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Using a washer or dryer is attractive because it has a bearing and is rugged enough to tolerate a *little* imbalance without spontaneous disassembly. But you still gotta figure out how to center the bucket in the rotating drum. It sounds kinda like you could hurt yourself trying this

Take it down to the playground and strap it to the merry-go-round! But, seriously, how fast would we need to spin? If you stir up a lot of sediment, how long does it take to settle under 1G (normal gravity)? Probably several hours? So you probably need to spin fast enough to produce several...

Yea, I’ve been thinking of that option but I’m worried that it will be tough to keep condensation out if I use a cooling coil on the exterior of my fermenter. I could use a coil / loop that went inside the fermenter, which shouldn’t have condensation issues. But that’s more to clean and worry...

There is another recent thread that is talking about using a bucket of glycol in a freezer, then piping that through a cooling coil in the fermenter. That idea is attractive to me because I have a suitable freezer but it is also used for food. I couldn’t put my fermenter inside but I could fit a...

Not great, admittedly.. I was hoping the thicker cooler insulation would reduce the cooling need (compared with the usual reflectex wrap) I could use poly tubing so as to allow the tubing to be squished a bit Or maybe fill the gap between bucket & igloo with water - a bit more of a mess

No I think you’re right - a 5 gal would be too small

Hmm - a pretty snug fit then, huh? I had hoped to run a coil of tubing between the bucket and the igloo to pump cold water through. No luck on that concept? Room for 1/4” tubing even?

Thanks for checking it — is that a 6 gal bucket? How much room between the top of the bucket and the igloo lid? I wonder if a blowoff tube could be routed out the spigot on the bottom?

Will a standard size 6 gallon bucket fit inside a 10G Igloo cooler? I’m looking for a cheap and low-clutter temp controlled DIY fermenter solution. As I see it, you need some good insulation to minimize how much cooling power you need. And it better be air tight if you don’t like...

This sounds like an awesome idea. What was the reason for planning to override the freezer tstat? Just to get the glycol colder?

I ferment in buckets and want to dry hop without opening the lid. My idea is to make a large syringe into a hop pellet holder that can mount air tight to the bucket lid — maybe using a rubber stopper. When it’s time to dry hop, I’ll mash the plunger down, releasing the pellets. Obviously need to...

I haven’t looked at that product too closely, but they allow up to 4 extra SSRs to be connected to that unit. I am guessing that the control wire that runs between housings is just the low voltage DC input to the SSR — if so, you would replace that connection with a control line from the Arduino...

Back to the idea of a low voltage interface.. Buy the Blichman power controller for $150 and add an Arduino to implement PID + user interface... Granted, that’s what the Brew Commander gives you, but you could probably save money by rolling your own this way

Thanks - considerate of you to convert it for me. Is the carafoam intended to take the place of the oats? Do you think a partial mash would allow me to get closer to the “real deal”, or should I just stick with this recipe until I’m up to AG brews?

Any pointers on converting this recipe to extract? Can I just change the 2-row to the appropriate amount of malt extract and then steep everything else?

Doug - good point about the safety issues with DIY electrical work. Definitely nothing to play with. My day job happens to deal with stuff like this, but I wouldn’t encourage folks to take on this kind of build without the right experience

I’m wondering if I can cannibalize a cheap 12vdc to 120v inverter for the aluminum case/heat sink, fan, and outlets. They make 240v versions too, but not as many

In several of the controllers I’ve seen, the switches and indicators all seem to operate from the 120v (or 240v). That makes a lot of sense if you are controlling a relay or contractor. But if you are driving a SSR using low voltage signals, why can’t all of the user interface also be low...

Interested...

Are there any folks equipped with both a thermowell and strapped sensor who are willing to try a step response in temperature - first using the strapped sensor as the control input, then repeating the test using the thermowell? Control theory says that the strapped sensor will produce less...