Conical Fermenters? Current thoughts/brands and advice

[jak]

Hi. Have been getting thinking of getting a conical fermenter. I have mostly made wine from 3 or 5-6 gallon kits or juice. For these small batches, is a conical fermenter worth it? What are your favorite brands or models? As an aside, I do not like handling the 5 gallon carboys. If I had a project over 3 gallons, would split into smaller carboys. If this is already a thread, can someone hit me with the link? Thank you.

 

[richmke]

Years ago, I thought about getting conical fermenter. IMHO, the only thing it helped with was the initial fermentation, and being able to remove the lees. You had to transfer to a carboy anyway to eliminate air.

At that point, I decided an All-In-One wine pump is a better tool. It helps with all stages of wine making. It was easy to use the pump to transfer from the primary to the carboy.