RIMS up in smoke

Well almost anyway. Was brewing along and smelled something getting hot. Then I saw smoke! One of the wires was smoldering off the SSR. Had to unplug it and plug the element direct into the main outlet. Can't quite figure this one out.
It's a 220V 5500W element. I have an Auber Inst control, rtd, 40A SSR and 40A heat sink. My input power is 240V from a 30A GFI. I have 30A fuses in my panel for each leg before the SSR. It's all 10 ga wire.

Go figure!

Was it the SSR maybe? I have heard of ONE going out mid brew session... but never seen this happen myself. How many brews did you have on it?

Bad or poor connection maybe? Wouldn't a loose connection potentially cause a problem like this?

illin8 said:

Bad or poor connection maybe? Wouldn't a loose connection potentially cause a problem like this?

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True true... I am curious, I want to know what failed, since I have that same SSR and same heatsink

I would also guess an inadequate connection to the SSR. The connection should definitely have at least as much metal as the wire and be secure. The connection obviously got too hot so maybe better cooling is needed?

yeah a loose connection would definately cause something like that, even if it is a little loose, a lot of times the casing around the wire will burn away. or it will melt whatever it is connected too.

Well I may have found the problem but I'm too embarrassed to tell.

You can't do that...do tell...

a Boooooooooooooooooooo

COME ON, this is important to other SSR users

The Pol said:

Was it the SSR maybe? I have heard of ONE going out mid brew session... but never seen this happen myself. How many brews did you have on it?

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Make that 2. A few months ago one of mine did. Only had it for a year or so when it went. Luckily, I just moved the pot to the other SSR.

Hahahs.....no. Seriously.

I'll start with some stupid I did.....Using a banjo burner with no heat shield on my valves and blichman. Everything melted or was beyond repair. There went ~$60.

Don't worry about sounding stupid. Somewhere, sometime, a n00b will come across your post and be like "Damn...I almost made that same mistake. Thanks Poobah for letting me know I was about to do it too."

It couldn't be more embarrassing than those hats, or could it be?

Seriously I am putting my control panel together and would like to avoid any potential pitfalls and electrocution death while brewing!

Well OK. If I can have my picture posted wearing that hat then I guess this isn't so bad. My neighbor came over for a few brews after I was done. Told him what happened. He is an electrical engineer. BTW, I'm a control systems integrator and have an associates in EE (that's the embarrassing part). I have used this system 4 times including test runs. This time I was heating up the mash water and it was dirty so I dumped it and heated up again. The heater had been balls to the wall for quite a while. He started reading numbers off the SSR. "25 something". Looked at the other SSR (for the RIMS). "40 something". Oops. I mounted the SSR's to the wrong heat sink, thus the wrong element.
Not sure why this is a problem. The connections are tight. My 5500W heater would be 25A at 220V. It should not pass enough current to melt the jacket of the 10 ga wire, especially when it is protected with a 30A fuse! All I can figure is the SSR got so hot it was the cause of the melting wire. I will rewire this weekend to see if the SSR is OK...

Cool thanks for sharing. I have a 40A SSR on my 5500W element and it and the heatsink barely get warm when I am brewing...

I really hope I dont have an SSR go out on a brew.

Not the end of the world if it did. Just plug directly into the outlet and keep an eye on the temp. Luckily mine was the HLT and not the RIMS. Was much easier to control the temp.

Poobah58 said:

Not the end of the world if it did. Just plug directly into the outlet and keep an eye on the temp. Luckily mine was the HLT and not the RIMS. Was much easier to control the temp.

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My element is on a 3 prong cord and I have a 4 prong main outlet though. I run 4 lines INTO my control panel so that I have a neutral, 2 hots and a ground to split inside the box. THEN my element plugs into a 3 prong outlet on the control box... 2 hots and one ground, no neutral obviously. I just have a distribution block in my control panel so that I tap into the 240VAC to get 120VAC to run all of my stuff, and then 240VAC to run the BK element.

I ran 220V (3-prong) and 110V to my panel (kinda see them on the bottom of panel). My elements have the same connector as the main input.

Poobah58 said:

I ran 220V (3-prong) and 110V to my panel (kinda see them on the bottom of panel). My elements have the same connector as the main input.

View attachment 11317

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Ahh, yeah I just ran 240VAC to the panel and split it up in there, fewer wires and a little cleaner build. If my SSR gets smoked, I am pulling out my darn turley fryer (that I actually fry turkeys on)

Probably wouldn't hurt to shelf a spare SSR.
Thanks

tipicreeper said:

Probably wouldn't hurt to shelf a spare SSR.
Thanks

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That has crossed my mind... they are cheap. That and a couple female QDs

Thanks for the info Poobah - I was just kidding about those hats . . .

Do you run a fan inside your control box or do you think it would have fried the wire anyway?

I am using 25amp SSR's and only using 1500 watt element so I figure I should be ok. Also installed a small fan and some really modest heat sinks as well.

Good info, I will be ordering a spare SSR as well.......just in case.

samc said:

Thanks for the info Poobah - I was just kidding about those hats . . .

Do you run a fan inside your control box or do you think it would have fried the wire anyway?

I am using 25amp SSR's and only using 1500 watt element so I figure I should be ok. Also installed a small fan and some really modest heat sinks as well.

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I don't have a fan. Probably not necessary if SSR's on correct heat sink and element.

Poobah58 said:

I don't have a fan. Probably not necessary if SSR's on correct heat sink and element.

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Yah, I mean my heatsink barely gets warm.