Electric Brewing Supply kit

I have to build a new control panel for my Eherms- my last one has some issues and since I was trying to emulate some of the better panels on here I was considering ordering the 50 a kit from electric brewing supply - turn key ignition blah blah.


http://www.ebrewsupply.com/ebrew-kits/ebrew-pid-kits/pid-2-element-2-pumps-50a-kit.html

I have to find an enclosure and there are no outlets included with the kit. My search on here turned up little as to opinions on them but from the hours I have spent looking the price seems within the ballpark.

is this worth it price wise? would I be better off piecing it together myself?

the kit is listed at $245 - I figure another 200 for enclosure and plugs - I have pids

runningweird said:

is this worth it price wise?

Click to expand...

There is no single answer to that question.

Will you get a better deal by piecing it together yourself? Probably.

What I mean is that they are not offering that kit as a public service, out of pure altruism and benevolence. It's a product that they sell, and they are going to make a profit off of it.

You are paying for the convenience of one-stop-shopping by buying the kit.

So... is it worh it? It depends on how much they marked it up, and how much you value your time. If you can piece it together yourself for $40 less, but it takes you 10 hours of scouring the internet to do it... is your time worth $4/hour?

my time is priceless. worthless.

Ebrewsupplies prices are very reasonable and service is great. You could piece together something from several other sources but you will have a hard time beating their price overall. I was originally going to order their 50-amp PID kit as well but decided I wanted different colored push-button switches, I wanted metal switches, I wanted colored DIN distribution blocks, blah blah. I did order the contactors, SSR's and a few LED indicators from them because I could not find anyone else that was even close to ebrew's price on those items - plus the contactors and SSR's are DIN mountable which was a must have for me. I've spent the last month and probably over 30 hours of time researching parts, wiring diagrams, etc. Part of me wishes I would have just kept it simple, saved my time, and ordered ebrew's kit. But, the engineer in me likes to complicate everything.

I've been trying to track down all the parts and come in under ebrews cost, it's going to be close once shipping for everything is added. Thanks guys.