Bladder Presses: Lancman 80L vs Speidel 90L

[Travis Storm]

Hi all,

I'm curious if anyone's worked with those two presses and can give me a recommendation? One thing I like about the Lancman is that it tilts, which would be nice when emptying ~90lb of dry pomace from the press. But, the Speidel is a few hundred dollars cheaper...

Do you find a tilting press is necessary at this volume?

Thanks in advance!

-Travis

[Mark Rudge]

Hi Travis

I've got a 120 litre Lancmann press. Its not tilting as the tilt added a lot to the total cost. It does means that after each pressing I am left with a cylinder of crumb to remove. I remove it steadily so the crumb doesn't fall all over the place. However by the time I have finished removing the crumb the bladder has just about finished emptying and I'm ready to load again. So all in all I don't lose any time.

Regards

Mark
www.facebook.com/wastedappleco

[Matt Eldridge]

 The Speidel is a pain to empty as well, makes a real mess and after five years of using it I still haven't figured out a way of doing it without getting the pomace everywhere.

 Matt

Sent from my iPhone 6

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[Travis Storm]

Hi Matt - thanks for the response! Sounds like you'd recommend a tilting press then? I expect to do about 500 gallons in the next year, and hopefully several thousand the year after. 

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[Travis Storm]

Hi Mark - 

Interesting, thanks! Sounds like you have a Lancman VS-A? I hadn't considered that one for some reason (I think the tilting really caught my eye). I'll consider it now!

Appreciate the advice,

-Travis

[Glen Gray]

Hi Travis,

I have the Lancman 80 with tilting and it's wonderful !

We've been using it for the past three years without any problems...

Good luck!

glen

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[Travis Storm]

Somewhat related follow-up questions:

I've managed to find a used VSPI-X 250, selling for $2500 (including freight). Does that sound like a good price? That seems to be roughly $1k less than a new one (including taxes, no freight).

And, does anyone have advice for buying a used press? I'm a bit hesitant to pay for one and have it shipped across the country without ever having seen it, but these devices are fairly simple so maybe it's a safe purchase?

Appreciate any thoughts you have!

Thanks,

-Travis

[Tim]

I have a Speidel 90 and don't find it too bad to empty at all.  After pressing I find I just pull out the cloth and the pomace remains intact as a cylinder.  Need to light it quite high to get it over the lip of the lazer cut barrel though.  The thing I find is the way I use it it is not very efficient with water and efficiency is probably at around 65%. 

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[Suzy Diesen]

I have a Lancman bladder press and like it.  I can use it alone and press everything expediently.  My only thought is that one uses as much water as resultant juice.  I am going to make some sort of recirc system with a pump.  The unit is on casters and cleans and stores well when not in use.

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[Travis Storm]

I also plan on recirculating water with a pump, but haven't put the system together yet... any advice would be welcome!

I'm thinking something like this might work... 

https://www.amazon.com/SHURflo-Industrial-Pump-Model-2088-594-154/dp/B0001FAA5Y/191-7756180-7654644?ie=UTF8&keywords=SHURflo%20Industrial%20Pump%20model%202088-594-154&qid=1464229369&ref_=sr_1_1&s=lawn-garden&sr=8-1

[Peter C. Ross - Incy Wincy Cyder (Aust.)]

I have a 45 Litre one and taking delivery of a 90 Litre tomorrow to back it up.  We have spent a bit of time trying to optimise processes and we think we've figured a few things out. Everyone is different, this is just our opinion.

• We're on Tank Water (no town water) with a pump, and running the outlet back into the pump (via 30 metres of Ag pipe) works a treat. Pressed probably a tonne last weekend and used very little water (naturally some spillage/ leaks waste). Not often I feel lucky being only on tank water, but this is one such occasion.
• One reason for running two presses is to allow the fuller pressing of the pomace without getting impatient and wanting to get onto the next press run. We'll see if that works or if I just want to go faster .....
• Think about using the outflow via a hose to your apple wash station, that's also a good use but is probably more water than you need more often than you need.
• Don't overload the press. You can get a lot more into it, but you don't get a lot more out. Smaller runs are more efficient in terms of output %
• I run the press on a small elevated bench and catch the juice in a 40 Litre bucket on a trolley so it's easily moved to the vat (that is unfortunately when it does need to be lifted, but i'm working on that)
• Not overloading makes the pomace drier, and obviously lighter because it's drier and there's less of it. The 45 is a breeze to unload. See how I go with the 90 this weekend.
• I tend to pull the S/Steel barrel off the semi collapsed bag of pomace, and then i don't need to lift the pomace as high
• We press on the verandah of the house which is about a metre off the ground level. We use a small hand cart on wheels at ground level to catch the pomace which (mostly) goes in easily, and then that is emptied to the back of a Landcover which takes it all to the local pigs.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

[nfcider]

I've heard several UK producers have adapted their hydra presses to re use the water for efficiency from a reservoir tank also incorporating a pressure relief valve preset at 2.8/9 bar this then eliminates the Lancman 3 bar relief valve opening and letting water out.Doing this then you can leave it pressing longer as the pump cuts back in and out as the pressure drops back,when emptying opening the bottom valve the water goes back into into the reservoir tank.

[Barney]

There is some information on how to do this on the Winegrowers.info website. Roll down to the bottom of this page:

http://winegrowers.info/wine_equip/presses/info.htm

As an aside, I have a 180 litre Speidel hydropress that I adore. The tipping is a great feature and we typically get 65-70% kg/kg efficiency out of it. Best of all, compared to my old rack and cloth press (made out of a 20 ton workshop press) the clean up is a dream!

All the best,

Barney

[Mark]

I have a Lancman VSPIX 80l and I'm very happy with it. The rotating drum certainly makes it easy to remove the pomace - I just pull the bag and pomace straight into a wheel barrow.

I use a pump I bought from Lidl to recycle the water in combination with a large dustbin to hold the water. When finished, I open the inlet to the press with the pump off and the water flows back through the pump into the bin. It's a bit slow to back fill so I've been meaning to find a better method but have never quite got round to it.

Mark

[Peter C. Ross - Incy Wincy Cyder (Aust.)]

Just following through on this. With the two presses running and 2 people we're washing, scratting, pressing and cleaning up roughly 3 bins a day, about 650 Litres. With 4 people we easily managed 1600 Litres (same kit) in one big day and a gentle second day.