Alternatives for simple boil controller?

[reuliss]

Folks, I'm looking for the most affordable (but quality) 240V boil controller I can find. I have another way to keep mash temps. Really, all I need is a nob to control the amount of juice to the element. No PID, no bells and whistlers. So far I've found this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K5KB3DS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Any alternatives I'm missing?

 

[cubalz]

That will work just fine. Of course you will need to remain vigilant to your brewing as it is just a glorified rheostat and the only control is you. The beauty of this hobby is that you can go a technical or basic as you like and still make great beer.

 

[Genuine]

You could do that or you could also check out a simple and much less expensive version of that, made by StillDragon.

http://stilldragon.com/index.php/diy-small-controller.html

 

[MX1]

You can make them yourself even cheaper

Search 10000w SCR on eBay and search distilling forums for some ideas

 

[ancientmariner52]

You can make them yourself even cheaper

Search 10000w SCR on eBay and search distilling forums for some ideas

This. Due to the way water behaves (latent heat of vaporization) there's no such thing as automatic boil control for an open (non pressurized) system. So regardless of price or features, you'll end up with a manual controller.

 

[Sparkncode]

I use a PID in my herms that has a manual mode so it can hold temp in PID mode or boil at a chosen power, handy to have both options. I use 80% as a rolling boil and like the fact i can set it and get the same boiloff every brew day but a mark next to the adjustment pot on the controller you are looking at should get consistant boiloff rates too.

What you are looking at is a glorified light dimmer so can be had cheaper but should do the job.

Edit: Fixed some typos, pain killers make my typing and spellchecking worse :-(

 

[MX1]

https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=85&t=62655

https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=85&t=3342

read through the linked threads above

MX1