Economical 120v Plug and Play Controller

I'm looking for 2 plug and play controllers for my 120v 1500 watt x2 element Boil Kettle. I'm currently switching them off at the breaker but this is something I want to stop doing as soon as possible.

I don't have the time to build the controllers myself and looking for something that's ready to go. I don't have access to 240v for the foreseeable future.

cuse88 said:

I'm looking for 2 plug and play controllers for my 120v 1500 watt x2 element Boil Kettle. I'm currently switching them off at the breaker but this is something I want to stop doing as soon as possible.

I don't have the time to build the controllers myself and looking for something that's ready to go. I don't have access to 240v for the foreseeable future.

Click to expand...

http://www.brumatic.com/

The owner is a member here and has been selling these for a long time now...
His prices are very reasonable IMHO compared to many others.

and he does do custom builds as well.

+1! Lovely boxes, nicely appointed.

Speed Controller should work. Thanks!

Any words of wisdom going the speed controller route??

They get quite hot if you use them in variable mode. Not bad with full power. I've been thinking of putting a cooling block on the back of mine.

cuse88 said:

Any words of wisdom going the speed controller route??

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I forgot all about those,
Remember those only work with the smaller 1500w elements since they can only handle 15 amps... some report good luck and I know of one person here who complained he burned through 2 of them rather quickly (its possible he was trying to control 2000w 20a elements... I believe they are designed to run a motor for a router...

Are you brewing all grain or thinking about it soon? If so, adding temp control is really a convenience that I wouldn't overlook for hitting your strike and sparge temps. In that case, you want a controller with one PID (with manual mode) and a pair of SSRs.

Look for a 10000W SCR on Amazon.com. They run about 20 bucks and can take the entire 23 amps in an enclosure.

Bobby_M said:

Are you brewing all grain or thinking about it soon? If so, adding temp control is really a convenience that I wouldn't overlook for hitting your strike and sparge temps. In that case, you want a controller with one PID (with manual mode) and a pair of SSRs.

Click to expand...

Yeah all grain. I use a Johnson A419 for my sparge/strike water and it has worked pretty well on 1350watt element. I plan on moving up to 240v in the future so I'm holding off for now on splurging on a controller for 120v system.

My issue is at 120v , I have to 2 1500 watt elements installed in my boil kettle so I need 2 controllers. Apartment life ha.

cuse88 said:

I use a Johnson A419 for my sparge/strike water and it has worked pretty well on 1350watt element.

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I've been using a Johnson A419 paired with a router controller to control a 1650W element for a few years and it has worked fine. Made up an in-line voltage meter to control heat more consistently.

edit to add picture:

Firewalker11 said:

Look for a 10000W SCR on Amazon.com. They run about 20 bucks and can take the entire 23 amps in an enclosure.

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I have one of these too, I have yet to use it. Setting up a simple 220v system with a 5500W element.

Lennie said:

I have one of these too, I have yet to use it. Setting up a simple 220v system with a 5500W element.

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I have read from at least three people with these that the traces on the board burn up from driving a single 5500w element... I know they are designed for 50hz power and not our 60hz found in the US so the control is all over the place and not anywhere near as linear as it is with 50hz power..

Is there a particular brand speed controller that's better than the other?

Here is an SCR I got on ebay for $20 that works great, I use it at 240v
but I think it should be fine at 120v

http://www.ebay.com/itm/9500W-High-...rnor-Dimmer-/161329212656?hash=item258ff86cf0

There are a couple you-tube videos about putting it together. Here is one:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-jDnFt402A[/ame]

augiedoggy said:

I have read from at least three people with these that the traces on the board burn up from driving a single 5500w element... I know they are designed for 50hz power and not our 60hz found in the US so the control is all over the place and not anywhere near as linear as it is with 50hz power..

Click to expand...

Augiedoggy, the one I got is in an enclosure, I only use half the rated wattage and a third of the amperage rating. Traces are fine and the SCR is solid. I have four of these in my wood shop and one for foam wing cutting in the basement.

These are derated to 1/3 the rating on conductive and inductive loads and are plenty robust with resistive loads.

I would love to read the feedback on the three people with the blown traces, it would help us all in this community to decide on what hardware is worthy.

I wonder if we are talking about the same SCR, the manufacturer of mine says 50-60hz, AC110V 220V 75A 10000W.

augiedoggy said:

I have read from at least three people with these that the traces on the board burn up from driving a single 5500w element... I know they are designed for 50hz power and not our 60hz found in the US so the control is all over the place and not anywhere near as linear as it is with 50hz power..

Click to expand...

Augiedoggy, the one I got is in an enclosure, I only use half the rated wattage and a third of the amperage rating. Traces are fine and the SCR is solid. I have four of these in my wood shop and one for foam wing cutting in the basement.

These are derated to 1/3 the rating on conductive and inductive loads and are plenty robust with resistive loads.

I would love to read the feedback on the three people with the blown traces, it would help us all in this community to decide on what hardware is worthy.

I wonder if we are talking about the same SCR, the manufacturer of mine says 50-60hz, AC110V 220V 75A 10000W.

cuse88 said:

My issue is at 120v , I have to 2 1500 watt elements installed in my boil kettle so I need 2 controllers. Apartment life ha.

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I think you only need one element on a controller, and one element running at 100%, that will provide 1500 - 3000 watts

Or simply a larger kettle and boil at 3000w, adjust total volume preboil to account for boil off.

I used to use a Rockwell 20 amp router speed controller on one of two 2000w elements for 7.75 gallon batches in an 11 gallon kettle. I have come to the realization that simply using a larger kettle, approx 2X batch size and just letting the elements run at 100% works very well.

While not popular or fancy by any means, one can certainly run a boil kettle at 100% power if the elements and kettle are appropriately sized to batch size.

Yes, it is very basic, and lacks the advantages of an oversized element running on a PID SSR but it does work well in all it's simplicity.

augiedoggy said:

I have read from at least three people with these that the traces on the board burn up from driving a single 5500w element... I know they are designed for 50hz power and not our 60hz found in the US so the control is all over the place and not anywhere near as linear as it is with 50hz power..

Click to expand...

Augiedoggy, the one I got is in an enclosure, I only use half the rated wattage and a third of the amperage rating. Traces are fine and the SCR is solid. I have four of these in my wood shop and one for foam wing cutting in the basement.

These are derated to 1/3 the rating on conductive and inductive loads and are plenty robust with resistive loads.

I would love to read the feedback on the three people with the blown traces, it would help us all in this community to decide on what hardware is worthy.

I wonder if we are talking about the same SCR, the manufacturer of mine says 50-60hz, AC110V 220V 75A 10000W.

Firewalker11 said:

Augiedoggy, the one I got is in an enclosure, I only use half the rated wattage and a third of the amperage rating. Traces are fine and the SCR is solid. I have four of these in my wood shop and one for foam wing cutting in the basement.

These are derated to 1/3 the rating on conductive and inductive loads and are plenty robust with resistive loads.

I would love to read the feedback on the three people with the blown traces, it would help us all in this community to decide on what hardware is worthy.

I wonder if we are talking about the same SCR, the manufacturer of mine says 50-60hz, AC110V 220V 75A 10000W.

Click to expand...

the one that I have seen pictures and comments of with burned traces is similiar to the one pictured in the video above. It has an aluminum heatsink on it.... BTW I dont get quote notification when you quote me that way so I just noticed your posts.. I tried to do a search for the threads but I gave up... it was a few months ago and theres too many threads to read through..
two of the guys seemed to have made work arounds by soldering heavy jumper wires and bypassing the fuse on the board where most of the problems kept occurring...

A quick ebay search shows there are more options now than a few months back... I assume the makers are learning from the complaints of buyers and improving them... some do still say 50hz only though if you look..