Fermzilla

[Nullnvoid]

I could've sworn Gash's unboxing video had a dent in his one, but he didn't mention it.

Link?

 

[Schikitar]

Link?

 

[awfulknauful]

I was fairly sure that it had come from the manufacturing process, its hard to put a dent in them manually, at least mine only has one, the unboxing video has several.

 

[ABG]

I was fairly sure that it had come from the manufacturing process, its hard to put a dent in them manually, at least mine only has one, the unboxing video has several.

Won't these just pop out the second you ferment under pressure? Interested to hear your experience after you use it. I can't say that any of the dents in the unboxing video would worry me unduly, but I understand everyone is different. For me, there's just so much clever design that's gone into these that I can't wait to get my hands on one. Sadly, I'm one of the multitude who missed out on the first couple of releases. I'm now at the point where I think I'll wait for the more temperature resistant material - I like the idea of being able to use boiling/near boiling water for sanitising and cleaning.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

If the air isn't vacating the die and pockets of air get trapped while the PET is being formed it will stay that way, still should be usable. Could be something else, maybe someone with the experience in the field could comment.
I have had a sucked in Snub nose when I forgot to open the valve connecting the breather while cold crashing, that just popped back out to its original shape.

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

Like weal mentioned if the pet has been molded with a dent it won't pop out. It's not like a dent that has been put in it with use that will pop out. These dents are probably being let through as they are still usable as it will not have a detrimental effect on the unit working. Being a new manufacturer they will working out the kinks like oxbar when they made the original fermentasaurus. KK used to sell the imperfect tanks cheaper as a replacement if you needed a new tank.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I could've sworn Gash's unboxing video had a dent in his one, but he didn't mention it.

He wouldn't, probably getting paid to promote it, I think the Aussie home brewer would probably more forgiving than a European or American home brewer who could be more inclined to return it if it wasn't aesthetically appealing.

 

[SpaceClef]

So got my Fermzilla thanks to Bbowzky1, much appreciated mate, (this is someone who should give a bit more time to post on here) took it along to our club meet for the unveiling everyone was in anticipation to get their first view.
1) Big tick of approval the large diameter opening.
2) Big tick of approval the larger dump valve, although most thought it was a bit of over kill.
3) Unfortunately there were 2 large scratches on the outside of the body, don't know if it is PET or plastic, I doubt whether they were deep enough to cause any problem fermenting under pressure just that I was expecting a pristine finish on a new product.
4) The seal at the bottom of the fermenter looks like black rubber, obviously I doubt that it is but maybe KL could confirm what the material is.
5) The most disappointing of the reveal, a dent in the PET or whatever the material is at the bottom of the fermenter. No damage on the box so looks like it was boxed with dent, don't know if it was from the process of the blow moulding or the attaching of the fittings.
Anyone else found a similar problem with denting?
View attachment 115994

Yep, unboxed mine on the weekend and it has a decent sized dent on the bottom conical side. Not sure if it has something to do with the fact it was basically just sitting loosely on the collection bottle in the box. The box had a pretty serious dent in the top corner too before I picked it up so I assume there was pressure on the top of the fermenter whilst transporting and it’s pushed it down against the collection bottle.

Edit: it has three smaller dents at other points in the fermenter but not close to as bad as the one pictured

 

[awfulknauful]

I think this is going to become a serious problem, for the fermzilla. I could live with mine but something like yours does look gross, even more so if you have other smaller dents. It really is starting to look like the quality is really lacking.

 

[Half-baked]

Has anyone tried to return? If mine had been dented I’d be pretty annoyed...

Sure you can ferment in it but for the one @SpaceChef has the volume calibration will be a decent amount off (as well as overall volume being less than advertised)

 

[DaFooze]

This all makes sense WEAL, but will take away 1 of the things I was really looking forward to with using this Fermzilla, which is rousing up after my dry hop additions to get full utilisation out of this dry hop process. My plan was to dump the yeast after fermentation is basically done, and then replace the collection bottle with the dry hops which have been purged with co2. After a few days hook up the co2 to the collection bottle via a carbonation cap/post and rouse the hops off the bottom and get them flowing about again.

I guess I could leave the yeast in the bottle, dry hop through the top & rouse co2 through the beer out post & dip tube. Has anyone done this with the version 1? Would it disturb the yeast too much?

P.S. I love our man Jasper! Keep Drinkin'!

What you are planning is a great way to use the Fermzilla and it's bottle. I've always waited until fermentation is done, close the valve, release some pressure out of bottle, remove bottle, add dry hops, purge bottle with CO2, open valve. The beer and dry hops will gather together in a great display of joining and become one.... ;-)

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

Yep, unboxed mine on the weekend and it has a decent sized dent on the bottom conical side. Not sure if it has something to do with the fact it was basically just sitting loosely on the collection bottle in the box. The box had a pretty serious dent in the top corner too before I picked it up so I assume there was pressure on the top of the fermenter whilst transporting and it’s pushed it down against the collection bottle.

View attachment 116030

Edit: it has three smaller dents at other points in the fermenter but not close to as bad as the one pictured

That is pretty crap. What have KL said?

 

[Grok]

If that was me, I'd use a hair dryer very gently playing upon the surface with a small amount of positive air pressure inside to gently bring out the dent. Plastic is pliable as it warms and can be made to do all sorts of things, but care is needed. Have a cooling cloth ready to arrest the process at the right moment.

 

[SpaceClef]

Has anyone tried to return? If mine had been dented I’d be pretty annoyed...

Sure you can ferment in it but for the one @SpaceChef has the volume calibration will be a decent amount off (as well as overall volume being less than advertised)

I emailed them the pics yesterday and they said it’s the “reality of shipping thin-walled vessels”, the fermenters are “designed to endure minor deformations such as this”, and “all small dents will push out and settle with use and positive pressure”. Apparently (the flimsiness?) is a necessary design so that they can withstand suction during cold crash.

I haven’t tried pushing it back out yet but I can’t imagine it will simply go back to its original form

That is pretty crap. What have KL said?

See above. They don’t seem too fussed and certainly not offering a replacement.

 

[awfulknauful]

The thing is they are coming out of undamged boxes with dents so saying is is transport is rubbish, once you have used it they can say, you have used it not our responsibility. I don,t want to part with good money and start trying to fix it with a hair dryer and pressure, this is a manufacturing fault that should have been addressed before releasing them. I also have a fermentasaurus which even with a bit of abuse is still flawless and I have never heard of them being uboxed and rewarding the purchaser with a dent.

 

[Schikitar]

If they know they are susceptible to damage via transport then simply pack them better, pretty poor form and response.. if mine came out like that I wouldn't be happy..

 

[KegLand-com-au]

So got my Fermzilla thanks to Bbowzky1, much appreciated mate, (this is someone who should give a bit more time to post on here) took it along to our club meet for the unveiling everyone was in anticipation to get their first view.
1) Big tick of approval the large diameter opening.
2) Big tick of approval the larger dump valve, although most thought it was a bit of over kill.
3) Unfortunately there were 2 large scratches on the outside of the body, don't know if it is PET or plastic, I doubt whether they were deep enough to cause any problem fermenting under pressure just that I was expecting a pristine finish on a new product.
4) The seal at the bottom of the fermenter looks like black rubber, obviously I doubt that it is but maybe KL could confirm what the material is.
5) The most disappointing of the reveal, a dent in the PET or whatever the material is at the bottom of the fermenter. No damage on the box so looks like it was boxed with dent, don't know if it was from the process of the blow moulding or the attaching of the fittings.
Anyone else found a similar problem with denting?
View attachment 115994

Sorry we did not even know about this thread until today so sorry it's taken a while to get back to you guys on this one.

Firstly - Thanks for the feedback. If the scratch is significant please bring the tank back to us and we will replace it for you. It's unlikely to have any impact on the usability or safety of the product. We test even unit with significantly more pressure than the 2.5bar working pressure so we are confident all new tanks are pressure rated accordingly. With that said in about 5 weeks we get a bunch of spare replacement tanks and we would be happy to swap it over for you if you like.

The black seal at the bottom in the butterfly part of the valve and also the cone shaped seal is made from EPDM. We have started to use more and more EPDM these days on many of the seals that we use. It's not a cheap compound however it doesn't perish like many other rubber compounds, it's got low gas transmission rate and it's also extremely good with respect to chemical resistance and this has been increasingly more important as we get people use these fermenters for many other products other than just beer.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

No, both are in good condition no scratches or dents. That said, the stands were poking out of both cardboard boxes (one worse than the other), they should probably wrap the top ring of the stand in something protective as the PET 'bottle' just rattles around inside of it and that's only covered by a thin plastic bag which doesn't offer much protection. Packed on the cheaper side for sure, not that I'm a fan of excess packaging but yeah, room for improvement..

No worries. We will discuss this tomorrow. If you have any specific ideas on ways we can improve then please email us [email protected]. We always like to get feedback on how we can make the products better.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

I emailed them the pics yesterday and they said it’s the “reality of shipping thin-walled vessels”, the fermenters are “designed to endure minor deformations such as this”, and “all small dents will push out and settle with use and positive pressure”. Apparently (the flimsiness?) is a necessary design so that they can withstand suction during cold crash.

I haven’t tried pushing it back out yet but I can’t imagine it will simply go back to its original form

See above. They don’t seem too fussed and certainly not offering a replacement.

The fermenter bodies are made from PET and like all PET injection stretch blown products we have real limitations on the thickness in the walls that can be achieved due to the blow moulding process. With that said the nice thing about PET is that it will pop back into shape once you get some pressure inside the tank. If it's a really bad dent then you can fill the tank with hot water (at 50C) put the tank under small mount of pressure (about 10psi) and let the tank cool down to room temperature. The tank will look like new after this process.

With that said if this process is not amenable to you then we would be happy to exchange the tank. At the end of the day our goal is to ensure customer satisfaction and bring you guys awesome products that work great and help you guys make award winning beers. So if you feel that these objectives are not met then contact us immediately. Our email is [email protected] and you can call us on +61390187935

 

[awfulknauful]

Tried the warm water with some pressure and the dent is still there. Really does seem to be a fault somwhere in the manufacturing process as WEAL an Far side of crazy suggested.