Remote temperature minder

[Stillraining]

So I got a new toy...I was wanting a way to monitor temps without lifting lids and/or hovering over pots and mash tuns to get them. So I ran across this gizmo the other day and decided to give it a try.

It's a Meat Grilling thermometer, but you can select any temperature settings you want. It also has 2 probe inputs for sensing two things at the same time if so desired such as Sparge water and mash tun temp. The remote unit has all the settings to change things on the fly and the sending unit has its own digital temp read out as well. The range is suppose to be 300 feet so I'm hoping it will penetrate a few house walls as I brew outdoors and wanted a way to monitor temps from in the house. It has visual and audible alarms for your temp settings and a audible alarm if loss of connection is obtained. I quite frequently overshoot my strike water temps as I always streamline my brew days so I am off doing other things as water heats..I'm hoping to cure this with this gadget.
Probe wires are rated to over 700 degrees so no problem dangling them over the edge of a boil pot. Included wires are only 3' long so I also got the optional 6' lead for ease of placing the unit away from the burner.

This would work equally as a fermentation monitor as well, as its effective range is down to 32 degrees.

I will up date here on how it works out as soon as I get a chance to brew.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FOCR4UI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Hoosier-Brewer]

Verify the probes can be submerged in liquid.I learned the hard way with my gen 1 iGrille, trashed the probe and then found out later they couldn't be submerged.

 

[day_trippr]

Just looking at those probes I'd say there is zero chance they're rated for anything approaching immersion above the crimps...

Cheers!

 

[Stillraining]

Rats!..... good point I did not consider... I will investigate. Thanks!

How about adding this to the crimp areas? Its FDA aproved, meets military and medical specs and is rated to 300 degrees.

 

[FVillatoro]

I used a very similar thermometer made by Ivation (probably the same manufacturer as yours), and the probes are identical.
I will tell you from experience that the probes are absolutely not water proof and will read completely off once wet (I killed 2 by getting them wet ).
In fact, I believe that even steam will cause them to short out.

Maybe that shrink tubing will do it? It would be awesome to have a probe in the kettle to know when the water is coming up to the temp for mashing/mash out instead of having to check every 5 minutes like I do now.

Keep us updated!

 

[Stillraining]

I ordered up their duel wall heat shrink which has a inner layer of material at turns liquid and melts to form a water proof seal inside the shrink wrap. I know this type of shrink wrap works as far as waterproofness goes as my 240v well pump wires are encapsulated in it.

Will definitely report back

 

[Stillraining]

So here is the skinny:
The above posted shrink tubing did the trick and the unit had no issues giving me constant temps through out my brew day. Thanks to all thoes whom gave me the warning about water proof-ness!

Its advertised 300' range maybe a stretch although I did not test straight line reception. It would loose connection sitting in the house 75 feet away with 3 walls separating the receiver from the sending unit. But It gave accurate updates through just one wall and 50 feet away.

Basically it dose what I need it to do.

So we have all seen shrink wrap...I just made sure I bought the proper kind. See the previous link.

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My John Deere brew kit is pretty basic and I like it that way. What I don't like is hovering over pots or mash tuns. Baby sitting things is not my gift. With this gem I'm free to roam around and remotely monitor how everything is going. Here I'm monitoring both my mash temp and my sparge water heating. I have in the past had numerous over shoots on sparge or infusion water temps as I wonder off tending to other things. This totally eliminated that today and my remote unit told me exactly where I was at all the time. Id walk out of the house when the temp was within a degree of where I wanted it. totally awesome! Today were doing a 10Gal batch

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Here you can see my mash temp on channel 1 is 144 and at the same time its monitoring my heating of my sparge water currently at 167. The sending units display alternates between showing the two reading.

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So welcome to my new brew control room. Sit down relax and watch the show. I monitored the boil temp right from here and when it hit 210 I sondered over to the pot and totally controlled any chance of boil over with perfect timing. This thing rocks!

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Click on the picture to see it in action

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[day_trippr]

If you submerge those probes beyond the heat shrinked section, liquid will get through the outer braid and run behind the tubing on its way to the thermistor. You should run that tubing far enough up the cable that the exposed braid won't get wet...

Cheers!

 

[Stillraining]

*$*&!!@%! Well it worked today so we will see. I have the same probe monitoring a slab of beef on the grill as I type this

 

[Stillraining]

Another update...two of my probes have died as predicted by two posters here...I have one left I'm going to try a different technique on water proof it. Really loved the functionality of this thing and I'm hoping o get it figured out.
Maverick makes a so called "Water Proof" replacement probe but does not recommend sustain submersion which is what us brewers would want.
It supposed to be tolerant of steam and dishwasher save.

Will keep updating, tell I either figure it out or give up, one of the two.

 

[Jwin]

Why not just install a thermowell?

 

[eric19312]

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/pcomp4.htm


this should do the trick

 

[MerlinWerks]

I ordered up their duel wall heat shrink which has a inner layer of material at turns liquid and melts to form a water proof seal inside the shrink wrap. I know this type of shrink wrap works as far as waterproofness goes as my 240v well pump wires are encapsulated in it.

Will definitely report back

Where did you buy this?

Thanks

 

[Stillraining]

Why not just install a thermowell?

Because I like the portability of it being able to user it in 3 different boil pots and 2 different mash tun coolers.

 

[Jwin]

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/pcomp4.htm


this should do the trick

Was thinking about that as well. Note OP, it only takes .19-.25" diameter probes.

 

[Stillraining]

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/pcomp4.htm


this should do the trick

Thanks!... but same answer as above.

 

[Stillraining]

Where did you buy this?

Thanks

Here you go.. Its food and medical grade.

http://www.cableorganizer.com/heat-shrink/high-temperature.htm

 

[Jwin]

How about putting a compression fitting on the probe then running some pet or six one tubing up the first couple feet of the wire?

 

[Stillraining]

All those suggestions and previous ones would work ...but my goal has been and still is to keep it simple, flexible, portable and user friendly, without the need for drilling more holes in pots or coolers and or making anything permanent. I have another idea to try to water proof enough of the cable to stop water seepage...I will give that a go first before anything else.

The suggestion to use one solid heat shrink around any part of the cable that gets submerged will probably be my last resort if all else fails..(heat shrink came 36" long so I have plenty left)
I will have to buy the so called waterproof probe for that final experiment though as its at least steam proof according to them. I'm really hoping to keep more of the cable flexible that that final option though so we will see what I can come up with first about totally sealing just a few inches of it at the actual probe..

Appreciate all the suggestions however.

 

[Sadu]

I'm working on building something similar using a battery-powered arduino, a digital display and 2x temperature probes. I'm less concerned about the remote aspect, although it could be wifi-enabled if necessary.

Probes cost about $1 each and I have one submerged in my fermentor now, works great for monitoring that. The docs say they work from about freezing to boiling temps, although I'd probably remove the probe while boiling as it's less necessary at that stage.

I figure with 2 probes hanging from the air extractor, one stays in the kettle while mashing and cooling, one spare on a longer cable for measuring rehydration water and pitching etc. The digital display shows what the temp of both probes is at any time. The advantage for me is not having to wait for the thermometer to settle since it's always in the liquid (my current one has a 20-30 second lag time plus I have to hold it) plus a digital LED display that is readable from across the room so I can be doing something else and still minding temps. Also possible to sound audible alarms or start blinking once hitting mash temp etc.

I realise this doesn't help your situation but thought you might be interested in this approach.

 

[Jwin]

I'll eventually pull the trigger on one of these

http://s.aliexpress.com/JzMrmYfy