REVIEW: *allinonewinepump*

[dan69man]

I would like to thank Grasshopper for coming up with this great gadget that saves even more time in the process of removal of CO2. I knowa lot of you DIY’s have made your own already , my intent is to possibly sell these on my accessory page as a complete assembly. It still uses the 6.5 bung ,so you will not have to switch racking canes in order to use this setup. I want to sell them for 10 dollars with purchase of pump or 12 dollars individually.
Please give me your feedback

Looks good. ill buy one when they are available.

 

[ckassotis]

So I've never gotten around to posting about the AIO pump yet. I received the unit for Christmas, but didn't get all the extra pieces that I needed until about a month later due to my not-friend at SuperWater. But anyway, I've now racked a good 50-60 gallons with it, filtered 20-30 gallons, and officially bottled by first 3 cases with it the other night. This unit is so nice. I can't even explain the sheer amount of time, if nothing else, that this saved me. I can give my cheap little gravity filter away now and filter five gallons in 5 minutes rather than 1-2 hours. I have so little time to do anything for myself these days, so I really can't say enough how this unit single-handedly lets me keep up with the winemaking. I watched the video once when I got the unit, although the setup was pretty self-explanatory - just hook up all the tubing as you would expect the wine to flow. Filtering was just as easy. I did watch it again prior to bottling, but I found it to be considerably easier than I expected. The carpeting in my rental unit around the kitchen table is pretty much stained red at this point (which I'm sure I'll hear about when I move out ), so it was incredibly refreshing to see 3 cases of bottles filled to exactly the same level without a drop of wine spilled. Worth $250? It's worth well more than that. It is a STEAL, even at that new price. Also, better customer service than Apple. Talk about friendly and eager to help you in any way possible! Thanks again Steve!

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Thanks ckassotis and many others for your reviews and experiences with the Allinone. Yes ,I will be selling the degassing racking in the very near future.

I just wanted to let everyone know that the new price of 245.00 is actually only 30 dollars morer than the original price of 195.00. It is because I decided to keep it simple and include shipping charges (which were 15.00 dollars ).If you think it would be better to lower the price and include shipping charges -separate - please pm me and let me know

 

[Levi24]

Let me be another to praise Steve on this outstanding piece of equipment and his extremely fast response to questions.

I used my AI1 for the first time last week to filter and 12 gallons of wine. It did take me about two hours of practicing to get a 90% grasp of what I was doing, but after that everything performed better than I could have imagined. After you get the hang of it, you seem to just stare at the process and think about how much work you now do not have to do.

Thanks again Steve for a great piece of equipment and your dedication to customer service!

 

[ckassotis]

Ooh, also didn't know that the new price included shipping. I haven't looked at the site recently though. Now that I do I see the "free shipping" on there pretty clearly. Love it!

 

[nbwii]

Ok I finally got my Allinonewinepump and I now understand why it has been getting such rave reviews. It really does make racking much easier. No lifting and no fumbling with the auto siphon, pumping away disturbing the sediment at the bottom until you get a flow going and then once you do realising that the free end of the hose somehow fell out of the empty carboy so you're pumping wine onto the floor (yep that happened) but not any more just set it up and flip a switch and watch it do its magic. Just one bit of advice, when you're ordering your 2 racking canes make sure you get the long ones (30 in I believe) otherwise you will have to tilt the carboy to get at the wine and you will disturb the sediment, but that was my mistake not the pump. I haven't tried bottling with it yet but looking forward to it in the next couple of days. Oh and by the way Steve is great to deal with, he is the epitome of customer service any questions or special assistance just email him and he responds very quickly. Thanks Steve.

 

[Vintner]

Well, I finally got around to using my All in one to bottle this weekend. Steve gave me a call this week with a few pointers along with the ones he listed on this thread. It works great! I practiced first on a few bottles with water. It was really easy to figure out. I think I did pretty good for the first time. I bottled 12 gallons of wine this weekend and only lost about .75-1.0 inches of wine in the catch bottle on the All in one. I think I could do even better next time since I now have the hang of it.

Thanks for your great product Steve!

 

[dangerdave]

I think that's great, Steve. We appreciate your consideration. I know this product won't make you a millionaire, but those of us who use it know how valuable it is toward easy wine making. Some things are just worth more than they're worth, if you catch my meaning.

I have a few spare racking canes ready for modification, and intend to try the falling film degassing process today. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Boatboy24]

I'm still getting used to mine, but it sure does make things easy! Did my first real racking with it this morning and it was a breeze. Great product.

(Note to self: just because you turn the pump off doesn't mean there isn't still a vacuum in the carboy too. The release valve is your friend. )

 

[Sammyk]

We have had our all in one pump for quite awhile and it works like a charm! We would be lost without it. The AI1 makes racking and bottling go very smooth. Plus it is a huge time saver.

Steve has some of the best customer service one would ever want. We did have a problem, not Steve's or the pumps fault but user problem. Steve was right on top of it and always prompt to call or answer emails.

Recently we had a problem that I mentioned to Steve about 750ml bottles tipping over on the kitchen table before we corked them. He suggested putting them in a card board box and fill them there. We found a box that would hold 24 bottles but low enough we could see when the bottles were full and it worked like a charm! no more filled bottles tipping over. Something so simple that we had not thought about using.

As a small business owners ourselves we know the value of customer service and it is nice to deal with someone like Steve who will always go the extra mile to help out customers.

Great job, Steve!

 

[Boatboy24]

Last night, I did my first bottling with the AI1. What a pleasure! I was able to sanitize bottles, fill bottles, cork, rack another batch of wine, and clean up in just over an hour. The all in one really makes things easy. The best part was I wasn't squatting on the floor while bottling. Full carboy on the floor and I stood at the bar and filled while standing up. The more I use the all in one, the more I like it.

 

[Fordguy]

I agree with Boatboy, the more I use the AI1, the more I like it.

I racked a kit of DB (actually used lime juice and a cherries - a cherry limeade) and bottled a kit wine (Shiraz) that my wife likes.
It went so smooth, I had about an ounce of wine in the overflow at the most.

Dang, it's handy!

Thanks Sreve, and Lon and Danger.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I would like to let everyone know that I started a new thread on
Tips and tricks for the whole house filtration system - If you ever had a problem with the whole house filtration - I believe I might of found a solution for you -

see link and let me know your comments on that thread - please

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f71/tips-tricks-using-whole-house-filter-37737/

 

[Boatboy24]

Racked and filtered 18 gallons on Friday and it was a breeze!

 

[FABulousWines]

I have read every post on this thread (and the tips and tricks and Dave's thread on whole house filtering). I just couldn't pull away. I only made it to page 28 before I place my order, but there were a few times I was getting itchy trigger way before that.

I am still on my first batch and haven't even degassed yet. Well, except for that first splash rack from the primary. In the meantime I have been reading and watching videos to get myself acquainted with the rest of the process. My primary concerns with wine making are: 1) too much gas in the bottle, 2) too much sediment in the bottle, and 3) too much oxygen exposure. I actually had it in my mind to just acquire a good oil-less vacuum pump and do the DIY thing. After looking around and doing the math it became very obvious that the AllInOneWinePump could do it all for a very reasonable price. When I started reading the posts about adding the WHF for around $30, it became a no brainer.

I must say, I don't remember when was the last time I read so many positive comments about a product. It seems the only negative that keeps coming up is the lack of detailed instructions which Steve seems to be accommodating with personal one-on-one time. I think this is incredible.

It looks like the whole house filtering aspect is a fairly new one with some of the bugs being worked out. I ordered the 158326 housing unit (it was in stock) along with the wrench and a couple of the P1 and P5 filters. I am at least two weeks away from needing this for my Riesling, but I have a sense of relief knowing I will have crystal clear wine with no gas and minimal exposure to oxygen. Truly an ingenious device.

Thanks to everyone who has posted their experiences with this. I already feel like I have a good working knowledge with the AI1 just from what you all have shared.

I'll have to stop by the LHBS this week and pick up another racking cane and a glass carboy...hope the wife doesn't notice

 

[FABulousWines]

I used the pump today to rack and degas prior to clearing using the degas accessory. It worked very well. After two passes, there is no hint of CO2. Awesome!

I only have one question: In the baggie with the bottling attachment there is a spring; what is this for?

 

[dralarms]

To replace the spring in the throttle attachment. ( the push button on the hose).

 

[Stressbaby]

First off, I love this AI1 wine pump.

There is one issue however.

The pump pulls quite hard. When the wine is gassy, you have to use the valve between the receiving carboy and the overflow bottle to slow down the movement of the wine near the end. When you hit the valve, the negative pressure in the receiving carboy returns toward normal. This results in a bit of backflow in the system and some wine flows back into the carboy from which you are racking. In the middle of the racking this is not a problem; but near the end, this stirs up all of the sediment you are trying to rack off of.

How do you solve this issue? I need to slow the racking near the end to avoid excessive overflow, but avoid backflow that stirs up sediment.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I used the pump today to rack and degas prior to clearing using the degas accessory. It worked very well. After two passes, there is no hint of CO2. Awesome!

I only have one question: In the baggie with the bottling attachment there is a spring; what is this for?

The spring that came with your kit - is an extra replacement spring that is stainless steel. The original ones were plain spring steel and would rust out over time (if not properly taken care of )- so I had the manufacturer change their product line.It takes awhile prior to them come with the spring already installed. From the month of June -foward they should all have the stainless springs installed.

I would still not recommended using sulfites to clean the release valve

 

[Stressbaby]

First off, I love this AI1 wine pump.

There is one issue however.

The pump pulls quite hard. When the wine is gassy, you have to use the valve between the receiving carboy and the overflow bottle to slow down the movement of the wine near the end. When you hit the valve, the negative pressure in the receiving carboy returns toward normal. This results in a bit of backflow in the system and some wine flows back into the carboy from which you are racking. In the middle of the racking this is not a problem; but near the end, this stirs up all of the sediment you are trying to rack off of.

How do you solve this issue? I need to slow the racking near the end to avoid excessive overflow, but avoid backflow that stirs up sediment.

Steve was kind enough to call...

...the trick here is not to hold the pressure relief valve, but rather to slow the racking process overall by hitting the pressure relief valve repeatedly in a staccato fashion. I just tried it on a persimmon-orange mead and it worked like a charm. Thanks, Steve!