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Heat wrap around the outside of the conical, under the insulation. The other option is an aquarium heater in the glycol, but then you lose the ability to chill one conical while you heat a different conical.

The additional outputs for the BCS (expansion or on a BCS-462) are on/off only and can't be associated with a temp probe. So, there is a bit of programming nonsense you'll have to go through to get heating to work. I posted the details a few pages back on here.

You can use either a BCS-460 with an expansion card or a BCS-462.

Send me a PM with your address and I'll pack everything up.

That works too. Glad the photos helped.

Here's the somewhat confusing description I gave to stainless brewing for my coils: "Stainless coil should be coiled like an IC. The main difference being the vertical sections should be 18" from the bottom of the coils and instead of the tubes being next to each other, they should be...

Post pictures when you're done :mug:

I saw a video a while ago of someone using a 10k BTU A/C unit and a 50ft coil for a 10BBL fermenter at a craft brewery. If 10k BTU can chill 315 gallons of wort, I'm sure 5k will handle pretty much anything you need at home.

That's what the heat wrap I spoke of previously is for. Wrap it around the conical and then the insulation around that. I haven't hooked mine up yet, but it should work fine.

The SS coil I use is like 9-10" tall and is mounted directly above the racking port. So, the bulk of the wort is relatively close to the coils. I've lagered, cold crashed, and stored beer in the conical at 38 deg F for another 3 weeks or so until I got around to kegging it without an issue.

Try using one made for an aquarium, they should be relatively cheap. You want a relatively long heating element.

You can do that, but you lose some flexibility. If ambient temp is say 55-60 and you're fermenting a lager in one conical and an ale in the other, you'll need both heating and cooling. Also, at the end of fermentation, it's really nice to be able to cold crash in the conical, drop out the...

The point is to bypass the internal thermostat. They're horribly inaccurate and you have to rip the A/C apart for this project anyways. Might as well splice three wires to bypass it and reduce the risk of a spoiled batch.

You'd need a bunch of heat tape, a 10A relay board, some outlets, and an expansion board for the BCS. Hook 3 outputs up to the 10A relay, the associated outputs on the relay to the outlets, and the outlets to the heat tape (which is wrapped around the conicals). Now the problem comes when...

Glad to help. Hopefully you guys should be able to finish the project now.

Actually, I had enough time to make all of the diagrams. You guys should have everything you need to build one of these now. Let me know if anything is unclear.

So it appears there are at least 5 or 6 of you currently building one of these judging by the wiring diagram requests I've received. I had some time today and have started to put a few of the diagrams up here: http://plasticconical.com/controller-part-2

Pretty much. However, you'll need some pretty low powered SSRs. I had some spare 40A ones that I had lying around from a previous build and building out an electric brewery. Add too many of those and the BCS can't support the voltage required to switch the SSR on. Then nothing works. So, go with...

Send them an email and ask when it'll be back in stock. Same thing happened to me when I had to order a replacement board. Took about 2 weeks to come back in stock.

I use 12" thermowell for the glycol reservoir (just drilled a hole in the lid and stuck the thermowell through). I had tried to go in through the side (below the water line) and it leaks. even with a weldless fitting, the side of the cooler bends too easily to get a decent seal. These are the...