ideas on fixing stir plate

My Hanna HL 190M mini stirrer quit after 1 yr 3 months, maybe used 10 times.
Any ideas on an easy parts replacement fix?

Might help more if you posted what quit about it. There is a fuse in the hanna plates that can burn out and need to be replaced. If it's not powering on, that could be your problem. If it's powering on, but the magnets aren't spinning, that's exactly the problem we're having with our 190M. So if you get a fix, let me know. Fortunately, I think ours is still under warrantee as we bought it in June, but I won't find out until I talk to the store where we got it today.

the light comes on, but no spinnning, did not make the noise it usually does. I took the cover off, plugged in, turned on, the thing turned a couple of times then stops.

Needless to say I would never buy another Hanna Instruments product.
It is not under warranty.

That's exactly what ours is doing, which makes me question the quality of the Hanna products as well. Did you actually contact Hanna. The place where we purchased ours told me the warrantee is 2 years, not 1. I know Hanna's website says 1, but it may be worth giving them a call.

I say bite the bullet and talk to Derrin at http://www.stirplates.com. his service is excellent and so are his prices. I have several of his products and they are all top notch.
I'm not sure what stirrer you have but by the description it is (mini). On Derrins plate I can stir a 1/2G growler. IMI it would seem that parts and shipping costs would be more to repair yours than the purchase of one of his plates.

I emailed Hanna, they replied:The stirrer is no longer under warranty. We charge $60.00/hr for labor. A new stirrer has a list price of $84.00. It is not cost effective to repair this.
so that is that.
I went ahead and ordered one from stirplate

smack it with a hammer .... If it don't work get a bigger hammer and keep snacking it at least you will feel better

I think you will be very happy with Derrins product. It looks a little homemade but I have been using the same one for 2 years. Sometimes for 2-3 weeks at a time. I have had several starter blow ups on it( I was a little off on measuring my DME) and due to the enclosure it was all good inside. I did have a heck of a mess to clean up before the other woke up though.

That's a bummer. Hopefully I will have better luck with getting mine fixed. Wonder how many people have had this problem with the Hanna stir plates.

You can get a new one on williamsbrewing.com for $50 I have it and it works well

I took the stir plate apart, I think there is a bad bearing in the panasonic electronic governor motor mm16s. Not that that does me any good knowing that.

I have the same problem-- I took it apart and put a bit of oil into the shaft of the motor and for now-- knock on wood-- it seems to be working again.

I recently repaired a Hanna stir plate that I got for free. I suspected the motor was dieing (which was the case).

Initially I swapped in a motor I had sitting around, but I didn't have any specs or information on the motor (should have just bought one so I would have had specs). It worked ok for a little while, but would stop after a few hours. I assumed something was bad with the control circuitry, but looking back, the motor I found probably wanted a higher voltage and needed more than the 12V that is pulsed by the control circuitry in the Hanna.

After that, I decided that I would make a homemade stir plate with a computer fan, reusing the casing, power supply, and potentiometer. Before doing the full conversion, I just set up the fan and magnets (mounted to the top of the casing) and tested it with the existing control circuitry. I removed the speed sensor and old motor, and connected the leads going to the motor to my fan. This setup works fine, so I have the existing control circuitry with a fan motor, which is definitely better than just using a rheostat to reduce fan speed.

If this hadn't worked, what I was going to do was pull a 12V line off of the board (12V is provided off the regulator and available on the other side of a resistor near the leads to the power LED). I would have used the existing potentiomater as a rheostat and power switch. The potentiometer they use is a 5-terminal switch/pot. The top and bottom ones are switched, the middle 3 terminals are a 10K pot.

Anyway, I hope this info is helpful to others who may come across cheap/free stir plates and repair them.

I have the 190M and it died today on a London ESB starter I have had it for about 3 years and used it 1 to 2 times per month. The fuse is good, but it won't power on. I think it is time to replace it, unless anyone has some ideas about how to fix it.

I was given a free Hanna stir plate with a motor that was almost dead, so what I did was convert it to using a computer fan for the motor. I drilled some holes into the stir plate top and mounted the fan directly to the lid. I was able to run directly off of the PWM outputs from the control board, so the original adjustment and PWM control were still intact. It works great on starters up to 5L and looks like a regular stir plate. I was able to do this with a spare computer fan and some rare earth magnets I had sitting around, so it didn't cost anything.

Edit: realized that this is very similar to my previous post a long time ago. In any case, this was a really easy fix and leaves you with a functional, professional-looking stir plate.

bumstigedy said:

I have the 190M and it died today on a London ESB starter I have had it for about 3 years and used it 1 to 2 times per month. The fuse is good, but it won't power on. I think it is time to replace it, unless anyone has some ideas about how to fix it.

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Does it have a LED? Does that turn on? If it does, It's possible that the motor is just completely dead and my fix would work.

chrismtb said:

I was given a free Hanna stir plate with a motor that was almost dead, so what I did was convert it to using a computer fan for the motor. I drilled some holes into the stir plate top and mounted the fan directly to the lid. I was able to run directly off of the PWM outputs from the control board, so the original adjustment and PWM control were still intact. It works great on starters up to 5L and looks like a regular stir plate. I was able to do this with a spare computer fan and some rare earth magnets I had sitting around, so it didn't cost anything.

Edit: realized that this is very similar to my previous post a long time ago. In any case, this was a really easy fix and leaves you with a functional, professional-looking stir plate.

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You have pics as my Hanna is making noise and then stiring bad is all over the place so I think I want to do the same. It doesn't even stir a large 3000l flask well anyways. Except mine is only 2 months old!

mggray87 said:

You have pics as my Hanna is making noise and then stiring bad is all over the place so I think I want to do the same. It doesn't even stir a large 3000l flask well anyways. Except mine is only 2 months old!

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That's a 10 year old post! Author hasn't been on since 2016.

They said they used a PWM (4 pin) computer fan. Probably 120mm?

The fan should get a 12V, common, and PWM signal from controller.

I'm not sure what you do with the variable voltage lead on a PWM fan if using in PWM mode. May leave it unconnected, or (more likely) leave it at 12V.

May require volt meter, soldering, etc. Ideally the controller would have a standard 4 pin header, but that's less than even odds.

Also, if testing leads, be VERY careful of any line voltage components. Maybe plug into GFCI just in case.

mashdar said:

That's a 10 year old post! Author hasn't been on since 2016.

They said they used a PWM (4 pin) computer fan. Probably 120mm?

The fan should get a 12V, common, and PWM signal from controller.

I'm not sure what you do with the variable voltage lead on a PWM fan if using in PWM mode. May leave it unconnected, or (more likely) leave it at 12V.

May require volt meter, soldering, etc. Ideally the controller would have a standard 4 pin header, but that's less than even odds.

Also, if testing leads, be VERY careful of any line voltage components. Maybe plug into GFCI just in case.

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yea because these "good/powerful plates from stirplates.com is no longer a site.. lol

if i go home and my hanna is tweaking out.. i may just have to invest in this Maelstrom® Stir Plate. reviews are good.

mggray87 said:

if i go home and my hanna is tweaking out.. i may just have to invest in this Maelstrom® Stir Plate. reviews are good.

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I don't have one, but I've read that one is tricky to get going sometimes. Magnets are so strong the stir bar can get stuck. Maybe not an issue if your stir bar has the center bump. fwiw.

mashdar said:

I don't have one, but I've read that one is tricky to get going sometimes. Magnets are so strong the stir bar can get stuck. Maybe not an issue if your stir bar has the center bump. fwiw.

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it worked great for my first 2 starters.. now its loud and the stir bar looks to be jumping.. but when i remove the flask and stir bar and just turn the plate on.. it clamps around like the magnet or whatever is under it is jumping around lol

mggray87 said:

if i go home and my hanna is tweaking out.. i may just have to invest in this Maelstrom® Stir Plate. reviews are good.

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I like the Maelstrom, but it's not hard making your own and it may even be cheaper. There's a thread with a bunch of DIY stir plates. I sourced most, if not all, my parts from Amazon. I still my my stirrplates one as well (noticed the sight is gone), but wanted a wider platform for my 5L & 3L flasks.

EDIT: Here's the link. Show Us Your DIY Stir Plate

Yesfan said:

I like the Maelstrom, but it's not hard making your own and it may even be cheaper. There's a thread with a bunch of DIY stir plates. I sourced most, if not all, my parts from Amazon. I still my my stirrplates one as well (noticed the sight is gone), but wanted a wider platform for my 5L & 3L flasks.

EDIT: Here's the link. Show Us Your DIY Stir Plate

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i just blew the dough and ordered it as id like one to stir a 3000l flask. the hanna doesnt.. Ill probably return it.. or maybe for fun turn it into a DIY . ill read this site you just posted.


Northern brewer had 15%off so i just got it $145. i dont know the warranty on it though. LOL

mggray87 said:

i just blew the dough and ordered it as id like one to stir a 3000l flask. the hanna doesnt.. Ill probably return it.. or maybe for fun turn it into a DIY . ill read this site you just posted.


Northern brewer had 15%off so i just got it $145. i dont know the warranty on it though. LOL

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My cousin has one of the older Maelstroms. He likes it. I thought I'd post the link to the DIY thread to give you ideas if you wanted to make your own and/or save some money.

I can turn a pretty good vortex on mine. I did a starter a couple of days ago for some Imperial Que Bueno slurry I had from a previous batch for a brew day today. The starter had a nice krausen on it when I pitched it earlier this evening.

i may design one for fun with my 3d printer. see how powerful I can get it. in the meantime. ill return my Hanna to MB and use the maelstroms wont hurt to have a back up.

I built a couple of them last year from scratch and learned a lot. I used old computer fans and some surplus parts to build the controllers.
Most of the DIY projects that I’ve seen show someone using one kidney shaped hard drive magnet that is epoxied on top of a fan. That is not enough. You need at least 2 magnets from a 3.5” hard drive or more. The magnets will interfere with the fan motor so you should elevate it slightly. I used a milk jug cap as a spacer and that helped. It also needs to be properly balanced or it’ll wear out the fan bearings pretty quickly.
You don’t need to be concerned about the extra wires on the fan motor. Red is positive. Black is negative. The other lines are feedback lines to verify the fan speed.
Building a PWM using a 555 timer and adding an NPN transistor to the output is usually enough to drive it fine. Figuring out the min and max values for the PWM to drive the motor was a little trial and error but not difficult.
And one more thing. Depending on the fan that you use, some of them may make an odd noise depending on the clock frequency that you use for the PWM. It’s harmless but annoying.
I hope that helps someone.

waynetempro said:

It also needs to be properly balanced or it’ll wear out the fan bearings pretty quickly.

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Do they still make ball bearing fans? ~15 years ago, sleeve bearings were not good in vertical*-normal orientation. Not sure if they seal them somehow now.

*Like any sane person, I define planes by the orientation of the normal (fan axis)... Air-go-up = vertical fan. I recognize that many (perhaps the majority) are insane. : )

mashdar said:

Do they still make ball bearing fans? ~15 years ago, sleeve bearings were not good in vertical*-normal orientation. Not sure if they seal them somehow now.

*Like any sane person, I define planes by the orientation of the normal (fan axis)... Air-go-up = vertical fan. I recognize that many (perhaps the majority) are insane. : )

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I rarely see them with ball bearings. They are definitely better than 15 years ago. But in a very dusty environment, they will have a short life. And like I said, they do need to be properly balanced or that sleeve will wear out quickly.