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@augiedoggy , as someone stated above, I'm a casual brewer so my mill sees fairly light duty. I brew once or twice a month 3.5 -4.5 gal batches. For my needs it's doing great, knock on wood! I'm glad to know about the CK though as a plan B. That's a nice thing about this forum, reading about...

Lol, I do have the Barley Crusher and maybe I lucked out compared to others experience but it's been flawless since day one. Got it on sale for $106 and it was adjusted perfectly out of the box to credit card thickness.

Thanks! My boil coil makes no sound whatsoever when it's heating, so I'm not sure that I'd know anything was wrong with the exception of the temp probe readout! I do have an inline gfci that I could trip instead of unplugging the unit. Thanks!

I have the Brew Commander @doug293cz and really like it for my single vessel BIAB. It's my first exposure to controllers so I wanted to ask what happens if the SSR fails in the BrewCommander? How would I know? Does an SSR failure bypass the power switch on the controller? Not meaning to hijack...

+1 on brewing without a basket! However there are bags that are made for recirculation if you still want to use your basket. I recirculate BIAB without a basket using a ULWD element and get decent flow through the grain, but do need to upgrade my bag to the Brew Bag model that is made for...

@doug293cz, yes I figured that would probably work but it was finding the right ULWD element that I felt would work for my BIAB that was an issue. Just not much of a selection out there that I could find that was under 5500w. That and I was new to the electric controller choices. Definitely...

Steps are for hop additions in the boil program. I guess you could use the mash program for what you have in mind. However once you play with the linear boil setting working slightly back from 100% it's super easy to find that just less than boil over setting. With hop additions I always find...

@phillip_h I got it off Amazon. Northshore Safety makes them in different configurations and for me was much cheaper, $88, than calling electrician etc.

Something I may check into trying partially covered, but I wouldn't want to do it until after hot break. Risk of boil over isn't worth it to me. I'm still refining my boil off rates in BS with a new kettle, so a partial covering after hot break will change the rate a bit but shouldn't be a big...

My method too, I guess just because that was what I read to do when I started brewing a few years ago.

Yes, I boil with lid off. Always

I use the boil coil with the Brew Commander. No false bottom or basket. Just straight BIAB. The Brew Bag touches the boil coil and I leave the heat on during the mash and also recirc during the mash with no problems at all. I was cautious at first but now I mash with the boil coil at 90%...

I'm new to controllers and they're so many out there, but this one fits the bill for me and my single vessel BIAB brewing. Plug and play, easy to use touchscreen and I like that it uses digital keypad rather than scrolling up down buttons. I'm sure there's probably more sophisticated...

@craigmw , for cleaning the kettle and boil coil I just heat some pbw to 140F and recirculate, then when i've drained down to the coils I use a kitchen bristle brush to run over the coils. So far no build up but a bristle bottle brush easily fits between the coils and sidewalls. I might have...

I'm using the Brew Bag with a Boil Coil and the Brew Commander. I do have the bag contacting the coils during mash but I'm also whirlpooling the entire time. I'm just doing 4-5 gal batches and running the 3750w Boil Coil, so hopefully the bag will last.

Yes, I have have 10ft ceilings in the garage and I have an overhead air cleaner that produces a good circular airflow, so I can crack the garage door open and recirculate fresh air. Haven't had a problem with the steam so far.

To pump to the fermenter mainly, but also I wasn't sure how I wanted it set up so I gave myself plenty of leeway starting out.

Thanks, and welcome @Jdub in TX ! Glad to see you here.

Nice! I went with the plug and play BC because it handles a range of amps, where most everything else in the 240v was 30 amps. I have a 240v 20 amp tablesaw circuit, so I went with the easiest solution. The 3750w boil coil in my size batches is ideal. Also, I'm retired so the few extra minutes...

Ah, yeah I'm doing half the size batches you are, mostly 4-5 gal. Whether there would be issues with larger batch sizes IDK.