Buon Vino Mini Jet

[jimmyjames23]

Just bought a mini jet. It's awesome and made in Canada. Any other mini jet ushered out there?

 

[mtbryda203]

Are they expensive? I am very interested in purchasing one, is that the only company that makes wine filters?

 

[Runningwolf]

They work well and that was the first one I had. I just didn't like how they leaked or failed to drain. I definiately wouldn't want to use this in the kitchen. For not much more money you could get the All in One and get the cartridge filter set up that I think works better. Set up and cleanup is simpler,not to mention you can bottle and degass with it also. Once I used a cartridge filter I never went back to the mini jet and sold it. Either way, I never bottle a wine unfiltered.

 

[jimmyjames23]

It works extremely well. They are the standard for wine filtering here in Canada. No wonder...the factory is 25 km from my house. I've been using my friends for about a year so I'm very familiar with the setup. Basically the wine is forced through 3 filter pads. Pads are available in coarse, fine and sterilization. The two impellers smash the co2 out of the wine and the construction is extremely solid.
The mini jet will easily filter 6 gallons with one set of $2.00 pads. But... If your wine is young and uncleared it will clog the pads quickly.
I just racked 47 liters of wine (by bypassing the pads) and it removed a significant amount of co2. I then filtered 6 gallons of my cleared wine and not one leak with the Fine filter pads.
The overflow is a pain. The engineer decided a right elbow was the way to go. I quickly replaced this with a straight barbed nylon tip and fed it back into the Demi from which I was filtering.
The mini jet sells for $149 new
They also have a super jet which hold 3 pads that are twice the size for those who brew large Demi's.

 

[Runningwolf]

Jimmy I'm surprised living so close you didn't buy it from Musca. I bought mine from there for around $120 and I see they're still only about $134 (canadian). They were also great people to deal with with. As far as the pads go, I never filtered anything but clear wine and could easily filter (5) six gallon carboys with no problem back to back. They recommend a cool down period in between.
http://www.musca.com/store/cat52_1.htm

 

[millwright01]

I have one and it works awesome. Make sure you wet the filters first before you tighten it up and run about a gallon of water through first to make sure it doesn't leak much. Also, I found that you should rack the wine first. If you suck up a bunch of sediment it will plug and can actually spray out the sides. I always put a towel over it just in case (after my first plugging that sprayed the wall!) and then never had another problem when I racked first.

However, I just got my allinone pump today. I will have to email Steve and order whatever accessories I need to filter because I am ordering a filter setup and changing to vacuum filtering. This pump is awesome.

 

[jimmyjames23]

I did not pay full price for mine. I paid $80 and it included a hydrometer, a case of pads, a glass 6 gallon Demi, fermenting bucket and an incredibly crappy hand corker.
I love it when people "get out" of winemaking.

I usually soak the pads in wine for 10 minutes. I used to use water but I don't like water in my wine. Not even the initial run off bottle.

Now to build a tree that will fill 24 of my small 375 ml bottles at once....

 

[GreginND]

I used my mini jet for years until I dropped it and broke the casing. I still use it sometimes to pump wine. After that I bought a super jet. It is significantly better than the mini jet. But I hated to waste filters doing just a small batch. This year I got a whole house filter and I don't think I"m going to look back.

 

[jimmyjames23]

What's a "whole house" filter?

 

[GreginND]

Basically a water filter cartridge housing with micron filters.

You can read more here:

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f3/review-whole-house-wine-filtering-36589/

 

[JohnT]

I have and use a superjet and find that it is a great piece of eqiupment. I have had mine for about 12 years. The only pain is that the valve cartridge has only a life of about 1 year and costs $25 to replace.

I soak each of the 3 filter pade in water and then take the top 500ml or clear water that comes through the filter (this is the amount of water that is absorbed by the filter pads).

Thing does leak a little, but the loss is not to bad to stomach when you think of how nice a clear your wine becomes!

 

[ShawnDTurner]

i have a mini jet, I filtered my Sang Vrai (True blood) with it. I love it, I use it to transfer my wine. As I had back surgery in Aug 2012. it is a back saver. cheers

 

[saramc]

I have an All-in-One(AIO) and an inline house filtering system (which I bought from FiltersFast), and Steve walked me thru everything...as we talked on the phone. Later that year I received a MiniJet as a gift. I much prefer the All-in-One setup. But if I had not known about the AIO, I would have bought the SuperJet, simply because the Mini is really not meant for volume work, while the Super easily accomodates 100-200 gal/year. Plus, you get great customer service from Steve.

 

[joeswine]

Filtering

I have a mini jet, I also have the new everyone's talking about . I haven't used that one yet. But I have used the mini jet of thousands, literally and if you maintain it sanitized, flush it out when you're done you can take a licking and keep on ticking. That is not to say it doesn't have some problem. But then that's the expect most equipment.

I haven't used a new one yet, the in-line pump so I don't know with features that has or doesn't have. But I do know the mini jet will work with you as always you understand how to take care.

 

[jimmyjames23]

I'm curious about this whole house filter. What do the filters cost, how many gallons can you run through a filter and what's the clarity?
I can filter 27 liters (6.5 gal) for $2.25 and it just sparkles.
If there's a cost/time savings with the house filter I would definitely be interested.

 

[GreginND]

Filters are $3-$4 and can filter hundreds of gallons if you want. I use 1 micron filters for whites and 5 micron for reds. It does a great job.