to fill a bottle than the other three. it is now working better, filling bottles to about 3/4 full by the time the others are done. with a dremel i reckon i can remove the last of it and get it working as good as the others.
then onto the pipe connector and it's tap. the tap was seized stuck, and needed pliers to free. but then here comes the oddest bit of the lot. the pipe that the pipe connector is welded to doesn't have anything in the end to stop the beer/wine flowing straight onto the floor. i had to cut down and ram a wine cork in it before i even thought about using it. but this is actually a blessing in disguise because the pipe connector with tap itself is actually of too smaller bore to allow a good enough flow rate into the tank, without having to wait 10 mins for it to fill enough for four bottles. so i will be closing the filler tap off, and mounting a tube to the bigger bore pipe anyways.
then the float. when testing with water, the float didn't seem to want to completely close. had i have left it to it's own devices, it would've spilled water all over the floor. it needed alot of adjusting and bending things :shock: to get it to close properly.
after all that though i though **** it, it now works, it's still made of metal, and with good care should still last a fare few years. so decided i might as well give it a go rather than sending it back to only get another one just as dodgy. so out came the Elderberry wine
it took about 30 mins to do 26 bottles (and corked!) even with a few hiccups and teething problems that were mostly me getting used to the way it works. i had to regularly wait for the tank to fill up too... if i had the correct adaptor i could've attached my bucket to the bigger bore pipe, which would have removed this issue totally. i also had to tip the filler in a funky fashion to get the last 3 litres that sit untouched at the bottom of the filler tank. this 3 litres left in the bottom will come in handy for live beers though as i think it'll act as a sediment trap

... if i find though that i'm not usually getting sediment, i might get a drill and some JBweld out and make a draining tap to get the last few bottles worth of beer out of it a little easier.
i'd also like to know a tip on getting the spouts to syphon without having to suck them. especially when you've got sanitiser about to flow through them... yeugh. oh yeah, you'll definitely want some spray on, no rinse sanitiser to hand.. and this is what slowed me down. If your tank runs too low, the syphon action on the filler spouts gets lost, and you have to suck them to get them going again... but you have to suck them hard to get the air bubble out... which left me spitting half conditioned raw wine all over the place :lol:
i reckon at full throttle, with a bit of a production line type thing of 3 people (one sanitising, one filling, one corking/capping), you could EASILY do 8-12 wine bottles per minute, maybe even 12-16 beer bottles per minute. i also reckon with practise, and everything laid out within easy reach, a single person on their own could have 80 beer bottles filled and capped within 15 mins flat if using the bigger bore pipe instead of the crappy filler tap.
conclusion: really not impressed with the build quality for the price... but i did get it working, and with a little practise it works really well! i'll still be ringing the boys at winepress4u to explain my issues even if they wont take it back now i've used it. but to be honest, i'm happy with it now it's working, so i will keep it :thumb: