John, you are advocating for the use of tanks I assume. I would love to get a 200 liter but now and future (3-5 years) I don't see myself doing more than 20 gallons of any one type of wine. I do want to get more into grapes and less into juice in the future..
To be clear, I love SSVC tanks...
1) you never need to worry about topping off,
2) they can take abuse and not break,
3) They are a fantastic way to save space. For example, 1 200l tank can replace (almost) four 54l demijohns and only take up the floor space of only one.
4) Cleaning one 200l tank is WAY easier than cleaning four 54 demijohns.
5) let's face it, they look cool!
So I am most certainly an advocate of tanks.
The point I was trying to make is that you need to weigh the cost VS the benefit. The smaller the tank, the more expensive. Consider the following based on the prices from my local (no shipping charges included)...
100l tank - $460 ($4.60 per liter)
200l tank - $625 ($3.12 per liter)
300l tank - $730 ($2.43 per liter)
54l demi - $40.50 ($.75 per liter)
A 100 liter tank is the most expensive way to go. The amount of money you save, the amount of space you save, and the amount of cleaning you save will simply not be justified by the cost.
Additionally, the gaskets on the SSVC tanks are not quite air tight. Some O2 will leak through (although in minute amounts). This is not a big deal when dealing with a 500l tank where the ratio of volume to this air is very low, but when dealing with a small tank, say 100l, it can be a bit of an issue.
Given a choice between 2 demijohns and 1 100l tank, I would definitely go with the 54 liter demijohns.
