20Gal RO->Tankless Water Heater + RIMS Electric Build

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binarybuddha

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Greetings all,
I'm starting to put together my brewstand, and figured I'd start a build thread.

Here's my draft versions of: wiring diagram, high voltage/amp board, and low voltage/amp front panel layout, and liquid process attached.

I'm quite open to any suggestions or feedback you might have. =)

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Not that amazon reviewers are authoritative, but I did ask this question before I purchased it.

I also just emailed gas and water LLC to confirm as well.

Thats good... the unit I have was made overseas and therefore does not conform to the standards here for safe potable water... my guess is they used leaded solder or brass in its construction.
The unit I have does have a warning sticker in fine print on the unit stating it is not to be used for potable water... Once I saw what was inside my old hot water tanks galvanized steel tank and saw the sediment and rust I realized that it wasnt really smart to be consuming water from there and researched it a bit.... turns out your not supposed to consume water from a hot water tank either... who knew?:confused:

As you likely guess those answers on amazon seem to be common sense assumptions.... No one has stated any reasoning of facts behind their answers..
either way it likely wont kill you still many go through a lot of trouble to use stainless over brass because of this (even though almost all brass sold in the US for water plumbing is now lead free)
 
Audiodoggy,
Yeah, I also went through some research after the small hot water heater idea with the same conclusion.
This unit's inside is made all of high-temp (I'm hoping food-grade) plastic. Gas and water LLC replied and assured this unit is rated for domestic potable water. The user's manual also had an entire section about installing it in the kitchen under the sink for on-demand hot water, so I'm hoping these indicators all point toward all-good.

Using RO water, the guts of this being plastic might be a good thing, as I understand RO water can pull metal ions of something like that from metal piping and tanks. The storage tanks I'll be using are lined with polypropylene so I'm hoping those will be fine for long'ish term storage of RO water.
 
Audiodoggy,
Yeah, I also went through some research after the small hot water heater idea with the same conclusion.
This unit's inside is made all of high-temp (I'm hoping food-grade) plastic. Gas and water LLC replied and assured this unit is rated for domestic potable water. The user's manual also had an entire section about installing it in the kitchen under the sink for on-demand hot water, so I'm hoping these indicators all point toward all-good.

Using RO water, the guts of this being plastic might be a good thing, as I understand RO water can pull metal ions of something like that from metal piping and tanks. The storage tanks I'll be using are lined with polypropylene so I'm hoping those will be fine for long'ish term storage of RO water.

yes I knew they do make under the sink units for potable water I used to repair the ones we used for tea in a restaurant I did maintenance for... Sounds like your good to go. I knew nothing about the brand heater or application it was intended for so just figured I'd warn you based on what I came across with mine which is a whole house heater...
I use food grade PPS (polypropylene) 24v dc pumps myself and im still alive and kicking :)
 
Is that unit going to be able to produce water a the temperature you want. Most domestic applications won't go over 140°F. If you get the kind that was meant to go under a sink to give instant hot water like for tea that might get to the temps you are going to need.
 
Is that unit going to be able to produce water a the temperature you want. Most domestic applications won't go over 140°F. If you get the kind that was meant to go under a sink to give instant hot water like for tea that might get to the temps you are going to need.

I'm going to try it out, I hope so. =)
If the tankless can go from 70 to 140F I think that will be easy enough for the 4500w element in the RIMS to take it another 40F to 180.
I'll be running it at 240v, so it's actually a 12KW element, and will draw 60a of 240v, so I'm hoping with a slow flow rate for sparging it'll be OK.
 
I installed one like this in my father's garage bathroom for the hot water at the sink. It maybe gets to 120. It is a 60A 240V unit that has a 40A and secondary 20A heater. It flows like 3 gallons a minute, but slowing the flow won't raise the temp or you would get severely scalded. You will have to hack all the controls. I recommend a slower flow instant hot water setup that they make to mount under a sink with a seperate faucet. Not even sure how hot those get, but I thought close to boiling.
 
Why not just used the RIMS as the on demand water heater? I know at 5500w I was able to get 130F of rise at 1 quart a minute which is more than enough for sparge. Of course at that flow rate you'll have to wait a little longer to be able to dough in. I haven't duplicated it but one user found that recirculating the strike water through the RIMS from the MLT before dough in was the best way to go rather than trying to dial in the output temp perfectly the first time. You can still feed the RO into the line leading up into the RIMS input via the 3 way valve but you'll leave it at the 45 degree handle position so that the MLT's pumped output will mix with incoming cold RO before hitting the RIMS. When you reach your desired volume, you go to recirculation mode only until you hit the temp you are looking for.
 
I installed one like this in my father's garage bathroom for the hot water at the sink. It maybe gets to 120. It is a 60A 240V unit that has a 40A and secondary 20A heater. It flows like 3 gallons a minute, but slowing the flow won't raise the temp or you would get severely scalded. You will have to hack all the controls. I recommend a slower flow instant hot water setup that they make to mount under a sink with a seperate faucet. Not even sure how hot those get, but I thought close to boiling.

Thanks PaulB!
Hacking things is something I enjoy doing, so I might just do that. =)
 
I went with a really long 36" stainless cartridge heater myself for a long rims tube which should work better for heat transfer for the same reason a a long plate chiller is more effective than a short one a short one... I'm upgrading from a 24" smaller 1000w versions so I'm curious to see how much the 1800w element can heat in one pass at 2gpm flow once my damn 1" coupling gets here..
 
Another update:

The tankless water heater seems to work reasonably well. It kicks on about .2gpm, and raises the 50 degree ground water up to 130 or so. The RIMS can only take it up to 160 at .3gpm. I'm going to see how many amps it's pulling at such a slow flowrate. Perhaps I'll void any warranty right of the bat and modify it heat full blast all the time. :)

I'm excited to run my first brew on this setup!

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I forgot to mention, I did check the amp draw on the tankless at min flow, and it pulled a solid 50a. I might be able to modify the turbine on/off mechanism to enable it to energize at a slow flowrate. If so, this would enable the RIMS tube to cavitate/boil burp less, and have smoother, lower flow sparge water.
 
It looks like you are getting boiling in the rims tube. In my experience doing something similar, the rims tube needs be vertical or at least diagonal or you need to dramatically increase the flow rate, which of course defeats the purpose.

-BD
 
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