First thoughts on Enolmatic...With pics.

[rshosted]

Ok, as the dedicated readers of this forum know, I've been considerering getting an Enolmatic for a long time. For those of you not familiar with the Enolmatic, it is a vacuum operated bottle filler. You can also buy a filter to go with it to filter wines alone, or as you bottle. I did NOT buy the filter at this time. I have NOT used the Enolmatic for bottling, so this is merely my first impressions of it... and of course some pictures.

Here is the box it came in.... I was like a kid on Christmas.

George does not sell these (YET! hint hint

)

The box inside the box (in case you can't tell I'm trying to build suspense!)

Oh I was just giddy. It was all I could do to not rip the box open. Yet, I slowly suffered and took pictures at every step.... Ok, but I'm not going to post EVERY STEP!!! Here it is right out of the box without anything hooked up.

 

[rshosted]

OK, so my first impressions were that it felt sturdy. It didn't feel
like light breakable plastic. It felt like it was a good contruction
that upon using I'm not too worried about breaking. I worked to get the
hoses connected. My first complaint of this is the instructions. They
are written in Italian. While I am part pizano, the language was lost a
few generations ago. I flipped to the middle of the book and found an
English page. It had pictures, but still didn't seem to explain
everything. I found that when I put the book down and used common sense
it seemed a little easier to figure out.



Things I liked about this unit. The on/off switch was covered in a
heavy rubber cover. This is to keep moisture out (I'm sure). But it
felt heavy enough to hold up and not break right away.



Another thing, was the knob on the other side. It is used to adjust
vacuum on the unit to speed up, or slow down bottle filling.



Part of the reason I bought this solution is for several reasons:

1. I love toys!

2. I love toys!

ok, really?

1. I wanted a bottle filler

2. I wanted to use something other than siphoning to rack

3. I wanted something that can create vacuum for degassing

4. I wanted to have a filter (later) to filter my wines

5. I wanted all of this to be as easy as possible (hopefully it will be)





Here is a picture of the switch I mentioned:

And of the vacuum control knob:

Now I wondered how it would work for degassing wine. Since i use a brake bleeder that pulls about to 23inches of vacuum, I wondered where this would be. So I hooked it up to the brake bleeder so I could use the guage on it to measure the vacuum.

The lowest vacuum I could pull with the vacuum knob set all the way to the lowest was around 2 inches of vacuum. (now remember, I'm at about 4,500 feet elevation, you folks around sea level could figure that to be around 5 inches equivilant for you)

For the high I hit between 20 and 21:

And lastly, if anyone wants to know what I might be doing this weekend. Here is a picture of my wine room. Is anyone free this weekend?

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Makes me giddy just looking at it.

 

[grapeman]

Looks great! You do have a little work ahead of you.








How is the barrel working out for you? What did you put in it-I don't recall.

 

[rshosted]

I'm on my third wine in the barrel. I put reds into them. Mostly crushendos. They oak VEEEEERRRYYY fast, but they are slowing down. I think right now I have the Montac Crushendo by WE now.

 

[Wade E]

RS, that looks awesome and you look like youve been BUSY! Let us know how the Enol works out please.

 

[kathy]

Please explan degassing with this machine, I do not understand the process. While you are bottling please see if you get any tiny bubbles coming up the sides of the wine bottle as you fill. My 15 gallons that we bottled at Chirstmas time, with the Enolmatic are all alittle off, because of the air in the wine, wether it be that we did not degass enough at the beginning or something went haywire with the machine. I have 20 gallons to bottle next week and I am nervous about it.
No one has had much experience with this machine but it is so much fun to use. Thank you for taking the time to explain.kathy

 

[PeterZ]

And lastly, if anyone wants to know what I might be doing this weekend. Here is a picture of my wine room. Is anyone free this weekend?

rs - I'm easy, but I am not cheap!!!

 

[Wade E]

RS, Im free this weekend, just send over some round trip tickets and Ill be there!

 

[jobe05]

RS, I'm free thie weekend, but Im afraid if I come out there I won't be much help to you......... Nor will muc of that wine reach the bottle......... You see......... I degas with a straw!

That setup looks awesome. And for those die hard Christmas Vacation fans (like I am), Iffen ya don't mind Clark, can I ask how much that set ya back?

 

[rshosted]

Well I don't mind telling. I paid 295 + 15 in shipping. Sounds like a party at my house this weekend. Everyone bring a straw!

 

[PolishWineP]

So, HOW'S IT GOING? I'm waiting for pictures and the next part of the story! I'd say I'm waiting with baited breath, but that's just coffee.

 

[rshosted]

Ok, first of all, I have to address this to George... You
had better start stocking these, or else someone else is going to make a lot of
money!<!--[if gte vml 1]>














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Now on to my review. I started Saturday night... by going to a friends birthday
party and enjoying a little too much crown and coke. I only mention this in order
to illustrate something later on.



So I started by using the Enolmatic to rack a beer that I had done. I didn't
buy the racking kit, instead mocked up a couple of tubes and one of those
orange caps that I bought and wondered why (now I know).



It worked well for racking. I didn't turn it up to full power since I was
trying to not remove any carbonation from my beer. Then the first bottling was
done on my beer. I bottled 24 large beer bottles in an amazing amount of time.



The machine was quick and easy. And even easier to clean.(just put the carboy
tube into cleanser and let it run)



Then I got all my beer bottled, and even with a little bit of extra
'tired-ness' I got it put away then realized I still had plenty of time left.
So I grabbed a Australian Mataro Shiraz that I started back in 02/06.

Grabbed some bottles, hooked up my <a href="../../../ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=4795" target="_blank">double bottle
washer</a> in the sink, my bottle tree, my Vinator
and went to work.



I was impressed with how well this machine worked. I could adjust the vacuum to
go as fast, or as slow as I wanted. I found that the wine would foam if it was
too fast, even though it is completely degassed. So I slowed it down since it
seemed to have less waist. I was able to fill all bottles of the 5 gallons in
15 minutes (approximately). Each bottle was filled evenly. I grabbed my floor corker
and finished in record time! I cleaned and it was easy as ever.



One thing I found really nice this time was I was able to leave the carboy on
the floor and bottle at counter level. Normally, I am near the floor, hunched
over, and the wine sits on the counter. it was nice to have that changed. And
not one drop got spilled. Now I have used the Buon Vino gravity filler and only
lost a few drops... but to have no drops lost... Man it was great.



Here is a pic of me filling a beer bottle.<br style="">
<br style="">

Another close up of the Enolmatic with filling up my beer batch (Strawberry Blonde for those enquiring minds)

And lastly I would feel remis, if I didn't include a picture of my friend who came over to help. I bribed him with a fee bottle when we were done, and a package of "peeps". (You know those gross little yellow birds!)

(I'm on the left)

All in all, when I was finished I contemplated bottling another batch. This thing can make doing multiple batches or even larger batches easier than you could imagine. I hate to upsell anything, but I have been very impressed with this item. I even took a little video of how quick it will fill a bottle on a test with water.

I don't think I can host this movie forever, but will leave it up as long as my bandwidth allows. Sorry it's not the best movie either. I'm not nearly as talented as old Waldo and his vids'

<a href="http://www.xmission.com/%7Erue150/Ryan_Enolmatic.html" target="_blank">
Click here to download the flick</a>

Cheers!

 

[Coaster]

Dear Santa, I am going to be a very good boy this year!

 

[docbee]

I have been looking at this "Toy" for awile. Thanks for the review.
I would love for George to have this at the Toy Store also. I feel guilty looking at other web sites knowing I'm not going to get the quality of service anywhere else.

 

[Wade E]

PM him and maybe we can sweet talk him into doing some special orders for these.

 

[geocorn]

RS,


I would stock them, but I can't buy them cheap enough to compete. If I could, I definitely would! The problem is that once you get away from items in normal distribution, you have to buy a lot to make the profit work. I am a bean counter and it is all about the numbers!


As an aside, the big ticket items like that filler don't really sell that well to home wine makers. If I stocked them, I MIGHT sell 10-20 per year which is nowhere close to justifying the time or the expense to locate a source and stock. Sometimes, you just have to let sales go to focus on the big picture. This is one of those occasions and also explains why I no longer carry the crushers and de-stemmers.


To steal and modify a phrase from Star Trek, "I have been and always shall be a bean counter!"

 

[kathy]

When I first ask the question of this filler a month or so ago I had mentioned the air in the bottles, and someone assumed it had not been degassed properly, and maybe so. But I had the same filling problem, foam that I assumed was air being incorporated into the wine from the filler. The true test will be when you taste the wine that you just bottled. How long will you wait? I waited 30 days. It was evident that there was air in the wine from the taste and it bubbled a little on opening. We are bottling again to see if this is our problem or the filler. So until rshosted has tasted his wine to see if there is air in it I would wait on purchasing this item. It is so much fun to use. But the place that we bought it from has been no help with my problem. We purchased it last November. I want it to work well because it is so great to use! thank you kathy

 

[rshosted]

And I have no problem with that. I know that many of us feel bad having to go elsewhere, but if you don't carry it, I'm sure you could care less and would expect us to. But if there is something that we plan to buy often, and we have a choice, I'm sure we would all rather buy it from you.

I didn't mean any disrespect to suggest you should carry it. Just want you to get our money, rather than anyone else.

 

[geocorn]

RS


No problem at all and no apology required. My customers and forum members are my most valuable asset. As such, I feel I need to explain why I do things, not just a yes or no answer. With good information, we can all make better decisions. I just greatly appreciate your concern for my business. This is just one of those time where it does not make financial sense at this moment. That may change and I am sure it will. "The only thing constant in this world is change."