110v Recirculating eBIAB 2.5 gallon batches

[Cregar]

Bump

 

[Carlscan26]

Bump

I don't think so - the stc can't react fast enough to make the temp adjustments needed.

 

[Salpino]

I see machine screws used to mount the contactor and bus bar to the Auber box. Any issue with using JB Weld to mount them to the inside of a structural foam water resistant tool box?

 

[jeffmeh]

I see machine screws used to mount the contactor and bus bar to the Auber box. Any issue with using JB Weld to mount them to the inside of a structural foam water resistant tool box?

It would be a pain in the neck if you ever had to replace a component, or move one temporariliy to get into a tight space. Why not use a sheet of plastic or metal as a backplate for mounting the componenets?

 

[Cregar]

I don't think so - the stc can't react fast enough to make the temp adjustments needed.

thanks... appreciate the reply

 

[Salpino]

It would be a pain in the neck if you ever had to replace a component, or move one temporariliy to get into a tight space. Why not use a sheet of plastic or metal as a backplate for mounting the componenets?

Good call--didn't think about replacing a part. Also, I need to figure a way to mount the heat sink metal to metal.

 

[Salpino]

Many thanks to P-J for the many diagrams he's made for all of the brewers looking to go electric.

My question, as this is my first foray with contactors: is this wired correctly per the original 120v diagram P-J posted (picture #2)?

Hot on the bottom goes to the element. Hot on the top goes to the SSR. I have not wired the hot to the switch yet.

Thanks for the help.

 

[OneImpBrewery]

Rigging up the coil and i keep blowing a fuse. I hooked up mine differently than the pictures but I cant quite tell how different. I have one side with the 8 plugs on it that does not have any on it. Still a little confused. Anyone have a link or a suggestion as to how I can get it correct? I thought I was doing this right from the schematic but I guess not, As i keep tripping the breaker.

Thanks for any help.

The Imp

 

[OneImpBrewery]

Figured It out... Just like the picture above just need the hot on the left side to go to the switch. Working great. Thanks for all the hard work that everyone has put into this thread to make it possible for all of us.

Cheers

The Imp

 

[byfbo2000]

Very inspirational! Lot's of good information in this thread! Sure has me crunching some numbers and saving some pennies!

 

[BoxBrewer]

Is anybody else having trouble with their GreatBrewEh pump? Last night I had a disaster where the pump wasn't working, I tried to siphon the beer into my counterflow and the kettle broke the shelf off the wall and spilled my whole batch all over the laundry room It was traumatic.

It was like the pump would pull in a bunch of air instead of wort. I'd shut it off, and the line would fill with wort, then turn it on and the line before the pump would become empty. I have always had trouble with the pump, though. Getting it to start pumping is always a chore. Once it works, it's fine but getting it to start is sometimes impossible.

 

[jammin]

^I had a lot of trouble with mine too. Turns out I had a gasket in the magnetic drive.

Try opening yours up and pull the magnet. Clean out the cylinder and check for any debris. Be careful when putting it back together - the screws are very easy to cross thread.

 

[BoxBrewer]

^I had a lot of trouble with mine too. Turns out I had a gasket in the magnetic drive.

Try opening yours up and pull the magnet. Clean out the cylinder and check for any debris. Be careful when putting it back together - the screws are very easy to cross thread.

Cool thanks... I have had trouble with it since day one, honestly. It can't prime itself, it seems. Even if I put the pump lower than my kettle, the liquid won't flow.

 

[stlbeer]

Cool thanks... I have had trouble with it since day one, honestly. It can't prime itself, it seems. Even if I put the pump lower than my kettle, the liquid won't flow.

Make sure you aren't getting an air lock. Try loosening the outlet side and see If the wort flows.

 

[Sippin37]

Well I finally had some time to take pics of a brew session with this setup. After about 5 brews now I can say that I have pretty much everything figured out. I wanted to say thanks to the OP along with everyone else that answered questions I had. I have never attempted to wire anything before this and everything seems to work just fine. Well I guess I won't really know if that is true until the day comes when I need to hit that e-Stop button, but let's just hope that never happens.

Here are some pics of my setup. I brew in the laundry room on top of our chest freezer. This is the only place the SWMBO will allow me to brew indoors and it actually works perfect since there is a window in there and a utility sink. I just need to wipe the ceiling a little bit after each brew as condensation occurs on the ceiling, but no biggie. Should be well worth it come winter time here in Chicago! Cheers!

Project Box

Back of Box

Brew Pot filled with water

Male Plug on Brew Pot

Element (with gypsum still on it...)

Outlet Box (that took a crap ton of grinding down in order for element to go far enough into the brew pot that I could put the lock nut on)

Beginning to heat water to strike temp

Shot of laundry room setup

Recirculating strike water to ensure no hot spots in brew pot

Ready to dump in crushed grains

Grains dumped and stirred

Recirculating the mash

Hit pre-boil volume of 3.5 gallons (I boil off 0.75 gallons/hour and shoot for 2.75 gallons into fermenter)

Beginning of the boil

I boil at 75% in Manual Mode

And here is a video showing what the boil looks like with 2000 watt element at 75% (sorry for the terrible audio, bugs outside are so damn loud!)



Cooling wort and recirculating

Thanks again for posting this great setup. It is perfect for me as I love to brew, am the only beer drinker in the house, and I HATE brewing outside in the cold. Cheers!

 

[BoxBrewer]

Do you guys think something is wrong with my pump?

 

[jammin]

yeah thats weird how it just stopped like that.

Have you checked the magnetic shaft to ensure there is no debris?


Contact their customer service and see what they can do and report back. Im curious to know how their customer care is.

 

[tyfernandez]

Do you guys think something is wrong with my pump?

I don't have a greatbreweh but I have a similar pump. Mine is directly connected to the kettle.(check my sig). Priming seems to be an issue with these pumps. I would try first lowering the pump so it's a little lower than the outlet of the kettle in the begining. In the video it's sitting on the counter, what happens if you hold it as low as the tubing will allow before you start the pump?

My setup seems similar to yours as I leave my kettle on the counter with the pump directly attached. To prime I lower the outlet hose into another pot on the floor for a few seconds until it looks like I'm getting the full output of the pump. Once That's achieved I hook up the tubing to recirculate. I then dump the contents of the other pot back into the kettle. It's not perfect but it seems to work well enough. Once I'm primed I'm usually good for the brewing session.

-T

 

[stlbeer]

Do you guys think something is wrong with my pump?

It looks like the pump inlet is higher than the pump outlet. In this configuration the bubbles of steam will get trapped in the pump head and cause the loss of pumping ability. Flip the pump over so the inlet is lower than the outlet. This way the bubbles of steam will have a way to exit the pump.

 

[meshbackhats]

Can someone help me.

I am trying to figure out how to set an alarm for a certain temp-
I would like the alarm to go off when the water is.. say 140 degrees.
I can't seem to figure out how to make it work.
any input is appreciated!

Thanks guys.

 

[BoxBrewer]

I ended up hooking up the pump directly to the kettle and it helped for sure.

So I am still getting pretty bad efficiency, I think the best I have gotten is like 60%. I am using the stainless basket, has anybody else had any issues using it and getting a low efficiency? Ran my grain through the mill twice, but still came in at 4 or 5 points below my target OG.

 

[jammin]

Efficiency is probably 90% crush dependent.

biab loses points in the sparging area, but gains points in how fine you can go.

If you're relying on the LHBS mill, double crush. If you have your own mill, tighten that baby up.

 

[Sippin37]

Efficiency is probably 90% crush dependent.

biab loses points in the sparging area, but gains points in how fine you can go.

If you're relying on the LHBS mill, double crush. If you have your own mill, tighten that baby up.

Exactly what he said. I'm sure you just need to crush a lot finer. I use the stainless basket and I get between 75-80% efficiency.

 

[sablesurfer]

jrb03,

I see that you have been a member here for several years and I'm honored to be able to answer your first post.

I spent a few hours this morning drawing a diagram that should fit your needs.

I hope this is of some help to you.

Wishing you the best.

P-J

I found this thread a few weeks back, as I was planning my time off to work on my first electric build. Looking to make a proof of concept and then maybe drill holes in an expensive pot. (If I mess up on $15 pot, so be it.)

Having a problem understanding the emergency stop in this diagram. I cannot see how it stops anything. Even if the button is pushed, it looks like everything is still powered and has neutrals. What am I missing? (Please keep in mind my boy scouts electronics merit badge was over 30 years ago, so need simple answers.

 

[sablesurfer]

Follow up to my question about the emergency stop...so the idea is that it is going to trip the wall socket?? That seems...odd. Why not have it as the final link in all neutrals and wire it as normally closed...then triggering it causes it to open and kill everything in the box...not the wall?? (Again, pretend I know nothing about electricity.)

It's been awhile and I don't have access to my rig right now. There should be only 2 connections to the e-stop, a ground and a hot that is fused and resistored before the e-stop connection. They should be wired in the normally open position. When you push the e-stop and close the loop, it sends a small electric current through the ground wire which trips your gfci and de-energizes the controller. Hope this helps.

If I have missed anyone's questions I apologize, please repost. I have been crazy busy traveling for work and life in general. Haven't brewed or been on the forums much the last few months. It's great to see more people are building this rig, let's see what your brewing!

 

[ekjohns]

you are correct that it trips the GFCI in the wall. But her is the beauty of it. When you trip the GFCI in the wall which is usually several feet away you kill all power around the brew pot. Take this scenario. You are brewing without shoes on and are standing on bare floors. The brew pot spills over getting liquid everywhere and possibly electrifying the area. You hit the stop and it kills the electricity in the whole area all the way to the wall and not just the box which has a electrical plug connected to it. If the wall is still hot the electrical plug touching the water your standing in is still hot... bad news

 

[Spellman]

ekjohns said it great. Another way of thinking of it is remember staples had those easy buttons? Well this is an "oh sh!t, I did something bad button." Some of the diagrams also have on off buttons for controls, this button is the rarely used I'm panicking button.

 

[sablesurfer]

Ok, so that helps with the idea on tripping the GFCI. My plan was to use the uh oh button on first power line into my board. Then rely on the GFCI to do it's job since that is why it is supposedly in my kitchen in first place. But I get the redundancy idea.

Next...what exactly is the alarm switch doing? Meaning, why the two way NO/NC switch and not just a on off? What I am wondering is: does the switch reset the alarm? (I can't see how), does the switch turn it off and reset the aubrines some how? (prolly need to read those instructions),

....or do you turn it once to kill alarm, reset the controller and then turn switch back??

 

[Sippin37]

Ok, so that helps with the idea on tripping the GFCI. My plan was to use the uh oh button on first power line into my board. Then rely on the GFCI to do it's job since that is why it is supposedly in my kitchen in first place. But I get the redundancy idea.

Next...what exactly is the alarm switch doing? Meaning, why the two way NO/NC switch and not just a on off? What I am wondering is: does the switch reset the alarm? (I can't see how), does the switch turn it off and reset the aubrines some how? (prolly need to read those instructions),

....or do you turn it once to kill alarm, reset the controller and then turn switch back??

I am not sure if I even wired my alarm correctly, but the alarm sounds until I turn the switch off. However the light will continue blinking even when turning the switch off. So I believe the switch is solely for the audio portion. Then again, I could just be an idiot. Very good chance of the latter. Cheers!

Edit: You can read more about how the alarm on the PID works, just google this PID model for its manual.

 

[Fatman_Brew]

This looks like what I am after. I want to step up to full volume 5 gal Biab on the stovetop, so an element assist makes sense. It also looks like I can somewhat painlessly upgrade to 240v with the same setup. Thanks O.P.