Hot Plate RIMS

[TomDaniels]

I like thinking outside the box on my designs, and I think I've found a new location outside the box this time.

The idea is simple. Use a cheap electric hotplate (1100-1500W) under a mash tun with false bottom. Control the hot plate with a PID and recirculate continuously. I figure you could build up a simple stand around the hotplate to accept most of the weight of the tun

Upsides: Cheap and easy to service. No complicated RIMS tube to fool with.

Downsides: Not as efficient as a RIMS as some heat will be lost to the air.
I suppose one could end up with a pretty hot spot where the burner meets the tun's bottom, but I guess I'd just line it up with the dip tube so I was constantly pumping wort past it.

 

[MalFet]

Guess I was living outside the box, too, without even realizing it!

Works a treat. Good luck!

 

[Huaco]

Not really RIMS at all is it? Wouldn't this be considered a direct fired MLT?

 

[MalFet]

Not really RIMS at all is it? Wouldn't this be considered a direct fired MLT?

Nah, people have been building direct fire systems and calling them RIMS for as long as the term has been around. The Brutus 10, for example, is one of the more famous RIMS systems, and it's direct fired.

 

[Huaco]

Gotcha...
I guess it is essentially the same thing. With the false bottom the wort is separated from the grains while being heated and recirculated. Are you taking the temp of the grain bed or the wort in flow on it's way back to the top of the grain bed?

 

[MalFet]

Gotcha...
I guess it is essentially the same thing. With the false bottom the wort is separated from the grains while being heated and recirculated. Are you taking the temp of the grain bed or the wort in flow on it's way back to the top of the grain bed?

For RIMS generally, you want to take the temp of the hottest point. If your coldest point is significantly below that, you're not getting good circulation. So, in a direct fire RIMS, you would typically stick the temperature sensor below the false bottom near the spot getting the most direct heat.

 

[241]

Sounds neat. Could probably use the plug and play auber to have this be really easy on the electrical side hmm