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ozdevil

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if you are going to  Purchase a new pressure fermenter  and you choice  was 1 of the following
what are choosing and why?

1 kegland All-Rounder

2. Keg King  30l apollo  snub Nose fermenter


P.S  Not interested in SS fermenters anyone suggesting will need to  send me all their homebrew

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21 minutes ago, terminal2k said:

I would pick the keg king, not based on any specific stuff I've heard of either product, but because of some of the stuff I've come across online about kegland., I wouldn't want anything to do with them.

Anything derogatory written online about Kegland might well have been written by a Keg King stooge. I believe there's a bit of a Hatfields and McCoys feud going on between these two companies.

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The Apollo snub nosed hands down.  We stopped selling the Kegland fermenters at the LHDS I work at as we had loads of problems with them.  Not the all rounder specifically just the other Kegland pressure fermenters.  So I suppose they are "same same but different" but I would still go the Apollo snub nosed.  Also the 60 litre one is good value if you want to do larger brews. 

 

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I have a Kegland All Rounder and I am not impressed by it: a little hit and miss getting a good pressure seal, sometimes it is fine sometimes not. When it seals well it works fine.

The Kegking Apollo looks good, it has a few nice features that the KL model does not have. It is also Australian made but more expensive.

@ozdevil you probably know that I am not a fan of PET pressure fermenters, I have 2, an All Rounder and a Fermzilla Conical and I have used both quite a bit. I find that the biggest drawback is that the PET does not have enough rigidity to achieve good pressure seals all the time and so they are a bit hit and miss and require constant fiddling around with to get them to seal. I am not going to give you my solution, 'cause you are not getting my beer.

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6 minutes ago, Marty_G said:

The solution is usually plenty of lube on the seal and thread.   Unless you have a different method. 

Yes I always used plenty of lube on the seals and threads, still had a few times that the seal was not good.

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Some interesting stuff  

@terminal2k i am aware of your thoughts as well as the findings you have found on the web and i believe it's a tit for tat argument 
due to owners going their own separate ways and i think there is good and bad with both companies

@iBooz2  mate i knew you would answer  SS fv   (dont worry i am considering that in the future)  

@kmar92  yes i know your solution and that is to go the ss fv  and I do thankyou for view  

@Marty_G  Thankyou  , but not looking to go 60 litres at the moment even though i have the capability of brewing to around 55litres


Now Guys I am very familiar with the Pet Pressure fermenting and while i do pressure ferment i have never had issues with my Fermzilla 27l
and i dont do much high end pressure ferment  most i go is around 10 psi

I also own a 35litre Snub nose and i tend to use this alot  as its perfect for my kegerator and will fit in my fermenting fridge

Thoughts are leading to the 30litre apollo snub nose ferment  as i like having the thermowell and i no longer have to attach  a stubbie holder with  gaffer tap to the fermenter


The reason why i didnt want stainless steel  is becuase of the equipment i will have sitting in the brew while it ferments that require either bluetooth or wifi  
those are a tilt (bluetooth only)  and 2 Pills  from Kegland which are wifi connected.

The thickness of the 30 litre stainless fermenter like  @iBooz2 58l fermenter   transmitting wifi or blue tooth through the walls of stainless plus a fridge door
to either a bluetooth device or a wifi router  may not work  where as i know the PET fermenters do work   on bluetooth and wifi 

The jury is out on the stainless for that reason and i may be able to use a powreline adapter  to make the wifi signal stronger so the pills will recieve a wifi signal

well i thank you all part from telling what i already knew about the mishaps with kegland and keg king 




 

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1 hour ago, Marty_G said:

The solution is usually plenty of lube on the seal and thread.   Unless you have a different method. 

@Marty_G , yes that's what they (you tuber's etc.) told us all in the start but I found that to be pretty much all frog sheet. 

I only used lube a couple of times and it was a PITA to clean off before/making things sanitary again and it did not solve the problems if they where there (as Kmar92 says hit and miss).

I now use ZIP, ZERO lube except for a very, very light finger smear to protect the "O" rings themselves as I do on my keg post "O" rings.

The solution was to replace the original crap undersized, not fit for purpose "O" rings and seals with better ones.  I posted this somewhere ages back and it resulted in solving the few issues I had very early on with my Fermzilla 27 L.  Now not a problem every time I use it so all good.

Edited by iBooz2
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That is interesting @iBooz2 regarding the "O" rings, I did use the newer "O" rings that were recommended by KL, and I didn't measure them, but they were probably a thicker cross section than the originals but I still had intermittent sealing problems. As I said I put it down to PET not being a rigid material so it will deform with fluctuations with temperature, pressure etc and then "O" rings will not seal 100%. I probably had a success rate getting a good seal of greater than 95% but that 5% failure would always bit me on the behind!

An old boatbuilding acquaintance of mine that had spent his most of his working life building timber boats told me "that nothing seals like steel". I reckon that nothing seals like stainless steel in a pressure vessel, especially with tri-clover fittings.

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3 hours ago, MUZZY said:

Anything derogatory written online about Kegland might well have been written by a Keg King stooge

 

2 hours ago, ozdevil said:

 i am aware of your thoughts as well as the findings you have found on the web and i believe it's a tit for tat argument 
due to owners going their own separate ways and i think there is good and bad with both companies

The choice in the original post was pick 1 or pick 2 and why. I've just heard fewer negative things about Keg King. Honestly, I'd avoid both companies.

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@ozdevil, Apollo for me.  I do not have one, but I have a 35L Fermenter King Snub Nose.  Apollo is similar, but allegedly better.

Why:

  • Apollo has a conical bottom instead of spherical.  Concentrates the yeast.  You can probably get a few more mls of beer out.
  • Apollo comes with the pressure gear standard.  I think you have to buy the posts and floating dip tube separately with the All Rounder.
  • Apollo is Australian made
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I know you did not want a SS option but these fellas are perfect. This is my small FV. It is 25litres and does one keg perfectly. No issues with sealing and can ferment 23 litres under pressure no problems.  If you hunt around on Marketplace of Gumtree should be able to get on pretty easily.  The opening is huge and you will have no problem cleaning it.  Obviously it is a keg, just buy a gas dip tube, put a floating dip tube on it to replace the exist out tube and bingo a SS FV for less than an Apollo. 

20220203_073533.jpg

20220203_073537.jpg

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15 hours ago, MUZZY said:
16 hours ago, terminal2k said:

I would pick the keg king, not based on any specific stuff I've heard of either product, but because of some of the stuff I've come across online about kegland., I wouldn't want anything to do with them.

Anything derogatory written online about Kegland might well have been written by a Keg King stooge. I believe there's a bit of a Hatfields and McCoys feud going on between these two companies.

Care to elaborate @terminal2k. I've used Kegland quite a few times now and they've been rippers at least for me....I'd be interested to hear what you've read about them. Those review pages are sus in my opinion. I think Muzzy's probably closer to the truth.

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4 hours ago, Mickep said:

Care to elaborate

I honestly don't remember any specifics. I'm not in the market and for any of that kind of equipment and won't be for a while so I didn't commit it to memory. I do recall complaints about products and their designs, and some issues with service and product availability. This is across a few forums and other places online. My favourite tho was another forum deleting a bunch of negative comments because they were a sponsor there. I place as much emphasis on good service, honesty and integrity as I do to the actual products. It's one reason I love coopers. They've been amazing to deal with in multiple interactions. Not every product of theirs has been perfect, but they've always tried to help out when theres been an issue, even if it wasn't their fault. 

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Haven't had a problem with kegland or keg king really. Only had one issue with keg king once when I bought my robobrew many years ago now. It came with a big dent which was not fault of them and I brought it up to them. They asked me to push it out which I did but it didn't push out completely. Anyway they offered 40 bucks off which i thought was kind of laughable on what was then a 500 dollar item. They must have offered me the money what it would have cost them to return post it and send a new one. Anyway I rejected that and got a new one so ended up well. 

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16 minutes ago, Greenyinthewestofsydney said:

Haven't had a problem with kegland or keg king really. Only had one issue with keg king once when I bought my robobrew many years ago now. It came with a big dent which was not fault of them and I brought it up to them. They asked me to push it out which I did but it didn't push out completely. Anyway they offered 40 bucks off which i thought was kind of laughable on what was then a 500 dollar item. They must have offered me the money what it would have cost them to return post it and send a new one. Anyway I rejected that and got a new one so ended up well. 

It was my understanding that Kegland are manufacturers & wholesalers/retailers & Kegking is a different entity,  also a retailer, although it seems they were once affiliated. But then Kegland stocks Kegkings products & charge more 🤔

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12 hours ago, Marty_G said:

I know you did not want a SS option but these fellas are perfect. This is my small FV. It is 25litres and does one keg perfectly. No issues with sealing and can ferment 23 litres under pressure no problems.  If you hunt around on Marketplace of Gumtree should be able to get on pretty easily.  The opening is huge and you will have no problem cleaning it.  Obviously it is a keg, just buy a gas dip tube, put a floating dip tube on it to replace the exist out tube and bingo a SS FV for less than an Apollo. 

20220203_073533.jpg

20220203_073537.jpg


Marty  I am considering SS but later on down the track i think

at this stage i am thinking   snub nose apollo from keg king   as i have its couse the 35l snub nose and i often prefer this then the fermzilla

But i will consider this or the 30 litrte  kegmentors  in the smaller version of Ibooz2's  

 

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