Carboy lifter

Don't take this wrong, but I hope Martin has product liability insurance. It looks decent but if something ever lets loose and someone gets hurt lawyers inevitably get involved. Murphy always has his day, it's just a fact of life.

That is a very good price for the amount of effort it would take to make it, that's all I am saying. You can get a 900 # ratchet mechanism from Grainger for under $30 so I have little doubt it's safe for lifting carboys. The other material is pretty inexpensive but has to be assembled, it's sounds like he is selling this close to cost.

I have 2 bad disks so have considered making one myself, that's why I was surprised at the the price.

Joe

If anyone should buy this, just remember to keep the carboy platform just off the floor when pushing it around. It doesn't look like it'll take much to flip it when the carboy is raised.

Phil

=====visit the New York City Homebrewers Guild website:

Keep this link and info handy somewhere.

After several moons, one of us will decide we want one and won't remember where we saw it, andy you'll have it for us, and therefore be Da Man.

Thanks Dick. I have been intrigued by that thing since I first saw it. You are the first person besides Jack that has actually used one. I am not surprised that the price has gone up. I could not see how he could sell it for what he was originally quoting.

In reading Jack's review it sounded like it might not lift as High as might be needed. Do you have any problems along those lines?

Ray

Up here in Canada, Canadian Tire has a 'hoist' gizmo for lifting motorcycles that would probably work for carboys too.

Frances

I have heard that Canadian Tire sells neither Canadians nor Canadian tires, LoL

My suspicision iis that the Canadian Tire hoist is great for people outting carboys is chest freezers. Martin Benke's lifter is not intended for a great deal of lateral movement. The idea is to raise A caboy or a pail to a table top, move the pallet on which the carboy sits onto the table, and remove the life.

Dick

As much as I crave being associated with Jack Keller, I believe the actual users are his child bride and my child bride. Whatt more can a man asked for than a woman gullible enough to live with him and help him make alcohol.

We are in agreement, Ray. Jack paid $150 and provided his own freight. I paid $225 including UPS - given the bulk size and the weight, I'd speculate I'd paid $180 to $190. Once Martin starts making 5 a week, the price will have to level off to $200 to $225 plus freight.

Before I called Martin to order it, I measured the height of the horizontal surfaces I might be using. 30 inchs was the common answer. Jack Keller wrote 36 inchs and I found that to be correct.

If you have one of these carboy lifters, you have to make a real effort to break a carboy.

Dick

Damn! Another one beat me to it! I also have been tinkering with an idea to assist my friend that has a degenerative muscle disorder and finds it near impossible to lift or move carboys without the help of someone else. I've got a version of a caboy lifter on the drawing board as well. Hopfully it'll be ready soon too. Steve

Take a look at Martin Benke's Lifter in the March 25, 2005 entry on Jack Keller's blog at

See if it meets your friend needs! Unless he needs a wench to load and unload a chest freezer, it probably will meet her/his needs.

Never lose sight of the fact that the most efficient Carboy Lifters are spouses, children, and friends.

Dick

As for moving carboys around the solution may be a solid rubber stopper for the top and a furniture dolly.

Lifting is a different story....but you do not have to lift a carboy if you can pump the liquid out. My personal preference is vacuum displacement (evacuate the empty carboy which then draws the wine into it).

They are the most unreliable of all my tools. They always seem to be misplaced when I most need them! ;o)

Ray

The entire problem with spouses is some guys allow them to come and go as they please. A woman not required to give you her car keys as soon as she comes home is an untrained woman.

Dick

P.S.: Please do not repeat the above to my child bride.

My My. We all talk so brave when it's just among ourselves. :*)

Me? My wife said she'd lift any carboy for me anytime.... anytime I keep the toilet seat down for 2 days straight. :*) hahaha.

DAve p.s. As I get older, I see how a carboy lifter or vacuum system makes sense. Just have to have fun until then.

Dick Adams wrote:

I like this one, but my brain isn't registering on how to evacuate the empty carboy.

Dick

Hi. I'm a woman. I brew. I read this group. And I am ignoring the troll.

-- I see green again, with growing things ^ /o\ \ / /|\ The earth arise from out of the sea; |/\v/--- / \ /__ / | \ Fell torrents flow, overflies them the eagle b ^ | | \ / / | On hoar highlands, which hunts for fish. | / \ V \ / |

With a vacuum pump.

has the set up you need (the double drilled stopper and tubing, but for this you want the filling tube to reach down to the bottom of the empty carboy). Just look at their technical diagrams and ignore all the brewing equipment. You do not have to use their product either. You could use any vacuum pump....maybe even an aquarium pump maybe able to draw enough air out of the carboy to make it work... but that is probabally a longshot.

That was not a troll. It was disingenuous machoism.

Dick

This is a very good idea for moving mead/beer in/out of a chest freezer. I just got a stand-up freezer I had planned to use for fermenting. But it has much more space than the family chest freezer. So I'm going to switch them. I got mucho points for this idea and you all know how badly I need points. But my child bride asked how I planned to get the carboys out of the chest freezer. A Shop Vac would certainly have the strength to do that. Now I have to figure out how to connect a Shop Vac. SWMBO insists I figure things out before I do them.

Great suggestion, Droopy!

Dick

I didn't say what you *said* was a troll.

-- I see green again, with growing things ^ /o\ \ / /|\ The earth arise from out of the sea; |/\v/--- / \ /__ / | \ Fell torrents flow, overflies them the eagle b ^ | | \ / / | On hoar highlands, which hunts for fish. | / \ V \ / |