Setting Up for All Grain

[bilgerat]

Thanks again for your assistance, I have checked the SF800 as you suggested and indeed is does work as you said, as soon as I dropped the set point in E2 down below ambient I got 240V at the three pin plug.Perhaps I should keep this unit to control my fermentation fridge.

I have another keg king 16A Auto Switching Independent Heat and Cool controller that I havent started playing with yet.

Thanks

[emnpaul]

Thanks again for your assistance, I have checked the SF800 as you suggested and indeed is does work as you said, as soon as I dropped the set point in E2 down below ambient I got 240V at the three pin plug.

No worries.

It seems you have dodged a bullet and your SF 800 is still good.

Perhaps I should keep this unit to control my fermentation fridge.

That will work well, but what are you going to use for your heater? My guess is the 5A contacts are for heating. You can test this by swapping the wires from terminals 1&2 to terminals 4&5 respectively then raising the value of E1 to greater than ambient and E2 to a value higher than E1 by a couple of degrees. If the light comes on it proves that 4&5 are the heating terminals.

Do not plug your big a%$e heating element in to test or use this function though, as the terminals are not rated for that much load. There is a way around it by installing a relay which I can run you through if you so desire.

[bilgerat]

I have another temp controller which has two 16Amp relays on it, one is suppose to be for heating the other is for cooling, I havent tried to wire it up yet, I intend to use this for heating the HLT, do you mind if I email you the wiring diagram before I attempt anything, once again I appreciate your assistance, I have the SF800 connected to my fridge.
Im happy to post here if others learn from it.

[emnpaul]

In that case I'd use the one with 2 X 16A relays for your HLT as you've suggested. I'd say post it on this thread if it were up to me but it's really up to Oliver or GregB to have the final say.

I appreciate your assistance,

No worries. Glad to help out.

[bilgerat]

Here are some photos of my set up, a lot of time and work went into it, Im just about ready for my first brew, I just have to test the wort chiller set up with hot water first to make sure it works as planned, wort chiller is 12metres of 1/2" copper pipe in a coil in an esky of ice.I still need to get some lagging for the mash tun, a couple of towels will do for now.







Comments welcome

[emnpaul]

Totally epic. And then some.

[Bum]

Looking very nice, Bilgerat.

Only thing I can pick is that I'm pretty sure your immersion chiller would work better if you had your loops spaced out a bit more. Should still work pretty quick with the pre-chiller though.

Let us know how she sails.

[bilgerat]

Thanks for your comments and thanks heaps to emnpaul for getting my temp controller set up for my fermenter fridge.

I still have to sort out a controller for the heater element in my HLT, I have a controller with a heating and cooling relay/ contacts that will handle 16Amps.

When I run the heater element for the HLT straight off a power point I have noticed the three pin plug pins get very hot so assume it is pulling every bit of 15- 16 amps, my shed has a 16 Amp fuse protecting it.

I have just made up a partial mash brew, a dupont saison, not really an AG but at least I got to use the kettle and the March pump to run the wort through the chiller, talk about frustrating, the March pump is little more than a bloody paddle wheel, I can pee faster than it can pump, I ended up gravitating the wort through the chiller which worked a treat, I dont quite know why I paid over $300 for a "pump".

[Bum]

You might already be aware of it but there's concern about moving/aerating hot wort (look up HSA - hot side aeration - if you're interested). As a result, pumps used in brewing don't really get cranking.

Correction to my post above above: I thought the esky was for pre-chilling the water for an immersion chiller - thought the coil in the keg was your kettle not your HLT. Wasn't paying proper attention.

Good to hear the test run seems to have gone well.