RIMS setup question.

I finally broke down and bought a chugger pump after my china pump fell off my chair and broke. I'm going to have a friend build me a single tier brew stand in the next couple weeks here. I'm debating on putting 2 propane burners on this stand or just sticking with one. I have 2 separate burners right now and direct fire my mash tun keggle.

Here's my question. If I was to use a 1500 watt RIMS tube, would that be hot enough to heat strike water and maybe sparge water with 120v. i really dint want to run 220 in my garage just yet. I think I'm going to want to recirculate my mash as well so my temps stay constant. I think I want to get always from using multiple burners.

How big of batches are you running?

Oh yeah that might help. In plan on doing just five gallon batch's. Maybe 10 but I do plan on doing a RIS sometime soon which will provalky have the same size grain bill as a 10 gallon batch

Our herms system has 5500 watt elements for 15 gallons. So that is 366 watts per gallon. I have seen systems with 600 watts per gallon. So for 10 gallons, I would run at least 2 1500 watt elements. You will need to power them off seperate circuits but it will work

1500W is really not enough to manage strike/sparge water for 5 gallons. If your insulation is good enough, you'll get there eventually, but it'll take hours.

So I basically need to direct fire still and use the tube for keeping temps

Rys06Tbss said:

So I basically need to direct fire still and use the tube for keeping temps

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1500W will do that well.

Ok cool. My next question is what pid. I don't want to drop the loot on an auber just yet so I was thinking of getting a MYPIN. I'm not sure if I want a TA4 or TA6. What's the difference. Also I found a tA6 on eBay for 39 shipped with SSR and probe, but the probe looks to be really short. Could I use a longer probe? It's a K Type what ever that means.

Any of them on eBay will work but make sure you get on the has ssr output and will do F and C. I would get the probes from aburn. I haven't had good luck with Chinese probes. The ta4 is bigger. I like the 1/16 din ones.

140734649531 is the eBay item number. Get 25 amp SSRs

One other thing, you need a pt100 sensor like this one: http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_15&products_id=189

K type sensors aren't water tight from what I have seen

The ta6 is bigger. I bought a ta4 which is 1/16 din. It does have SSR output. I bought it on amazon. The SSR I bought was a 40 amp. Just in case I decided to run 220 and switch to all electric. I bout a pt100 probe as well, got everything for less then 50. Should be here tomorrow. Now all I need to do is finish building my project box, and build a rims tube. Are you running 1 1/2 in or 2 in.im going to use a 1500 watt element. Also I was thinking about building the tube out of copper instead of stainless but it looks like copper is going to be a lot more.

I finally set up my box.I dont have the RIMS tube yet. Heres the box. I still need to add circuit breakers for the PID and heater. I also want to add a few more switches for so I can turn the PID on or off. I also want to add a few lights so I can see whats going on in terms of the heater element and box power and what not.

grupe said:

140734649531 is the eBay item number. Get 25 amp SSRs

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looks like the OP has already made the purchase, but 40A ssrs will run cooler and are close, or sometimes identical, in price.

grupe said:

K type sensors aren't water tight from what I have seen

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you just need any type of sensor (k, J, RTD) that is already mounted in a stainless steel thermowell, not just the bare sensor. the housing has nothing to do with the sensor type. however RTDs are nice as they dont drift over time like thermocouples tend to do.

This sensor is sealed and watertight. The 40 amp SSR was bought at the same time. This PID was actually really easy to setup. Maybe they changed the instructions? Anyhow. I want to make my RTD detachable. Is there any reason I can't make it longer and re calibrate it? Also. I was thinking about using an RJ45 jack for it, since it has 5 or 6 pins. That would work right?

It's easy to extend and put a qd on. No need to recalibrate either. I snip the RTD wire about 6-8" from the PID end and connect it to an XLR panel mount. Then connect the complimentary XLR connector on the RTD wire.