Kill-A-Watt Brewery Build Compilation

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Julohan said:
I really wish I had the money to buy this from you. I would have to sell all my new equipment and still probably owe you.
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The price tag would be about $4k. It is rediculous, but parts alone were $3200.. and I have a crap ton of time and planning in it that Id have to recoup. If I "made" $800 on this thing it would amount to less then $8 an hour for my time just assembling it. If I charged what I make flying, then it would be about $10,500 ;)

Here are some more wiring pics, man I LOVE wiring. So much more fun than the mechanical crap!

P1030797.JPG


P1030796.JPG
 
Layne said:
If someone wanted to buy one, could they? I'm just askin'.
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They could, with a 6-8 week lead time. I dont stock all these parts, luckily I have a comprehensive parts list to cover everything, every screw, that is in this thing. Ordering time, shipping time, then my time (100 hours). It is possible.

I also dont offer any BCS training :D
 
The Pol said:
The price tag would be about $4k. It is rediculous, but parts alone were $3200.. and I have a crap ton of time and planning in it that Id have to recoup.

Here are some more wiring pics, man I LOVE wiring. So much more fun than the mechanical crap!

P1030797.JPG


P1030796.JPG
Click to expand...

$800 markup over parts is pretty damned reasonable all things considered. If you enjoy making it, throw up a web site when done. One or two a year and you could continue to tweak it.
 
The next one would assemble faster, since it would be the second go-round... Part of the hassle is just doing it for the first time. I also have to consider the cost of parts rising... the pumps I got a deal on, they would cost me $50 more each for the next one, etc.

A couple, three a year would be fine, I think I could remain married. I am working on the wiring in the family room now, man I have to appreciate the SWMBO

I do enjoy this stuff, I am a little impatient with this one, just because I want to get it plugged in and start playing!
 
Everything is wired except for the element hots running to thier SSRs. 90% of the wiring is complete, should have that finished tomorrow, and get some water in it the following day.
 
I am using 3 of the temp. inputs and all 6 of the outputs.
 
I think the 4K is much less than I thought. It doesn't take much in this hobby to run up 4K. I had all the kettles and MLT, got all my steel for free, and would be affraid to total all the stainless and hardware. Has to be $1,200 or so. You work fast to only have a 100 hrs in it. Impressed with the build. I look forward t the flow rates and your RIMS tube figures. Man I wish I had gone RIMS. Just makes more sense to me.
 
Well, 100 hours is 10, 10 hour days, no breaks... yah, I can do it in that much time.

Keep in mind too, my BK alone was $1,000 REAL money. That is 1/3 of the build cost!

Painters get here at 8am, daughter leaves for school at 8:20am... then the build continues!
 
wyzazz said:
So before you die, should we have a contest to see whom you bequeath this beautiful sculpture of Stainless Steel to in your will? :D
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Oh, I didnt mention it, it will burst into flames and turn my corpse to ash :D
 
I don't understand the lack of fusing? It would cost you all of $15-$25 and be super quick to install. Radio shack has everything you need. Is it to prove a point? For maybe 30 minuted more install time, you could rest easy knowing your BCS won't burn, along with all your other components...

I don't care, nor will you die. I am just curious.
 
Boerderij_Kabouter said:
I don't understand the lack of fusing? It would cost you all of $15-$25 and be super quick to install. Radio shack has everything you need. Is it to prove a point? For maybe 30 minuted more install time, you could rest easy knowing your BCS won't burn, along with all your other components...

I don't care, nor will you die. I am just curious.
Click to expand...

Yes, to prove a point.

Why is my BCS going to burn up?
 
The Pol said:
I learned a lot from my first build. One was that I hated having a 1" dia. cable permanently attached to it. Especially one that is 10' long.
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You got off easy. I have two cables permently attached and 18' long. The big cord has a GFCI unit on it:D

Limitations of my panel. I had an existing 20amp circuit and barely have enough juice to handle the 30amp I put in for the BK. It is not all that bad though. It could be worse.
 
The Pol said:
Yes, to prove a point.

Why is my BCS going to burn up?
Click to expand...

With 99.9% certainty it won't. That 0.1% is a freak accident you can't control or a perfectly aimed spill, leak, or other misfortune. It just seems an odd thing to skip considering it is so easy and cheap to include.

Also, just because your rig doesn't fail doesn't prove that you don't need fusing.
 
Boerderij_Kabouter said:
With 99.9% certainty it won't. That 0.1% is a freak accident you can't control or a perfectly aimed spill, leak, or other misfortune. It just seems an odd thing to skip considering it is so easy and cheap to include.

Also, just because your rig doesn't fail doesn't prove that you don't need fusing.
Click to expand...

Just funny that 12 months ago no one fused thier rigs. I have nothing against it, though that seems to be what is assumed, but really never seen a single build here do it. Maybe I missed that.

I am also not trying to prove anything, just thought it was a funny question.

So if I wanted to fuse the pumps and BCS, what would I need... I am game, why not... just never actually seen it done. I have heard people talk about it, can you point me to a build so I can see what I need?
 
Brewmoor said:
You got off easy. I have two cables permently attached and 18' long. The big cord has a GFCI unit on it:D

Limitations of my panel. I had an existing 20amp circuit and barely have enough juice to handle the 30amp I put in for the BK. It is not all that bad though. It could be worse.
Click to expand...

Yes, my last cable was 6'... it was the biggest pain in the a$$ ever. This one is 10' because I learned that 6' was not long enough. So, I learned I needed something longer, and something that was not hard wired in.
 
The Pol said:
Just funny that 12 months ago no one fused thier rigs. I have nothing against it, though that seems to be what is assumed, but really never seen a single build here do it. Maybe I missed that.

I am also not trying to prove anything, just thought it was a funny question.

So if I wanted to fuse the pumps and BCS, what would I need... I am game, why not... just never actually seen it done. I have heard people talk about it, can you point me to a build so I can see what I need?
Click to expand...


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/electric-question-153310/

Started this about a month before you started your build (I think)... Had fuses in the very first drawing. Drawings and actual wiring have come a long way, but it was a consideration from the beginning.

12 months ago, I was using propane... not much need for fuses ;)
 
Hermit said:
I have a ton of left over screw in fuses that I want to offer 'to the cause' just so you can turn down free fuses. :D
Click to expand...

I will take them, will they work? I dont know what I need or what is involved. Like I said, when I built my last build, not a single soul mentioned fusing... funny, now it is all the rage. Id turn them down, but I am really not trying to prove anything ;) But you knew that ;)

Who'd have thunk.
 
I was just being dumb with the proving the point thing. Should have used a ;) We aren't building rigs to code really anyway, so it doesn't matter. It was a "stick it to the man" kind of comment. whoop.

Anyway, the fusing stuff is really easy. Coderage did a write-up about simple electrical stuff that including advice for sizing fuses. I think it is called electric for beginners or something.

Anyway, here is my wiring diagram for the 2P-Twent-E build:
Control_Box_Wiring_BBK.bmp


You can get 120VAC 20amp fuse cartridges as any radio shack and the associated fuses. If you want to fuse your 220VAC stuff I don't know how to do that, but the elements are cheap (at least my cheapo one was) so maybe you wouldn't care about those. However, a fuse may help to not fry an element if something weird happened??? I don't know. I am sure someone else can point you in the right direction for The higher amps and volts used in you elements.

Here you can see the fuse cartridge I was talking about. It is near the back of the box int he center. You just clip in 1/4" diameter fuses that are about a buck per ten at Radio Shack.
CIMG3511.JPG


The only thing you need to know is the amp draw of your various components you want to protect.

Either that, or you could not do that. :D Like I said, the chance of anyhting happening is really low IMO.
 
I mean I "get it"... I have low amp parts on a 50A GFCI, those components "could" fry before the 50A GFCI trips.

I dont care about elements, really. The pumps, BCS, sure... the BCS is a TINY draw, same as my wireless bridge and the pumps are about 9A on start up each.

I am down with it, I am sure it is simple. Is there an easy "inline" fuse that I could use on my 120VAC stuff?
 
Boerderij_Kabouter said:
perfect. I mean you might as well. The only thing I would actually be worried about would be the BCS, you don't want that to die.
Click to expand...

So, my BCS and my wireless bridge are plugged into a duplex outlet mounted in the E-bay. SO, can I just fuse the pos. and neutral to the duplex outlet then? I mean... that would work right?
 

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