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Here's a flow diagram of the plumbing: was there anything else you were looking for?

Before doing any complicated rewiring, I'd hold off for a little while. Version 4.0 of the BCS firmware is supposed to be out in the next couple months and it's a total rewrite of the code. One of the features they're supposedly working on is starting processes automatically on startup, which...

To be honest, that's probably overkill. With the insulation in place, even the pilsner is staying within 2 degrees of its target for an hour and a half. The hef is more like 4-5 hours. If I had insulated it a day earlier, I most likely would have been fine. Looks like I won't be dumping the...

Here's where I got the couplings: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190816557823 $72 with free shipping. On the other end of the connection I just used a camlock to connect to the ball valve. That way I can replace or change the length of the tubing if I need to, but can still...

The IC uses a regular 1/2" compression to NPT adapter, which the quick disconnects screw directly in to. I have a couple washers and an o-ring to keep it air tight in between. I got the disconnects off ebay. They're expensive if you buy them individually, but I found a seller with 6 sets of...

Well, the insulation makes a pretty huge difference. Here's a temp graph prior to the insulation. The big spikes are from me disconnecting the temp probes to measure the fit. and here's a graph after the insulation is in place: Not too bad for a couple sheets of neoprene.

So, there are a couple things going on here: 1) The BCS-460 as designed (for whatever reason) will not resume where it left off when it comes back on from power loss. I think this stems from the fact that it's really made for automated brewing and not fermenting. If that were to happen in an...

Insulation in place: It's 1/2" neoprene cut to size. We'll see how well this works, but it appears to have stopped the condensation. In other news, running pure water on a hot day is a bad idea. I checked the reservoir and the A/C coil had ~1" of ice on it. Added a couple gallons of glycol...

Bleach will work. It's not stainless. So you won't have a problem with rust. I'd probably just let it soak for 24-48 hours with PBW and then clean it out with bleach + water. Be sure to rinse it well after you're done.

I could, but a pilsner takes up a fermenter long enough as it is. I have way more homebrew than I can drink anyways. So, might as well make sure it's perfect. If I can find a bag of floor malted pilsner malt at my LHBS, I'll probably replace the German pils with a Czech pils. I have about 3/4 of...

Disaster strikes: I spent all day yesterday brewing a Kolsch and a German Pils. Put everything in the conicals, chilled to the appropriate temps, and pitched the yeast. Woke up this morning and apparently the power went out briefly last night. My pils was at 78 degrees this morning. It may...

It's ~120-140 degree PBW to clean and then ~120-140 degree iodophor to sanitize. If you look at the temp graphs you can see the temp spike from when I ran the cleaner through the conicals.

Yeah, I'll bet it is. I'll have to order some new fittings next time I get some.

For those that asked: Ambient temp today is around 80 and with one fermenter running, the A/C unit comes on for 5-10 minutes once every 3-4 hours.

I haven't as of yet, but will if I get some time and find some appropriate visio icons for it. In the mean time, take out the cool room, storage tanks and the like and that's how it's plumbed.

Well, it's finally up and running. The first batch is in one of the conicals. Here's a temp graph: I'm currently running water through the system as a trial run. So, the water is set to 40 deg. F. The A/C unit will kick on once the water reaches 50 and cool it back down to 40. It also...

I'm using the 1/6 HP pump for pumping glycol through the system. The 1/4 HP pump is going to be used for the spray ball. The main problem I have now is that the 1/4 HP pump fills the conical faster than it drains. I might have to remove the tubing entirely and drain the conical directly in to...

Test run of the chiller using water works great. Here's a rather bad phone photo of the chiller at work: And a screenshot after the water came to temp: Looks like I should be all set for a first ferment tomorrow.

For anyone that happens to set this up for themselves in the future, ladder logic works perfectly to control the pump on the BCS. Otherwise the pump would run 24/7 while the fermentation is going.

I'm starting to feel a bit like Goldilocks here. The 1/4 HP pump was way too much, the 400GPH pump was way too little. Thankfully the 1/6 HP pump appears to be just right. One more leak to fix on one of the chillers and a problem with the ball valve on ferm 3 (again) and I should be good to go.