120v vs 240v rims tube

[sictransit701]

Any pros or cons or advantages for 120v vs a 240v rims tube?

I’ll be doing 5-10 gallon batches.

I have a 240v boil element and a 120v rims tube. Trying to piece together my system. Brew buddy by Auber has a controller that can do a 240v boil element and a 120v rims tube. So, it sounds good, but if there are any advantages of going with a 240rims, I’ll make the switch.

 

[doug293cz]

With a 120V RIMS you are limited to about 2000W max. If you just want the RIMS to maintain mash temps, then this is more than enough. If you wan to step mash, using just the RIMS for heating, it may be slower than you want when doing larger batches. At 2000W a 10 gal mash would have a heat up rate in the range 0.5 - 0.9 °F/min, depending on the amount of heat loss to the environment.

Brew on

 

[RufusBrewer]

I am not RIMS guy, so this comes from a guy on the outside looking in.

A RIMS tube is such a small volume, it seems to me it would easy for a high wattage element to go off and burn/scorch the wort easily. I guess you can pass the wort through the tube fast enough that it is not a concern. I do not know.

I would think that a 120 VAC. ~1,800 watt element would be more than up job. A 240 VAC 3,600 watt elemenbt in such a small space (and small wort volume) has potential to go wrong real quick.

 

[doug293cz]

I am not RIMS guy, so this comes from a guy on the outside looking in.

A RIMS tube is such a small volume, it seems to me it would easy for a high wattage element to go off and burn/scorch the wort easily. I guess you can pass the wort through the tube fast enough that it is not a concern. I do not know.

I would think that a 120 VAC. ~1,800 watt element would be more than up job. A 240 VAC 3,600 watt elemenbt in such a small space (and small wort volume) has potential to go wrong real quick.

Yes, balancing flow rate and power in a RIMS tube is critical to avoid scorching, and also to avoid heating the wort in the tube to more than about 160°-165°F (in order to not denature the enzymes in the wort passing thru the RIMS.)

Many PIDs can only deliver full power or no power to the element. They control average power by varying the on time to the off time over a 1 - 2 second cycle time. Thus with a 3600W element, if the PID wants 50% power, it will actually be 3600W for 1/2 second, and 0W for 1/2 second.

An Auber EZBoil DSPR-320 allows you to set a maximum % power that the controller will use on heat up (the "Mout" parameter.) This, in combination with the shorter effective cycle time of the switching scheme (at 50% power demand, the element is on for 16.7 milli second and off for 16.7 milli second - so the element has less time to get too hot during the "on" period) makes it easier to avoid scorching when using a DSPR-320.

Brew on

 

[BrunDog]

RIMs is all about mixing... flow rate and appropriate turbulence matters. Using a small diameter tube is important, and I recommend any type of baffling. The tube must be vertical with the temp probe at the top, such that even if the flow stops, the probe will sense it and inhibit additional heating by the PID. A flowmeter or switch can also help as an interlock. Use the low density elements... use a long foldback or purpose-suited. I like proportional PID's if your controller can handle them... which avoids the full-power scenario mentioned above. You can also limit output power as mentioned. A high power 240V element, trimmed back to 25% max output, would mimic 120V during mashing, assuming cycle time is rapid enough.