Cheap stir bar question

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
L

lewishowardm3

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
Messages
238
Reaction score
14
Hi all. Sorry if this has been asked before. Just built my stir plate and I got a cheap 25mm stir bar. I have used a magnet from a hard drive and it is as close to the top as possible.

My question is are there different strength stir bars because it seems to jump off the centre as soon as I turn the power up a little.any help would be appreciated
 
What kind of power supply are you using and how are you controlling the power? If you have a very course power adjustment, it makes it hard to get a good spin without throwing the bar.
 
Only a 6 volt power supply going through a 2 watt potentiometer. It works fine with the stir bar directly on the plate but as soon as I put the stir bar in my flask it throws it off
 
A better stir bar might help. One other question, does your stirbar have a pivot ring? That makes a difference.
 
The stir bar should be no longer than the distance apart from the magnets. If its too large it will throw all the time. It took me forever to figure that out.
 
BrewNinja1 said:
The stir bar should be no longer than the distance apart from the magnets. If its too large it will throw all the time. It took me forever to figure that out.
Click to expand...

He's using a hard drive mag, so I don't think the stir bar is too big. I use a 1& 1/2 inch stir bar with my hard drive mags.

To the OP, pivot ring is a good thing and I'm pretty much out of suggestions. You'll just have to play it. DIY stir plates can be a fickle beast.
 
Try outting a form of riser in between flask and stir bar. I had to use the little rubber half circle stoppers from a craft store to get an appropriate separation to not throw the magnet. I just put them in a cross pattern around the fan center and sat the flask on top.
 
Make sure the hard drive magnet is perfectly centered on your fan. If the poles aren't centered the stir bar will try to spin out of wack and will always throw the bar.
 
You have a ridge in the center? THIS will keep it from throwing stir bar as well.
If your not boiling then, you don't need silicone O-rings, I use corny keg dip tube O-rings
 
Update: I got a 12mm stir bar and that seems to work perfect. Starter has been running for 15 hours now. It's a little noisy lol. Thanks for the help people :)
 

Similar threads

Nagorg
Stir Bar Size for Maelstrom Stir Plate
Replies
17
Views
2K
wepeeler
wepeeler
H
Yeast starter not starting
Replies
16
Views
1K
HB2112
H
G
For Sale Grainfather, BEERMKR, stir plate, Kegs, bottles for sale- north of Houston
Replies
3
Views
615
Greg R
G
rtstrider
Older stir bar throws easy now
Replies
4
Views
1K
rtstrider
rtstrider
Jhedrick83
Stir plates
Replies
18
Views
2K
InspectorJon
InspectorJon
Williams Brewing 300

Latest posts

Back
Top