tilt vs ispindle vs plaato

[Justin Dean]

Plaato seems not like communicating on a wifi extender plug. It is poor. Rubbish. What is the point if it does not like things like communicating with wifi networks. Limited from that alone.

 

[kelper]

I had aTilt and now have an iSpindel which h a member built for me at £45 total. The Tilt is already calibrated and pretty easy to set up. The iSpindel is a bit tricky but I got there. The iSpindel is big - it won't fit into a PET demijohn. The iSpindel has only wifi, the Tilt has wifi and Bluetooth.

I got the Tilt on offer for £99 but it's now £145. The Tilt is superior but oh so pricey.

With the Tilt you get the graphing done for you and lots of helpful info such as attenuation and current ABV but this only works if the SG has settled down - it often goes beserk for the initial burst when the krausen forms.

The only things the iSpindel does better is reporting its battery voltage. And it has a rechargeable battery.

The Tilt will just flash a light when you switch it on to say if the battery is OK or not.

I use Ubidots as the website for accessing the data but there are many alternatives, I started a poll to see what people are using but it has had little interest.

 

[Matt_W]

I’ve got a tilt and it goes in every brew. Love being able to monitor it as the fermenter lives in the garage. I use the tiltpi to log the info to google sheets and Brewfather.

I’ve also built a couple of tilts but I’ve never got around to balancing and calibrating them. I really should do as it would be nice to compare the two in the same brew.

 

[kelper]

I’ve also built a couple of tilts

You mean iSpindels, surely?

 

[Matt_W]

You mean iSpindels, surely?

Correct, sorry I was trying to fend off a toddler from trying to steal my phone.

 

[The Cat]

I have an iSpindel (pre-built). Am waiting until I start some time off on Friday to calibrate it and set it up - hopefully have a kit on the go by Sunday will post some findings when I have them.

 

[Doive]

I have an ispindel built by a member on here. As Kelper says it's slightly tricky to setup and calibrate, but with a bit of patience it's not a problem. It seems fairly sensitive to wifi location - in my brew shed it sporadically connects, even though the wifi signal there is good for all other devices. In the kitchen ~10 feet from the wifi hub it's much happier. To calibrate I ended up dropping it in a brew, and manually taking gravity readings every few hours & recording the tilt angle of the device. Entering this information into an app like Brewspy gives the polynomial equation for the calibration, and once applied the app will report the SG according to the tilt angle. I've found it to be sufficiently accurate for the casual home brewer, and a most useful tool.

 

[Hanglow]

Only got an iSpindle a couple of weeks ago and using it right now on a brew, I found it easy to set up following good instructions from the ebay seller. Really rather cool seeing the gravity and temperature changes on ubidots. I didn't bother calibrating it, it read 2 points high at the start and I'll see what it reads at the end - I don't really need it to be super accurate, I'm mainly using it for spunding at the proper time and not messing about taking readings with a refractometer/hydrometer. So if I can offset it then that's all I need

 

[AlDaviz]

I bought the Tilt when on offer, I did add a post at the time to say the offer was available. It’s not cheap but excellent bit of kit. My fermenter normally sits in the kitchen and if I do a quick check ! I’m guessing it works from around 10 metres away from my fermenter. The best FV I’ve found is the plastic speidel 30-litre fermenting vessel-21006
Easy to clean, large top opening

 

[kelper]

Why do you prefer the Spiedel to a bucket and lid? A bucket is easier to clean. I have the Ritchies 25L and 33L buckets. The smaller fits in the larger which a) contains spills/overflows and b) makes a great water-bath for brewing in a cool room. An aquarium heater goes in the bottom of the larger bucket.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Cool...! More gadgets ;-) What method do the tilt/spindle devices use to sense the gravity?

 

[kelper]

A solid state, 3-axis accelerometer.

 

[AlDaviz]

Why do you prefer the Spiedel to a bucket and lid? A bucket is easier to clean. I have the Ritchies 25L and 33L buckets. The smaller fits in the larger which a) contains spills/overflows and b) makes a great water-bath for brewing in a cool room. An aquarium heater goes in the bottom of the larger bucket.

Hi
I find the 30L is a perfect size with headroom for stouts and explosive ipa’s. It’s got good rounded edges inside for easy cleaning with the 5-6 inch top for easy access. It works well

 

[AdeDunn]

Why do you prefer the Spiedel to a bucket and lid? A bucket is easier to clean. I have the Ritchies 25L and 33L buckets. The smaller fits in the larger which a) contains spills/overflows and b) makes a great water-bath for brewing in a cool room. An aquarium heater goes in the bottom of the larger bucket.

Only just saw this, and I am going to have to disagree with you. Buckets aren't easier to clean. Sounds crazy I know, as you would think that the bigger opening on a bucket would make it easier right? However the material they are made of is different, and the material of the Speidel FVs is excellent for been easy to clean, I'm talking super easy... Trust me, I have one, and have used buckets too. The top opening on a Speidel FV is big enough even for my large hands to fit into as well (they're BIG), and the airlock is HUGE! Talking massive here. My 2 go to FVs now are my 30l Speidel and my 35l Gen 1 Fermentasaurus, and honestly, my Speidel is easier to use. Most of my buckets are now used in the garden.

Sorry for the off topic. Oh and yeah, the head room in the 30L Speidel is MASSIVE, even coping with the Krausen from a Wit with ease... I'm with Al here.

 

[AlDaviz]

Only just saw this, and I am going to have to disagree with you. Buckets aren't easier to clean. Sounds crazy I know, as you would think that the bigger opening on a bucket would make it easier right? However the material they are made of is different, and the material of the Speidel FVs is excellent for been easy to clean, I'm talking super easy... Trust me, I have one, and have used buckets too. The top opening on a Speidel FV is big enough even for my large hands to fit into as well (they're BIG), and the airlock is HUGE! Talking massive here. My 2 go to FVs now are my 30l Speidel and my 35l Gen 1 Fermentasaurus, and honestly, my Speidel is easier to use. Most of my buckets are now used in the garden.

Sorry for the off topic. Oh and yeah, the head room in the 30L Speidel is MASSIVE, even coping with the Krausen from a Wit with ease... I'm with Al here.

Also the tap on the bottom is perfect height above the sediment when transferring to a secondary for bottling

 

[kelper]

@AdeDunn thanks for the detailed explanation.

 

[matt76]

Hey @kelper (and indeed anyone else who wants to comment)

Little thread bump...

If we ignore the difference in price, would you say go for the Tilt over the iSpindle?

With Black Friday looming I'm hoping to get a good deal...

I have enough experience meddling with Raspberry Pi's that I'm confident I can get it working in the garage and sync the data to the cloud...

Likewise, I've no doubt i could get the iSpindle working, but I'm lazy and would prefer a plug & play option if everything else is equal!

Cheers

 

[pottsworth]

If you have more money than time, I’d go with the tilt.

If you have more time than money, or like the process of tinkering, I’d for for the iSpindel.

I have a couple of iSpindels, and would get them again, but I’ve got one which I must have put away damp causing the switch to corrode, and another that I’ve had to replace the charging module on as the micro usb broke off, so I have sometimes thought “maybe a tilt would have been easier!”

 

[kelper]

The Tilt is better in every way and fits in a demijohn. The Bluetooth range is not great so I use a Raspberry Pi to connect and transmit to the cloud. The spreadsheet is created for you. If you buy a used one, try and get V2. I bought new for £99 on offer.