big_al_in_k-zoo
Well-Known Member
The element I got from Lowes. There are NO "+" or "-" markings, and only two posts, so i'm a little confused on how to ground it.
klyph said:I wonder who was or will be the first person to be killed by their brew rig.
This is a steel 1" nut. If I attached the ground to this, then theaded the element into this, then into the rims tube, would this work as solid ground? Just want to be safe
Question,
How do people ground a RIMS tube from Derrin at brewers hardware? Same concept? I am waiting for mine to arrive. I was speaking with a friend who does a lot of electrical work and recommended that since i will be brewing outsite, I should actually drive a grounding rod into the ground and connect it to the control box. He said if you do it any other way then that is considered a shortcut and it will shorten the life of your components. Any thoughts on this, was he bull****ting me?
Question,
How do people ground a RIMS tube from Derrin at brewers hardware? Same concept? I am waiting for mine to arrive. I was speaking with a friend who does a lot of electrical work and recommended that since i will be brewing outsite, I should actually drive a grounding rod into the ground and connect it to the control box. He said if you do it any other way then that is considered a shortcut and it will shorten the life of your components. Any thoughts on this, was he bull****ting me?
I am going to go RTD on my next version of my control panel...think "The Electric Brewery Lite"- still only going to run 110v as I will only be running the RIMS tube, pumps, PID, and a timer- No 220v heating elements.
I have no 220v in my apartment as all of my appliances are gas driven- dryer, stove, etc. So it is still going to be just propane for me until such time as I buy a house (kinda nice calling someone to come out to fix stuff when broke at THEIR cost, not mine).
Not sure about the rust, reelale, is your system leaking?
Also, good question about the 1500 watt element coating. Earlier in this thread, I mentioned that my system had, er, fried... and I replaced my 1500w ld element with a 4500 220v element (running at 110v), and brewed a batch. Well, the wort tasted great, and I took a sample this evening (in the primary for 4 days) and it is as sweet as can be; no off flavors.
Today, I brewed a porter, and it tasted fine going into the fermenter. As I cleaned my system, I decided to remove the element to check it; and although there was no scorching at all, the chrome (zinc) on the element was gone... it's now a slate gray color. Any thoughts as to why this happened? Is my beer toxic waste?
By the way, my cleaning "ritual" post-brew is to recirculate water through the entire system to flush it (bucket of water to the pump, to the inlet on my plate chiller, out of my chiller to the inlet of my rims tube, out of the rims back to the bucket). Then I repeat with water with a scoop of pbw, then again with water, and finally with star san and water to sanitize. (Okay, I like to keep my system clean...) Anyhow, I'm wondering if maybe the star san had something to do with it? Thoughts?
I would suspect either PBW or starsan as the culprit on your element. PBW is caustic, starsan is acid. Both can remove plating if left in contact long enough. I soaked brass-plated faucets in PBW overnight. Next day they were silver.
That was my suspicion... should I be concerned with the element no longer having the plating?
I have not thought of putting a timer on my setup. What kind of timer did you use?
Sawdustguy said:If you are using a standard water heater element they are coated with a zinc plating to protect the element when in a water heater. It doesn't help the element when brewing. I simply rubbed it off with a scrubby until I got to bare copper. I wonder if the zinc is causing an off taste. Then again it could be anything and not related to the RIMS at all.
Couple of questions on RIMS elements. I've noticed a little rust forming at the the element base on mine. Is this a concern? How do you deal with it? I have one of Derrin's tubes, and there is also rust from the base in the SS threads of the tri-clover/element fitting.
Also, what are the 1500 W elements coated with? Zinc? Is this a concern?
Lastly, my rims is semi-permanently mounted to my pump. That means I recirculate through it while cooling with a plate chiller. OK? Or should I by-pass it on the cold side? Thanks.
I wouldn't run my cold side through the RIMS tube unless I absolutely had to.
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