NOTICE: Genesis hop units - batch 5 - tolerance issue

UPDATE 11/05/2024: We will be solving this problem by making the Projnut brass inner barrel clamp an included component of the Genesis kit next week. The next price of the kits will be £150 instead of £130, which is a £3 saving to the customer as a Projnut is £23 separately.

For Genesis hop units in the current batch 5, we've been alerted by several customers to a tolerance issue where the standard barrel nut is very stiff to screw into the hop unit in some cases.

Some customers have struggled greatly with this.

All of the barrel nut threads on this batch were inspected and fitted with a barrel nut as part of our Quality Control inspections for 7 weeks in Autumn 2023 before anodising, all of them passed so we believe this issue has arisen from a small increase in surface layer thickness from the gold anodising, indicating tolerances on this batch are slightly tighter than previous batches. Measurements show approxiamtelty 0.06mm tighter than previous batches, and tolerance of the KJW/ASG barrel nuts also contributes to the problem.

We have investigated the problem and found it can be resolved by customers by doing a forced pre-fit of the nut to clear the threads before full assembly.

Make sure the threads are clean of debris, then apply a little oil or WD40 to the threads of the hop unit. Grip the barrel nut with an adjustable spanner or wrench, then twist the hop unit into it by hand to avoid damaging the gold hop unit, be careful not to cross-thread it.

Grip it with a cloth if necessary to avoid slipping when twisting.

If you have access to a vice to hold the hop unit, this is a lot easier, but can be done by hand with spanners or large pliers.

Screw it all the way down, then back out fully and clean the threads of debris by twisting it on the cloth you held it with. Also clean out the threads in the hop unit.

Some are worse than others, but the forced pre-fit may scrape off anodising from the threads inside the hop unit, so be sure to clear it out.

It should be easier to complete assembly now. The threads were all fit-checked during inspections before anodising, but we think the gold anodising has affected the tolerances enough to make it tighter.

If you have a brass Projnut barrel clamp from us, they are easier to fit due to better tolerances and higher-quality manufacturing and material.

We will be pre-fitting all hop units dispatched by us from now on, so this notice is just for people who already received their kits or had it dispatched.