Hydropress comparison

[Christian Stolte]

Hi, I am wondering whether you could give me advice on the tiltable hydropresses from Speidel, Zottel, Euroinox, Lancman, Zambelli ... of around 100l capacity. Which is the best and which to stay away from?

[Philippe Archambault]

Hi Christian,

I have a 180L Speidel and a 300L Zambelli. They both are amazing. The Speidel is not full stainless and needs paint repair/touchup each year but it works really well!

My friend owns 2 Lancman 250L and they both operate like a charm as well. 

My answer for you is choose one that you can have quick access to accessories near you, because when you press and a balloon leaks, it's already nice when you can change it the same day and doesn't wait 3 weeks for shipping ;)

On Thu, Aug 20, 2020 at 8:03 AM Christian Stolte <cst...@gmx.de> wrote:

Hi, I am wondering whether you could give me advice on the tiltable hydropresses from Speidel, Zottel, Euroinox, Lancman, Zambelli ... of around 100l capacity. Which is the best and which to stay away from?

--
--
Visit our website: http://www.ciderworkshop.com
 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "Cider Workshop" Google Group.
By joining the Cider Workshop, you agree to abide by our principles. Please see http://www.ciderworkshop.com/resources_principles.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cider Workshop" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cider-worksho...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cider-workshop/f68f2527-87da-c0c7-4150-e64bc59c1548%40gmx.de.

[Wayne Bush]

I have the 170 litre lancman and it is great.  All stainless steel.  With two people working we easily do 1000 litres in a day.  Average roughly 60 percent plus yield.  Considered the 250 litre but decided the smaller version would be easier to handle (i.e., pull out and empty the press bag) when working alone.  In expanding, I would operate two or more of these in tandem (there's a German study somewhere showing that two in tandem is more efficient than a single larger press).  

[Nick Middleditch]

In my limited experience. 

I’ve managed to make 1000 litres in a day on my own using a 90litre speidel hydropress, but that was flat out and really hard work and I wished I was using a bigger press. 

I also noted that a tilting mechanism must be the way forward as I don’t think I could lift any more than the 90 litre pomace off the press in one go which was hard enough in itself. 

I’m looking to buy the lancman 250. Mainly as this was recommended to me by another lone working cider maker for their reliability and ease of sourcing general plumbing parts to fix it.

This may well of course be true for other hydropress’.

My main driver for a large tilt press is the ability to work on my own If necessary so I’m hoping the tilt function will allow me to do that whilst giving a greater juice yield at a time. 

Kind regards

Nick

On 27 Aug 2020, at 21:27, Wayne Bush <butter...@hotmail.com> wrote:



I have the 170 litre lancman and it is great.  All stainless steel.  With two people working we easily do 1000 litres in a day.  Average roughly 60 percent plus yield.  Considered the 250 litre but decided the smaller version would be easier to handle (i.e., pull out and empty the press bag) when working alone.  In expanding, I would operate two or more of these in tandem (there's a German study somewhere showing that two in tandem is more efficient than a single larger press).  

On Thursday, August 20, 2020 at 2:03:04 PM UTC+2, Christian Stolte wrote:

Hi, I am wondering whether you could give me advice on the tiltable hydropresses from Speidel, Zottel, Euroinox, Lancman, Zambelli ... of around 100l capacity. Which is the best and which to stay away from?

--
--
Visit our website: http://www.ciderworkshop.com
 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "Cider Workshop" Google Group.
By joining the Cider Workshop, you agree to abide by our principles. Please see http://www.ciderworkshop.com/resources_principles.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cider Workshop" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cider-worksho...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cider-workshop/4525ca67-43db-45d4-b446-e2bc2d9656dco%40googlegroups.com.

[bryanhart]

Good thread here.

I’ve been working through the comparisons between hydro presses and the more traditional packing presses as I need to upgrade from my old oak / 20 tonne air jack press to something more manageable as the years dictate. I built my oak frame press about 7 years ago but I’m now finding that the setting up and effort to build the cheeses and lifting the air jack and double thick oak top to the press quite tiring after a full day’s pressing, not great for my back either! I want to be able to set up mills and presses quicker without all the prep need for my current set up so that I can react to pressing smaller quantities of apples gathered in our village rather than a long week of intensive pressing in October, sort of averaging it out rather that a rush.

 

I planted a new orchard with 200 cider trees in the Chiltern Hills about 4 years ago and the fruits of my labour are starting to come through, so it’s time to upgrade as throughput will be increasing dramatically in the coming years.

 

The tilting Lancman 250 looks great and thanks to Wayne Bush for the tandem idea but I see that it takes extracts about 60% juice on a 3 bar water supply as opposed to 75% with a packing press. Is it possible to increase juice extraction as this is about 10% less that other presses and pressing 1000’s of litres a year, and expanding, will make a significant difference to juice yields? Also does anyone know if it possible to increase the pressure in a hydro press to get more juice extracted?

 

I’m working through the process to see how much effort is required to produce say 1000 litres (obviously depending on variable apple juice content) so I can decide on a packing press or a hydro press?

 

Any advice out there?

 

Bryan

The Chiltern Cider Company Ltd

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cider-workshop/E4542AA2-46A8-46E5-9052-949CD0778F88%40gmail.com.

[ronb...@gmail.com]

I have a lancman 90, love it...it is as big as  I would want to go for a one man show, and I also would recommend 2 in tandem.  You can increase your yields by waiting longer...as you apply the water pressure.   I am on my own well so water pressure and quantity of water used are not an issue.

Not sure where you are...but I am in very Rural Idaho...I could not find many answers when I bought mine a few years ago...

but...

3 questions that immediately come to mind...are: how long does it take to get replacement parts and are they even available....except by slow boat from Europe?

and how long does that expandable bladder usually last, and  at what point in time should one be ordered to just sit in storage waiting to be needed?  

It is very easy to clean up after a day of pressing...that is a big plus for me.

it stores easy.    it moves easy...

Not sure if you can...but you should visit folks who are using other methods and see what it is really like to use...and no matter which you choose.

good luck... you came to the right spot to get information. great bunch of folks on here.

ron b

[Wayne Bush]

Bryan, I second what Ron B. said about increasing yield by leaving the press to cycle longer so that the pulp is good and dry at the end.  You can also increase the yield by not emptying the bladder completely each time, so that you are putting less pulp in the press and shortening the distance that the juice has to travel through pommace.  I recirculate the water I use in the bladder by pumping it back and forth to a 100 litre tank, and topping up as needed with mains water, so there is very limited waste water (I use the 100 litres at the end of the day for cleanup of the cidery and equipment).  I think the escape valve on the bladder is supposed to activate at 2.5 bar, but mine routinely works at a little over 3 bar.  I think 60 percent is a conservative estimate of the yield--it might be more, but I don't have precise weights on my incoming apple crates so can't be sure.  

For me the slightly lower yield is a good trade off for the labor savings compared to a rack and cloth press.  I've heard that some people use compressed air in these presses, and I think in the archives of this group there's a discussion on that, but I don't think it is advisable from a safety perspective, I've never been willing to take the risk of doing that myself.  The only difficult part about using this press is emptying the press bag.  Although the press tilts, it really takes two of us to slide the press bag out and hoist it into a trailer that I use to carry away the pommace.  One could do it alone if you emptied the bag onto a tarp spread on the ground, but then you'd have to shovel up the pommace.   

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cider-w...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cider-workshop/4525ca67-43db-45d4-b446-e2bc2d9656dco%40googlegroups.com.

--
--
Visit our website: http://www.ciderworkshop.com
 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "Cider Workshop" Google Group.
By joining the Cider Workshop, you agree to abide by our principles. Please see http://www.ciderworkshop.com/resources_principles.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cider Workshop" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cider-w...@googlegroups.com.