Has anyone purchased from Abany for fermenters or brites?

[dvodan22]

Catfish002,
They didn't include any burners with the system. We are planning on using a 200,000 BTU forced air burner under both the Kettle and the HTL. This is the burner we have been looking at using http://www.glaciertanks.com/Jet_Burn...00_000BTU.html. Both the vessels came with long heat shields that we are working with a mechanical engineer (required by the city for us) to design the fire box and baffles under the tanks to direct the heat where its needed.

[spbrewing]

Thank you for the post, I have also had a great experience with Gavin for my purchase. I am interested in the broker process. Gavin is telling me he takes care of all paperwork and all I have to do is wait for the call and pick up when it arrives. But I see everyone else is using a broker. Any insight would be appreciated so I can plan accordingly. My order should be shipping this week. Thanks.

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[Sungood-Machinery]

Thank you for the post, I have also had a great experience with Gavin for my purchase. I am interested in the broker process. Gavin is telling me he takes care of all paperwork and all I have to do is wait for the call and pick up when it arrives. But I see everyone else is using a broker. Any insight would be appreciated so I can plan accordingly. My order should be shipping this week. Thanks.

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Hello,You should have a Customs broker to help you take care of importing Customs paperwork,
Our company only take care of exporting Customs paperwork.

If you have any questions,please email me.
Thank you!

[dvodan22]

Spbrewing,
We hired a broker to handle all of our customs paperwork. Like Gavin said he takes care of everything with the shipping and customs paperwork on his end but it's your responsibility to handle everything ( customs paperwork, shipping from the port to your brewery) on your end. We got the name and contact information for our broker from the website of the port our equipment was being shipped to. They had a preferred brokers list on their website. From the reserch we did on wether we should try to file all the paperwork ourselves we decided to hire a broker so there wasn't any delays once everything got to the port.
About a month before we thought our equipment was going to be shipped we contacted the broker. They gave us some basic forms to fill out and get back to them and that was about it as far as what we needed to do at first. After we got the message from Gavin that the equipment was done he sent us the final pics for approval. We then approved of everything and he sent all the equipment to the port in Shanghai to prepare everything for shipment to Seattle (that was the closest port to us). A couple days before everything left Shanghai Gavin Sent us the ISF form our broker needed to get the ball rolling in Seattle to get ready to receive the shipment. It took about 2 weeks for the boat to reach Seattle. As soon as we received the arrival notice from our broker that our equipment arrived we released the final amount of money to Gavin and in return he sent us the bill of lading for the shipment. As soon as we had the bill of lading we gave it to the broker and that's all they needed to send our paperwork to customs for approval and a release notice. A few days later we got a call from the broker saying everything cleared customs and we received the release notice. They then gave us the address of the warehouse in Seattle where the equipment was being stored. Then we payed the broker for all their work and rented a uhaul and went to the warehouse and picked up our stuff. There was a lot of steps even with a broker to do this right so I can only imagine how much more of a headache it would have been doing it without a broker. If it isn't your first time Importing equipment from another country than you can probably handle it but for the first timers like us I definitely recommend a broker. Add about $2000 for the broker and whatever it'll cost you getting the equipment from the port to your brewery.

[scotts]

We're in Europe and our *broker* fees are around $100 per item regardless whether the item is a small wooden crate or a 40 foot container. Granted our local broker hasn't provided great service and we've done much of the leg work, but at least he was cheap and provided the guidance. There are all kinds of other fees involved that depend on the size/value of the shipment. We had to pay VAT (sales tax), a small excise/import tax (also a percent of total value for items in a certain import category, 1-2%), then there are port fees, storage fees, inspection fees (even if not inspected), transport fees, etc. The biggest out of pocket expense for us was the VAT, though that will be a wash on our taxes once we start making money.

We first bought a pilot system from Abany last fall to test the design and build quality and then placed a large order that is a mix of 7 bbl and 15 bbl. Given the relative size of the order and since this is a self-funded venture, for my sanity I visited China in May to inspect the equipment. Gavin gave me a tour of two factories, one north of Shanghai in Nantong where they make smaller brewery equipment as well as my 7 bbl mash tun and brew kettle. The other factory was south in Wenzhou where they make all of the larger pressure-rated fermenters and brites. I'm not an expert in this field but I was pleased with everything I saw and believe it's an excellent value compared to what I've seen made in Europe which ranges from poor to excellent, but priced at a premium regardless.

Similar to what another poster said, I've easily exchanged hundreds of emails with Gavin over the last 9 months between these two orders, asking about small adjustments, prices if I do such and such, and customizing my order to a very detailed degree, and his responses are rarely more than a few hours away. We don't have anything like a GWKent (or cheap Internet reseller) here so I ordered a ton of fittings and some custom pipework and that all looked good as well. One small problem with my first order was immediately addressed and corrected completely to my satisfaction.

One complaint I see on these forums about "China" in general often results from the person not knowing exactly what they're getting. Ask. Look at the drawings and study them carefully. Ask about anything not detailed on the drawing -- testing/working pressure, steel thickness, threaded ports (which Abany doesn't use). These items are all built on demand, so you can customize them as you wish, like adding a TC port or changing the thickness of the steel.

My second order is now on the boat; I'll post pictures once it arrives and is installed in another 4-6 weeks.

[spbrewing]

Thank you everyone for the information, this helps a lot!

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[bcryan]

we ordered a 15bbl brite from gavin. every step from start to finish was painless. great communication. tank is high quality. we will be ordering all our future equipment from them. send me a pm if you have any questions.

[HR3]

Ordered from Gavin

I also have ordered 2 FV and 1BBT from Gavin. He is very good with his emails back and forth, some are hard to read, but you figure them out. I never had to wait a long period of time to get a response and so far, havent had any issues. My stuff is due in today at my broker for pickup. I will post back when I have opened them up.

The one thing that is not a recommendation but something everyone SHOULD do, get a customs agent. You have a very limited window doing the ISF and getting all the information filed correctly to ensure the process is smooth. Once i did that, smooth sailing.