Thoughts/advice on two pieces of (used) winery equipment

Cellar Rats (ITB)
1

The first is a standalone foil spinner of Italian make, from a company called Marchisio. It’s a tabletop unit and has a lever you pull down to spin the foil. Logistics of hand bottling aside, anybody have experience with one of these, or have thoughts on spinners in general?

The second is three small, stacked SS fermenting tanks, welded together. There is a 250 gallon chamber on the bottom, 500 gallon in the middle and 250 gallon on the top. Each of the sub-tanks is jacketed. Made in Germany by Spiedel.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Any thoughts on a ballpark fair price for this equipment, which the seller claims is in “mint condition” (I haven’t seen the items myself, yet)?

Thanks in advance!

2

What kind of volume are you doing ? Also, do you have a picture of that tank set-up ? Never seen such a thing and trying to figure out what is the benefit.

3

If I am picturing the stacked tanks properly, I shudder at the thought of trying to clean them.

4

Linda, I’m helping a friend make a small amount of white wine for a side project. The benefit is that her space isn’t very large, so the tank takes up a much smaller footprint than 3 “traditional” tanks would.

William, we’re fermenting white wine in there (no skins), so I figure it might not be too bad, from a cleaning standpoint. But I haven’t seen the tanks yet, before I schlepped over to Napa to look at them, I figured I’d ask if anybody had any experience. I imagine the tank looks something like this?
http://www.winegrowers.info/wine_equip/tanks_stst/fixed%20capacity.htm

5

No personal experience with the spinner or tank, but my guess is that they are stacked to conserve space and allow for fermentation of smaller lots??

6

Looking at the picture
on what would be the bottom chambers, how would you stir or do “gentle” additions ? Looks like no place for access when holding wine.
Just looks like a very limited use tank.
L

7

The Speidel tanks I have seen, seem to be really high quality. But maybe that was just the comparison to my tin foil thin version. Here’s a link to their stacking tanks. Appear well thought out and configurable.
http://www.vigoltd.com/downloads_march_2010/FS-MO%20&%20AS-MO.pdf
I have a Marchesio filler which I really like. No experience with their spinners though.

8

Thanks for the responses everybody. If the price is right and my friend does decide to go in this direction, I’ll be sure to post pics and impressions.