hosehead electronic brewery controller

[superstorm204]

You could put a tc between your vessel and tee

 

[cswest]

Thanks, that's great feedback. That's what I was curious about, if there are any negative affects of putting the probe inside a thermowell instead of a compression fitting.

Do you remove the probe frequently? I think i'll be taking my kettle off of my brewstand for cleaning, so I'm looking for a way to quickly/frequently disconnect the probe from my kettle.

I use Tri-clamp Thermowells and take the probes out every time I wash my kettles. I also have everything on a stainless steal cart so I can wheel it over to my fermentation fridge to runoff into. So, the probes come out for that.

I don't know if it matters or not but I also remove the prob when boiling mostly just because they are not needed and I'd rather just get them out of the way.

 

[RonR]

Thanks, that's great feedback. That's what I was curious about, if there are any negative affects of putting the probe inside a thermowell instead of a compression fitting.

Do you remove the probe frequently? I think i'll be taking my kettle off of my brewstand for cleaning, so I'm looking for a way to quickly/frequently disconnect the probe from my kettle.

I remove the probes after every brew day for cleanup. The o-rings will wear out after awhile but I just buy 20-30 extras when I'm placing an order. They're cheap.

 

[Sangnman]

Last night I was able to turn on SSH and load a VNC server on the Raspberry Pi. I also set them up to load when the Raspberry Pi boots up. So now I can run it without a monitor, keyboard, or mouse and just connect with my iPad.

How did you accomplish this? This is a really great idea.

 

[scottconnor]

Received mine in the mail this week. It's mostly set up, except I'm having a hell of a time getting the neutrik power connector connected to my boil kettle cord.

I built a clone of Kal's BK before I bought the hosehead, so I've got a 5500w element wired to 10/3 cable. The neutrik power connector says it's rated for 14g wire. This 10g wire I've got just wont go. Has anyone else run into this problem? Should I step down the wiring to fit the connector? (Not sure what the ramifications of that are...).

I also saw the question earlier about the neutrik being rated for 20amps and a 5500W element pulling ~23 amps. Is anyone else using a 5500W element with their hosehead? Any problems?

 

[RonR]

My boilcoils came with 10 gauge pigtails. My largest coil is 5000 watts. It's probably not the best solution but I removed some strands from the stripped end until it would fit in the connector. I didn't have a choice since the Blackman pigtails are sealed on the other end. No way to replace the wire without spicing. I've had no problems with it and I've completed at least 5 brews.
Has anyone ever placed an amp meter on a 5500 watt coil and actually checked the actual draw? Doubt if it's 100%.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

My boilcoils came with 10 gauge pigtails. My largest coil is 5000 watts. It's probably not the best solution but I removed some strands from the stripped end until it would fit in the connector. I didn't have a choice since the Blackman pigtails are sealed on the other end. No way to replace the wire without spicing. I've had no problems with it and I've completed at least 5 brews.
Has anyone ever placed an amp meter on a 5500 watt coil and actually checked the actual draw? Doubt if it's 100%.

If your at 100% duty cycle, your pulling 23A with a 5500W element. In theory you could just do the math and never go over the duty cycle that gets you to 20A, but at that point you may have just bought a 4500W element and run it at full power and not had to worry about it. Your only setting it to 100% when heating up HLT and BK, but most people will set it to 100% for those.

I asked here, and even emailed the creator of Hosehead and never got a response about why they are using 20A connectors and state they work for 5500W elements that draw 23A...that was like 2 months ago.

 

[scottconnor]

The creator has been really great to deal with, and really quick to reply back when I've had a question. But I am disappointed that to use this with a 5500w element, I'd have to make some sacrifices that don't seem necessary. I'd happily pay an extra $30-$50 for 30a connectors instead of the 20 it comes with. Not sure yet what I'll do...it seems that alot of people are using this with 5500w elements (including the creator), but I'm not sure if I want to.

 

[superstorm204]

install a 30a yourself

 

[scottconnor]

install a 30a yourself

I thought about that. While I haven't completely ruled it out, the size of the 30a receptacles are larger than the 20a receptacles. So I'd have to do some surgery on the case, which I'm not wild about.

There is one 30a on the unit for power in, so you can see the size difference.

EDIT: Actually, looking at the powerCON site, it says they only have power in receptacles in the 32A size. They've got a lot more 20A products, including power in and power out receptacles. Is there an actual difference between the 20a in and out receptacles, besides the color? Could you use a 30a "power-in" receptacle for power out?

 

[crane]

I thought about that. While I haven't completely ruled it out, the size of the 30a receptacles are larger than the 20a receptacles. So I'd have to do some surgery on the case, which I'm not wild about.

There is one 30a on the unit for power in, so you can see the size difference.

EDIT: Actually, looking at the powerCON site, it says they only have power in receptacles in the 32A size. They've got a lot more 20A products, including power in and power out receptacles. Is there an actual difference between the 20a in and out receptacles, besides the color? Could you use a 30a "power-in" receptacle for power out?

I was quite skeptical of this product from the beginning given the fact that all the guy did was wrap a box around someone else's software project. Then to see that he made a pretty stupid compromise on the design by going with 20A plugs and then putting a label on the box saying it can handle a 5500W element. I understand how people will cut corners when designing their personal system, but when you are going to sell a product you need to design to a different set of standards. How can you make a poor design decision like this without taking you and your company's liability into consideration.

Seems like he is just trying to piggyback on the success of the SBE project and make some money off of it rather than putting out a high quality, well engineered product.

 

[cswest]

How did you accomplish this? This is a really great idea.

Here's a link to the instructions I used. It's for the iPad but I'm sure you could find the same apps on other platforms or another app that does the same thing.

http://whatapalaver.co.uk/2013/12/controlling-raspberry-pi-from-ipad/

 

[jimboj79]

Just ran my first brewday yesterday on my hosehead. Very impressed how spot on I was able to keep my mash using the herms. Recirc provided very clear wort. Spent some time adjusting the manual boil but all part of the learning process.

View attachment 1437413167471.jpg

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I was quite skeptical of this product from the beginning given the fact that all the guy did was wrap a box around someone else's software project. Then to see that he made a pretty stupid compromise on the design by going with 20A plugs and then putting a label on the box saying it can handle a 5500W element. I understand how people will cut corners when designing their personal system, but when you are going to sell a product you need to design to a different set of standards. How can you make a poor design decision like this without taking you and your company's liability into consideration.

Seems like he is just trying to piggyback on the success of the SBE project and make some money off of it rather than putting out a high quality, well engineered product.

You said it not me

I was about to pull the trigger on buying one until i started researching the connectors, and watching his disassemble video you can clearly see he is using(or was?) 25A relays for the elements. Which while technically safe and within range of the 23A people will be pulling, when a 40A relay is the "standard" and is a few dollars more and wont get so hot and prematurely fail it seems silly.

If your using 4500W elements i think this is by far the best way to get into SBE, not so much for 5500W.

 

[RonR]

You said it not me

I was about to pull the trigger on buying one until i started researching the connectors, and watching his disassemble video you can clearly see he is using(or was?) 25A relays for the elements. Which while technically safe and within range of the 23A people will be pulling, when a 40A relay is the "standard" and is a few dollars more and wont get so hot and prematurely fail it seems silly.

If your using 4500W elements i think this is by far the best way to get into SBE, not so much for 5500W.

I emailed Cory and asked why he used the 20 amp connectors. Here is his response:

Hi Ron,

Using that formula 5500/240=22.9 amps is a great way to show what the amperage draw should be...


It is based on assumptions that the Camco 5500 watt elements will give a full 5500 watts at 240 volts.


Real world testing says no.. here is how to actually see what your elements will do...



You will need a multimeter and take a couple of measurements for this.



1) With a Multimeter set on AC Voltage, measure your actual household voltage (My house power measures 237V)


2) Measure the actual resistance of the element in Ohms (Camco 5500 watt elements measure an average of 11.1 ohms)


3) Figure in the voltage loss from the solid state relays controlling the elements (-2V average)


4) Take your household voltage (237 in my case) -2V for SSR Losses = 235V


5) Multiply Voltage times itself 235 x 235 = 55225


6) Divide Voltage Squared (55225) by the Ohms resistance of the actual element (11.1)



55225 / 11.1 = 4975.225 Actual Watts (only about 90.4% efficient)





Here is the real world vs the published numbers.



The PowerCon 20 Is rated at 20A RMS, Most people relate that to 20A max load, That actually means it was rated


to run at 20A amperage load all day every day and can handle more for shorter periods of time. In the real world and testing,
the PC 20 is a good match for the Camco 5500. Most of us do not brew all day every day. I could use its big brother the PC32 for all the contacts but it would add $75 to the cost of each unit and the actual contact points inside the 20 and the 32 are virtually the same.



Cheers!

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I emailed Cory and asked why he used the 20 amp connectors. Here is his response:

Hi Ron,

Using that formula 5500/240=22.9 amps is a great way to show what the amperage draw should be...


It is based on assumptions that the Camco 5500 watt elements will give a full 5500 watts at 240 volts.


Real world testing says no.. here is how to actually see what your elements will do...



You will need a multimeter and take a couple of measurements for this.



1) With a Multimeter set on AC Voltage, measure your actual household voltage (My house power measures 237V)


2) Measure the actual resistance of the element in Ohms (Camco 5500 watt elements measure an average of 11.1 ohms)


3) Figure in the voltage loss from the solid state relays controlling the elements (-2V average)


4) Take your household voltage (237 in my case) -2V for SSR Losses = 235V


5) Multiply Voltage times itself 235 x 235 = 55225


6) Divide Voltage Squared (55225) by the Ohms resistance of the actual element (11.1)



55225 / 11.1 = 4975.225 Actual Watts (only about 90.4% efficient)





Here is the real world vs the published numbers.



The PowerCon 20 Is rated at 20A RMS, Most people relate that to 20A max load, That actually means it was rated


to run at 20A amperage load all day every day and can handle more for shorter periods of time. In the real world and testing,
the PC 20 is a good match for the Camco 5500. Most of us do not brew all day every day. I could use its big brother the PC32 for all the contacts but it would add $75 to the cost of each unit and the actual contact points inside the 20 and the 32 are virtually the same.



Cheers!

Eh, i even in his worst case of 90% efficiency your at 21A. While he is correct about the RMS and not running continuously you are still using a connector that does not meet the proper amp ratings for the equipment your using, which is dangerous. Its clear WHY he did it, because he doesnt have room for an actual locking L630 plugs on his enclosure, it still doesnt make it right in my mind. As others have said, for yourself DIY we all make decisions what risk we are willing to take by cutting corners. But selling an actual product that could in theory fail and kill someone or catch fire because you knowingly under-equipped it for cost savings i dont think will sit well in the court of law, not that it would ever get to that. He's just opening himself(or his LLC) up to some potential liability issues.

 

[RonR]

It's been 19 years since I went through electronics technician theory course at 29 Palms. But doesn't 20 amps RMS convert to 28.28 amps peak? And 240 three wire (single phase) is peak not RMS, right?

 

[BrunDog]

Eh, i even in his worst case of 90% efficiency your at 21A. While he is correct about the RMS and not running continuously you are still using a connector that does not meet the proper amp ratings for the equipment your using, which is dangerous. Its clear WHY he did it, because he doesnt have room for an actual locking L630 plugs on his enclosure, it still doesnt make it right in my mind. As others have said, for yourself DIY we all make decisions what risk we are willing to take by cutting corners. But selling an actual product that could in theory fail and kill someone or catch fire because you knowingly under-equipped it for cost savings i dont think will sit well in the court of law, not that it would ever get to that. He's just opening himself(or his LLC) up to some potential liability issues.

Tru dat!

-BD

 

[chiefwigms]

would you guys still have bought the hosehead2? I'm debating between this and the brew-boss. I wonder what it'd cost to DIY with 30a connectors...

 

[scottconnor]

I realized last night that I had a second spool of 10/3, and that wire had a thinner jacket that allowed me to secure it to the 20a connector. I wired it up last night and ran a water test, and I'm in business (moved 9 gallons of water +30F in 10 minutes).

While it's clear that the unit isn't technically to code, it seems that it's operating in a grey area that some can justify (plus, many including the owner himself have been successfully using this with 5500W elements).

If you're worried, you could ask Corey to use the 32amp connectors when he builds your unit. He sent me a similar email to the one RonR received, and offered to install the 32amp connectors for the $75 price difference.

I haven't brewed yet with the hosehead, but I've been having a lot of fun setting it up. I'd recommend it, based on my early experience (Corey was very quick to respond to all of my questions via email, and very helpful).

On a separate topic - I haven't calibrated my PID yet. What methods have people used to calibrate? And what values did you get (with what sized element)?

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I realized last night that I had a second spool of 10/3, and that wire had a thinner jacket that allowed me to secure it to the 20a connector. I wired it up last night and ran a water test, and I'm in business (moved 9 gallons of water +30F in 10 minutes).

While it's clear that the unit isn't technically to code, it seems that it's operating in a grey area that some can justify (plus, many including the owner himself have been successfully using this with 5500W elements).

If you're worried, you could ask Corey to use the 32amp connectors when he builds your unit. He sent me a similar email to the one RonR received, and offered to install the 32amp connectors for the $75 price difference.

I haven't brewed yet with the hosehead, but I've been having a lot of fun setting it up. I'd recommend it, based on my early experience (Corey was very quick to respond to all of my questions via email, and very helpful).

On a separate topic - I haven't calibrated my PID yet. What methods have people used to calibrate? And what values did you get (with what sized element)?

The strangebrew subreddit is where most of this stuff gets talked about
https://www.reddit.com/r/StrangeBrew/comments/3dnd3n/zieglernichols_pid_tuning/

There's the post on how you can go about tuning your PID.

 

[scottconnor]

I had my first brewday yesterday and it went pretty well. Brewed a Maple Bacon Porter. The brew day went really well for my first run on new equipment.

I enabled logging on the Hosehead before the brew day started, and tonight I exported the data and threw it into Excel. It tells the story of the brew day pretty well (miscues and all). This is some pretty sweet data porn that I'll keep as part of my notes on each brew.

 

[anticrapple]

i am in the market for the hosehead. i think i am going to pull the trigger and get it!

does anyone else have a brew day chart like one scottconnor has? I would love to see what the system looks like after the PIDs are locked in and calibrated. And if someone has a more locked in calibration, how long did it take? Was it difficult?

FuzzeWuzze dont hate me for wanting one of these. Its just too affordable!

 

[scottconnor]

Putting this chart together helped me see the oscillations. After I annotated the graph, I was zooming in on various parts of the chart and I noticed three oscillations in the bottom right area of the red box (the tall spike is when I manually turned the element back on to clean my chiller).

Using the reddit thread on PID tuning, I came up with the following:

P = 30 (assumed value)
Tu = 180 (average oscillation)
Ki = 2.5*30/180 = .41
kd = 3 * 30 * 180/20 = 810

P = 30
I = .41
D = 810

I'll try these values out on my next brew day and see what my chart looks like. To be honest, even without being tuned I was pretty happy with how fast the system heated up water and held temps. I was never more than 1.5 degrees over where I wanted to be. I know that's probably bad for an electric system, but coming from propane this felt pretty accurate.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

i am in the market for the hosehead. i think i am going to pull the trigger and get it!

does anyone else have a brew day chart like one scottconnor has? I would love to see what the system looks like after the PIDs are locked in and calibrated. And if someone has a more locked in calibration, how long did it take? Was it difficult?

FuzzeWuzze dont hate me for wanting one of these. Its just too affordable!

I dont hate lol, do i think its really a risk? No. But i think people should be aware of it atleast

I think its a perfectly workable product, i just dont like a few of the things hes doing build wise(unrelated to the 20A connectors) so i chose to build my own

 

[thrillhouse]

I dont hate lol, do i think its really a risk? No. But i think people should be aware of it atleast

I think its a perfectly workable product, i just dont like a few of the things hes doing build wise(unrelated to the 20A connectors) so i chose to build my own

Would you mind elaborating for those of us with little to no knowledge of building one of these DIY? I lean towards being overly cautious and am close to pulling the trigger on this if I can have the 20A connectors upgraded, but want to make sure that's the only safety grey area. Are your concerns related to safety, or something else? Thanks!

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Would you mind elaborating for those of us with little to no knowledge of building one of these DIY? I lean towards being overly cautious and am close to pulling the trigger on this if I can have the 20A connectors upgraded, but want to make sure that's the only safety grey area. Are your concerns related to safety, or something else? Thanks!

The first is not having a way to actually manually control the elements via a switch. Every panel out there has a 3 way toggle switch(HLT/OFF/BK) so that you can only ever have one element on at a time. I assume this is all controlled via the software for the Hosehead, so its technically possible to turn both elements on and trip the breaker, and IMO makes it easier to forget that an element is on. Dangerous? Not really but it opens up a lot more room to screw up and blow fuses and or elements. Where as with a 3 way toggle you can only ever have 1 element on at a time, so you really only have to worry that your element is submerged. This may seem very nitpicky, and its easy to work around you just have to be paying attention and not turn both on at once, or maybe there's even code in SBE that prevents this from being possible, I dont know I havent finished building my box yet. Although this entire point by the way is moot if you are doing a 50A back to back rig as you can handle both elements on, i am only doing the more standard 30A panel setup. Toggle switchs that many Kal style panels have for pumps isn't really a big of a deal to not have on an Elsinore box so i can understand that omission from a standard panel, the software GUI can handle those just fine without any real associated risk.

Other than that i'm not a huge fan of using 25A SSR's for the elements that you see in his "opening up a hosehead" video, while it is adequate for running 5500W elements that take like 21A, when a 40A SSR is only a few dollars more and could be passively cooled with heatsinks and no fans(or one tiny one on the side) it seemed a bit goofy. And i dont like the idea of having two giant holes in the top for fans, personal preference, its just more things that can(and will) fail eventually.

I think there's a lot of cool things hes doing inside that i am stealing like using a 120V->12V power supply to power the RPI.

Overall i think its a great product still, and dont even entirely know if its really necessary to upgrade to connectors, but if it makes you feel better go for it. Its not really breaking any saftey codes or anything, but the parts are the bare minimum you could use. I personally prefer to have it a bit over engineered and have some buffer room in my parts when possible, from past experience parts that barely can handle the load that's thrown at them tend to fail faster from being stressed(and heated) repeatedly.

 

[RonR]

I love my Hosehead controller. I've done about seven brew days so far without a problem. It's a third to a half the cost of building your own. It comes with a one year warranty, so if anything goes wrong he'll fix it for free.
As far a firing both elements at once, I haven't tried. But being software controlled, I'm sure a couple of lines of code could prevent it.
The biggest safety issue I see is trying to build a controller if you are not electronically and electrically qualified. Talking about a risk of electrocution!
I bought the Hosehead for less than the cost of parts needed to build a panel. I've never regretted it.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I love my Hosehead controller. I've done about seven brew days so far without a problem. It's a third to a half the cost of building your own. It comes with a one year warranty, so if anything goes wrong he'll fix it for free.
As far a firing both elements at once, I haven't tried. But being software controlled, I'm sure a couple of lines of code could prevent it.
The biggest safety issue I see is trying to build a controller if you are not electronically and electrically qualified. Talking about a risk of electrocution!
I bought the Hosehead for less than the cost of parts needed to build a panel. I've never regretted it.

Well you cant really compare it to a standard Ebrewsupply or Kal box, a DIY Strangebrew box with the same stuff he has is probably ~300 and you could build it cheaper still. Mines at $300 or so now but i have probably $75 in stupid LED's and switches he doesn't have lol.

But i do agree, there is not that much markup considering the build quality and if you arent DIY its by far the cheapest way to get into Electric. I dont want to detract anyone from buying one, just personally enjoying DIY and seeing how he did things i think i can do it better for cheaper myself.

 

[RonR]

How much beer are you guys brewing at one time?

Just for giggles, I took Blichmann's formula for rise time and calculated the time savings on a brew day between 4500 watt and 5500 watt elements. Their formula is .0068*watts/gallons.
So, a 4500 watt element will increase the temperature of 13 gallons at 2.35 degrees per minute.
A 5500 watt element will increase the temperature of 13 gallons at 2.88 degrees per minute.

Time to take 13 gallons of 65 degree water to a strike temp of 165 is 42.55 minutes using a 4500 watt element.
Time to take 13 gallons of 150 degree water to a strike temp of 165 is 34.72minutes using a 5500 watt element.

Time to take 13 gallons of 150 degree wort to boiling temperature of 212 degrees using a 4500 watt element is 26.38 minutes.
Time to take 13 gallons of 150 degree wort to boiling temperature of 212 degrees using a 5500 watt element is 21.53 minutes.

Total time saved on brew day by using 5500 watt elements versus 4500 watt elements for a 10 gallon final batch: 12.68 minutes.

If you're making more than 10-15 gallons at a time you probably shouldn't be using a homebrew controller in the first place. But if you're worried about pulling a couple of amps over what the connector is rated, just get 4500 watt elements which will put you at 18.75 amps. What's 12.68 minutes more to a brew day when you've sat through a 60-90 minute mash and a 60-120 minute boil?

Just saying.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

How much beer are you guys brewing at one time?

Just for giggles, I took Blichmann's formula for rise time and calculated the time savings on a brew day between 4500 watt and 5500 watt elements. Their formula is .0068*watts/gallons.
So, a 4500 watt element will increase the temperature of 13 gallons at 2.35 degrees per minute.
A 5500 watt element will increase the temperature of 13 gallons at 2.88 degrees per minute.

Time to take 13 gallons of 65 degree water to a strike temp of 165 is 42.55 minutes using a 4500 watt element.
Time to take 13 gallons of 150 degree water to a strike temp of 165 is 34.72minutes using a 5500 watt element.

Time to take 13 gallons of 150 degree wort to boiling temperature of 212 degrees using a 4500 watt element is 26.38 minutes.
Time to take 13 gallons of 150 degree wort to boiling temperature of 212 degrees using a 5500 watt element is 21.53 minutes.

Total time saved on brew day by using 5500 watt elements versus 4500 watt elements for a 10 gallon final batch: 12.68 minutes.

If you're making more than 10-15 gallons at a time you probably shouldn't be using a homebrew controller in the first place. But if you're worried about pulling a couple of amps over what the connector is rated, just get 4500 watt elements which will put you at 18.75 amps. What's 12.68 minutes more to a brew day when you've sat through a 60-90 minute mash and a 60-120 minute boil?

Just saying.

True enough, but i'd like to correct that i think most people using HERMS doing 10 gallon batches(and probably even 5 gallon) are bringing full 20 gallon's from 65->Strike so that their HERMS coil stays submerged during recirc, which by my calculation is 12 minutes difference in itself using your calculation. Also there is mashing out which is another step not listed.

And as far as i know all of these numbers assume zero heat loss.

In the end its probably only like ~25-30 minutes difference.

 

[RonR]

True enough, but i'd like to correct that i think most people using HERMS doing 10 gallon batches(and probably even 5 gallon) are bringing full 20 gallon's from 65->Strike so that their HERMS coil stays submerged during recirc, which by my calculation is 12 minutes difference in itself using your calculation. Also there is mashing out which is another step not listed.

And as far as i know all of these numbers assume zero heat loss.

In the end its probably only like ~25-30 minutes difference.

I use a HERMS coil and I add additional water to my 15 gallon HLT as I mash in. By the time I get my grains in my mashtun, my HLT is up to temp for recirculation, so it doesn't add anytime to my day and I'm using a 4500 watt boilcoil in my HLT.

In reality I actually get over a 3 degree rise in temp per minute in my HLT. Raising my HLT to 170 for mashout takes maybe 5 or 6 minutes.

I enjoy brewing my beers, so I guess a few minutes here or there are not so important as long as it's within reason.

 

[akthor]

So the hoseheac can only power one element at a time?

 

[superstorm204]

Yes

 

[Bassman2003]

No, I power two elements with the Hosehead. A 3500w and a 4500w on 220v power.

 

[akthor]

I emailed them for clarification. I want to use 2 - 5500 watt elements

 

[akthor]

Got an email back:

Hi Christopher,

Yes, Hosehead can be configured to run both ouputs on the same channel at the same time, I will just have to set up the software differently to link the outputs.
You will need to hook it to a 50a breaker and I recomend 8/3 wire for power input. The powercon handles the load fine, I always brew with both on at the same time.

So that's a relief!

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Got an email back:

Hi Christopher,

Yes, Hosehead can be configured to run both ouputs on the same channel at the same time, I will just have to set up the software differently to link the outputs.
You will need to hook it to a 50a breaker and I recomend 8/3 wire for power input. The powercon handles the load fine, I always brew with both on at the same time.

So that's a relief!

Uhm, no?

I'm willing to buy his argument that you could in theory use the 20A connectors safely for a 5500W element..for the most part because we're talking running them right at the limit basically.

But now hes saying you can pull 40+ Amps powering two 5500W elements on a 32A amp powercon connector?

Technically you need 8 Gauge wire for 40 Amps, to be safe you would probably just use 6# wire since in theory you would be at 42-44A if both elements are at 100%, and the powercon 32A doesnt even accept anything larger than 10 Gauge...I call bull ****. Will it work? Probably for a while until the connector or cable itself fails from taking too much current and melts or something lol.

If you want a true answer, email Neutrik and ask them if their connector can safely pass 45 Amps...im just going to guess they are going to say no. Usually these types connectors are listed under what they are truely capable of supplying, mostly to cover their asses...but 32->45A is a big jump so i am not so sure..but again if you want to know ask them.

Assuming each is at full power using his math(from earlier in the thread) is 21 Amps each, throw in say another 1A for the RPI and another 3 amps if your running two chugger/march pumps...that gets you up to 45A.

 

[Bassman2003]

Fuzze brings up valid points about the connectors. Any way you slice it, running 11,000w at home is a big ask in many ways. I only run both of my elements to bring the wort up to boiling then go back to one. Two 5500w elements is some serious heat going in the wort but it would speed up the process on larger batches.

At first glance I would say this is beyond the design of the Hosehead.

 

[akthor]

That's what I want to do bring it up to temp fast then use one to maintain temps