Mash Tun insulation

One of my biggest frustrations with my system has always been the loss of temp in the mash tun and the lack of control over my HLT temps. So, I insulated both my mash tun and HLT with Reflectix, and aluminum tape. I'm hoping this will work well, since I'm pretty sure it will be a royal PITA to remove if it doesn't.

I also insulated my HERMS hoses. This should also help.

Thoughts, ideas welcome.






I even did the lids. . .

nice work! that looks great. I never thought of insulating my lids... considering that heat rises, this should have been simple.

Looks great. I'm guessing you'll see a nice improvement.

Good idea, please post results when you have them.

I really wish I had time to brew today, but seeing as I have to work tonight, and will probably sleep all day Thursday, I doubt I'll get to it real soon. Plus, both of my conicals are full right now.

I'll post results when I do though.

So, how much heat are you losing without the insulation (doing some preliminary planning)?

Well, I can lose up to 10 degrees over a mash or more, depending on different variables (types of mash, HERMS not working, ETC). I think the biggest problem is temperature fluctuations between the HLT and the MLT. In order to have a good HERMS, you need to have your HLT held pretty constant, which mine doesn't. so, I can easily lose temp, then overshoot it. If I can keep my temps pretty constant from the beginning, I think it will correct the problem. I think my biggest fear is now having too much heat inertia (overshooting my temps) with all that insulation.

I'm just starting to design a new system, I'm worried about the heat loss issue if I move away from a cooler-based mash tun - but if I'm building something, I want to be able to do step-mashes.

the_bird said:

I'm just starting to design a new system, I'm worried about the heat loss issue if I move away from a cooler-based mash tun - but if I'm building something, I want to be able to do step-mashes.

Click to expand...

I really think that this new insulation will allow me to hit my temps quicker using my HERMS, and retain those temps. That's the goal, anyway.

No offense to B3, but that was main weakness in this system.