What I liked: The mash tun is well made... to a point. It works well. It comes to the boil quickly and is easy to use. It gives a good rolling boil. What I disliked: It arrived with some missing parts (no tap, no filter connection and no user manual). The seller has not responded at all, despite several messages to them. I got fed up waiting and decided to source the parts myself. They are standard parts, and it cost me £20 which the seller is now refunding me plus a little extra. The parts arrived the next day from Amazon. There were several sharp bits of metal where it hadn't been finished properly during manufacturing. I cut my hand and my finger putting everything together and had to use emery cloth to smooth off some edges. It may be an issue with all similar products, but the re-circulation pipe could be dangerous when the overflow pipe is not connected during the boil. If you accidentally hit the pump switch whilst boiling and the pipe isn't connected, you'll cover your ceiling and yourself with extremely hot sticky wort. It's a good idea to make sure the valve is turned off as an extra safety measure. Things you might want to know: You'll probably want to purchase a hop spider, a cooling coil and a small 30cm high stool or table. It's very difficult to lift the hot grain out of the tun when it's on a kitchen work bench as it's so tall. Placing it on a small stool is just the right height to be able to man handle the inner tub and also to pour the hot wort into the fermentation vessel. Expondo do sell all these parts as accessories, including a purpose made table for the mash tun. As mentioned, I didn't receive a user manual. It doesn't show up if you search for it in Google, but it is available on Expondo's website. The mash tun uses a continental method of sparging known as Vorlauf. If you're insistent on using the British method of fly sparging or spraying hot water over the grain bed, you'll probably need a second water boiler. I already have one, so this is not a problem for me. But I'll probably use their Vorlauf method of constantly circulating hot water over the grain during the mash. It does seem a lot simpler albeit not a British brew method, which doesn't bother me so long as the end result is good. As mentioned in the user guide, don't try to lift the tun by the handles when it's full of hot wort. They aren't designed to take the weight and it could be dangerous. As yet I have only run a working test using water. I cannot foresee any problems but am intending doing a full mash in the next day or so. If it doesn't go to plan I will update this review. Summary: Well made. Good value for money. Works well. But some minor issues, some missing parts (which were easy to find online) and somewhat slow customer service. Hope this helps someone. UPDATE: Following my initial negative review Expondo contacted me and offered either a full replacement or a refund, plus a little extra, on the missing parts I had to purchase. I am now happy so have updated my review to reflect. FURTHER UPDATE: Now that I have actually used it to do a full mash I can report that works really well. Things I liked... It was very easy to use and actually pretty easy to clean. I got a very efficient mash and the continuous sparge method saved a great deal of time after the initial mash. All I had to do was lift the inner bucket onto the top hooks and rinse it through with a few jugs of water. No stuck sparge here! The boiler comes up to temperature reasonably quickly and the wrap around jacket helps retain the heat well. What I didn't like... There are still some stray bits of sharp metal somewhere. I haven't found them yet but my fingers are covered in irritating "paper" cuts. The volume measurements are clear and well stamped inside, in liters and gallons BUT you can't see them when you've got the inner bucket in it or when sparging. It's worth noting that it's marked in US gallons rather than UK gallons. US gallons are smaller. This won't affect many brewers in the UK, but being an old timer I did notice that the liquor was up to the 5 gallon mark and automatically converted it in my head into 40 pts/23 litres... which it isn't! This meant I had to top up with a significant amount of water after I'd transferred it into my fermenter when I noticed it was short in the bucket and high in OG. But I won't do that again! 😊 Overall I'm really happy with this purchase. Just a few minor niggles. But I'm my opinion it's very good value for money. It's very easy to use, you can leave it largely unattended and it does the job it's supposed to do, simply and efficiently.
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