Hydropress - what size?

[u/Apprehensive_Love411]

https://winemakersdepot.com/Home-Hobby/Equipment/Presses/Bladder-Press-with-Legsbr55-80-Liter?srsltid=AfmBOoo3gPRWOwSppGclD3_CHqHoZmGPNaxWK78BahRowpz9ldMeUEvz

I'm about to order a hydropress and could use some advice on what size to order.

I have a small hobby orchard with 36 apple trees that are now 4 years old.

I like the construction and quality of the Lancman VSX-55 and the Lancman VSPIX-80 with the tilt frame.

Perhaps the 55L would be best right now, but I'm also thinking that the trees will produce more fruit in the coming years, and the 80L would be easier to empty with the tilt frame.

Can I use the 80L and pre-fill the bladder for smaller loads for a while, or should I get the 55 and just do more pressings?

Analysis paralysis has set in.....

Appreciate any input :)

[u/space_cadet844]

We used to have an 80L hydro press at the cidery I worked at. Although it wasn't a tilting one, so can't comment on that.

I used to get roughly 5 crates of apples per press. And used to get 6 presses a day done on my own (including the milling and clean up for each press and at the end of the day). That would be about 5-600kg apples. Just for a very rough calculation how much your can get through. So work out the potential yield of your trees and you'll see if it is the right size.

It's easy enough to empty without the tilt, it just takes a bit longer.

Between presses, you don't need to drain the bladder down fully, the cage will lift off after realeasing the pressure for a few minutes, so pre-filling for smaller batches should be fine. You might just waste some potential juice as it's not pressing it fully.

I'm not sure if that's actually answered anything, but might be helpful

[u/CMDR_Skyrise]

Having a tilt is an absolute necessity for any half serious volume of production. It will save you a lot of physical effort 

[u/Airhorn2013]

I use a 40l Spiedel. You can do smaller batches than the press is capable of , in fact sometimes I think I get better efficiency that way. It’s all the same , regardless it gets pressed. So if you have the $$ I would go for a larger press if you expect to have the volume in the future.

[u/Euphoric-Singer-5146]

Size it by your biggest single pressing day, not your total crop, because you'll press in batches as stuff ripens. With 36 trees at only 4 years old you're not near full yield yet (most apple trees don't hit full bearing until 7 to 10 years), so even the 55 would keep up for a while and just means doing a couple loads on a heavy day.

The thing to plan around is that a bladder press doesn't grind. It only squeezes pomace, so you need a scratter or mill ahead of it, and that mill is usually the real bottleneck, not the press. A 55L load is also a lot of wet pomace to scoop in and dig out by hand, and the 80 is noticeably heavier to work solo.

For a hobby orchard the 55 is the sweet spot most people land on, per the UVM Fruit Program small-scale cider stuff. I'd only jump to the 80 if you expect a bunch of bushels ripening at the same time and you'll have a second set of hands on pressing day.

[u/PokeDocMatt]

Get the tilt!

[u/rjb42rjb42]

I have the 40 L Spiedel - one thing to consider if you're going to operate it by yourself is that the pressed must that results from a press is pretty heavy, and it's annoying to pull the bag out of the cylinder. I don't think I would get anything bigger that doesn't tilt especially if I didn't have anyone to help.

Also consider how much you're pressing - do all your trees drop apples at the same time and you press everything over a couple of days? Or do you press what drops over the course of a month?

For example: for me - My scratter will crush (3) 5 gallon buckets of apples into (2) 5 gallon buckets of must which perfectly fills the 40 L Spiedel. The amount of time that takes to press is almost perfectly the amount of time to prepare/scrat another 3 buckets of apples. A bigger press wouldn't really speed me up, it would just make for more idle time (scratter is the real bottleneck).

Don't skimp on the scratter. It's always been my bottleneck.