Herms equipment question

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milesvdustin

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Hey all. I am planning on building an all electric HERMS somewhat based on Hals electric brewery. Obviously not as bling bling but at least highly functional. I am going to use one march pump with quick disconnects to move water and wort around. I will be using PID's to monitor boil, mash, and hlt.

I will be using my 10 gallon rubbermaid round cooler for the mlt. I have a 15 gallon stainless bk, and another 10 gallon rubbermaid for the hlt on my current setup. My question is, should I sell my current rubbermaid cooler and get another 15 gallon stainless pot? Or can I use the cooler for the hlt? Or should I get two more stainless pots and insulate one for the mlt? I am going to use the same heater elements and most of the parts from the electric brewery build. I am a noob to electric brewing but I am quite good with electronics, I work on helicopter avionics in the military. I got tired of using 15 bucks worth of propane for a five gallon batch.
 
I have basically the same setup with keg for kettle and 2 rubbermaid coolers (not electric yet). I was thinking about doing a RIMS system for recirculation and installing an element in the kettle. So I would heat the strike water in the kettle, then pump to the MT. Then heat the sparge water in the kettle and pump to the HLT. I was thinking for a long time about how to make the rubbermaid HLT electric, but the best I could come up with was a heatstick solution - and I wasn't happy with the thought. The only other option I can think of is what you already suggested: replacing the HLT with another keg. As for the MT, I don't see any reason to get rid of the cooler. It holds temp very well.
 
Yeah, I am thinking about going to a RIMS as well. The more I read about it, the better it seems. I like the idea of the three PID control panel that P-J posted last month. I think I am going to go with most of this setup.
If you need any mods to the diagram, let me know. I'd be glad to help.
 
for what it's worth, I do HERMS and have only a single electric kettle. My "HLT" only holds water for about 5 to 10 minutes during the day. Any container capable of holding 4 gallons of hot water for a few minutes would work fine for me.... stock pot, cooler, plastic bucket, etc.
 
If you need any mods to the diagram, let me know. I'd be glad to help.


I will get in touch with you when I get closer to building, probably a couple months out I will start buying parts. I think mostly I just want to add an ammeter, a voltmeter, and lights for all the different functions. sort of like Kal's control panel, but I don't need the herms stuff in there. Certainly not that involved! Then again, it will probably turn out really similar...
 
I just changed out my cooler HLT for a keg, but it worked very well with a cooler HLT. The only reason I changed was because I wanted to put in a bigger element, and the element was podded in there so I couldn't just change it out. I also wanted to do bigger batches.

It worked very well for me. I had a 1500 w element in the cooler, along with the HEX copper coil, and a little stirrer.
 
I guess my biggest question is would it be easier to build an electric herms or a rims system. None of it seems too complicated, I have a good background in electricity and whatnot. As far as cost goes, which one would be easier and most cost effective? I am going to use quick disconnects and 1/2" full port ball valves on the hlt, mlt, and bk. 1/2" everything actually.
 
I guess my biggest question is would it be easier to build an electric herms or a rims system. None of it seems too complicated, I have a good background in electricity and whatnot. As far as cost goes, which one would be easier and most cost effective? I am going to use quick disconnects and 1/2" full port ball valves on the hlt, mlt, and bk. 1/2" everything actually.

They are both simple, but I am a fan of HERMS when it comes to cost effectiveness and minimalism. With HERMS you don't need to build a RIMS tube ($), and you can do HERMS with just a single electric element involved. RIMS requires two elements if your plan is to also boil with electric.

If you already have an immersion chiller, that keeps the $ involved in moving to HERMS lower, too.

Both systems are great. Neither is better than the other, but I feel HERMS has an advantage in terms of costs.
 
I do have an immersion chiller already. Is there a place to read up on how these actually operate? I see lots of how to build but nothing on operation. Do you have to heat the hlt and then run the pump to heat the strike water on a herms? on a rims, do you have to heat the hlt and then heat your strike water to dough in? If so, how do you maintain the hlt while operating the rims?
 
I have decided to go rims, and I am going to borrow heavily from Kal's build. All I have to do is add an extra 30A relay and an ssr for the rims element. The MLT PID will become the rims PID, and it should work just fine. Now to slowly amass some parts....
 
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