Any opinions on the EZ Boil DSPR320?

[superiorsat]

4 years is about the same age as mine. I literally took it out of my control panel and sent it to Auber Instruments as they wanted to test it. They then had to connect there probe and could find no issue. They sent it back I reconnected it with no issue. 8-10 brews later temp all squirrely. Emailed them back and they suggested tightening wires on DSPR120 temp probe connection. They were tight so I loosened and retightened and it worked. 8-10 brews and repeat. Glad to hear it must just be one of mine. Hoping the other 2 in my commercial controller setups are good to go. Like to thank Bobby as his tri clover flair tool made these kettles possible, a long with Glacier tanks for the manway and my buddy a sanitary stainless steel welder.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

4 years is about the same age as mine. I literally took it out of my control panel and sent it to Auber Instruments as they wanted to test it. They then had to connect there probe and could find no issue. They sent it back I reconnected it with no issue. 8-10 brews later temp all squirrely. Emailed them back and they suggested tightening wires on DSPR120 temp probe connection. They were tight so I loosened and retightened and it worked. 8-10 brews and repeat. Glad to hear it must just be one of mine. Hoping the other 2 in my commercial controller setups are good to go. Like to thank Bobby as his tri clover flair tool made these kettles possible, a long with Glacier tanks for the manway and my buddy a sanitary stainless steel welder.

Dude that is the largest counter flow chiller I've ever seen. Nice looking system.

 

[superiorsat]

Haha. Yeah it is big. Built it about 4 years ago with larger system in mind. Think it is 57 foot of cooling because I lost 3 foot in a kink until I went larger diameter. It works like no other I'm pretty sure. I have about 1 gallon in the chiller, hoses, and herms coil. If I need to recover that to top off the fermenter I just add a gallon of preboiled water at the end to flush the line.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

Haha. Yeah it is big. Built it about 4 years ago with larger system in mind. Think it is 57 foot of cooling because I lost 3 foot in a kink until I went larger diameter. It works like no other I'm pretty sure. I have about 1 gallon in the chiller, hoses, and herms coil. If I need to recover that to top off the fermenter I just add a gallon of preboiled water at the end to flush the line.

Brilliant!

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Just to add - I recently bought an Auber Cube that has the DSPR320 built in and it is pretty awesome. It has a lot of capabilities I will never take advantage of (you can set it to run alarms and auxillary features like pumps) but the basic functions are pretty easy to set and understand. I only messed up on my choice to use Celsius not realizing the set point for detecting a boil didn't automatically change to match. Funny how the boil kettle never hit 208 degrees C...... Fixed that and now all is good. Very nice control unit.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Given that I'm not very electricity savvy at all, and that I want to accomplish 5500 Watt eBIAB within a 15 gallon kettle, would this pre-built Auber control unit (called the Cube 3E, and linked below) give me essentially all of the features as seen within @doug293cz's schematic? How far down the road would this get me, and at what premium of cost over DIY? It's brain is the EZ Boil DSPR320.

https://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=64_65&products_id=832

 

[Deric]

The main differences I see are no safety interlock, no element switch and no element "on" indicator after the SSR.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

The main differences I see are no safety interlock, no element switch and no element "on" indicator after the SSR.

Thanks! Are those Cube 3E deficiencies game changers?

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Thanks! Are those Cube 3E deficiencies game changers?

Not for me. There is an indicator on the EZ Boil for burner firing, but not an after-the-SSR indicator. I actually communicated with Kane at Auber and he suggested putting in a burner power interruption switch after the SSR to me. I will in the near future. It'll make swapping my power cord from the HLT to BK a little easier.
I *could* have built a control panel, but I just don't love electronics and value my time brewing more than the bucks I would have saved by DIY.

 

[doug293cz]

The main differences I see are no safety interlock, no element switch and no element "on" indicator after the SSR.

Sounds about right.

Brew on

 

[doug293cz]

Thanks! Are those Cube 3E deficiencies game changers?

In my opinion the missing capabilities are important. But, not everyone has the same criteria for what they want in a controller.

Brew on

 

[doug293cz]

Not for me. There is an indicator on the EZ Boil for burner firing, but not an after-the-SSR indicator. I actually communicated with Kane at Auber and he suggested putting in a burner power interruption switch after the SSR to me. I will in the near future. It'll make swapping my power cord from the HLT to BK a little easier.
I *could* have built a control panel, but I just don't love electronics and value my time brewing more than the bucks I would have saved by DIY.

The light on the EZBoil only tells you what the EZBoil thinks it is telling the SSR to do. If the SSR has failed in the "on" mode (most common failure mode) the EZBoil firing light won't give you any indication of that. The "element firing light" in parallel with the element lets you see what the SSR is actually doing. Very handy for failure detection and diagnosis.

The element enable switch, in addition to the main power switch, prevents the element from unexpectedly coming on when you power up the controller. As I understand it, the EZBoils start up doing just what they were doing when powered down. If they were calling for element power at the time of shutdown, then they will call for power as soon as you turn the controller on. This could cause problems if your vessel doesn't have liquid covering the element when you turn on the main power.

The "safe start" interlock prevents main power from being turned on if any of the pump or element switches are on. This prevents nasty surprises if you forgot to turn off a pump or element after your last brew session.

Brew on

 

[superiorsat]

Given that I'm not very electricity savvy at all, and that I want to accomplish 5500 Watt eBIAB within a 15 gallon kettle, would this pre-built Auber control unit (called the Cube 3E, and linked below) give me essentially all of the features as seen within @doug293cz's schematic? How far down the road would this get me, and at what premium of cost over DIY? It's brain is the EZ Boil DSPR320.

https://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=64_65&products_id=832

Yes this would work but like others have said you might want to modify it. How ever if you are not very DIY electric savvy then there will be extra expense for buying the cord and ends to plug it in and having to pay some one to put it together and install a GFCI 220 spa panel/ or breaker and outlet. Seems a little pricey and I believe it is worth learning how your controller works by building one yourself. Lots of diagrams out on the internet to get you started ( Short Circuited Brewers on Youtube has a couple basic ones if I remember correctly) and If in doubt put your idea on paper and get in contact with Auber assuming you buy the parts from them, they will revise your schematics if yours are incorrect so your setup will work properly. They have done this for me on my setup when I was trying to make sure I had the timer set up correctly. Controllers will break eventually like your solid state relay will swell up and stop working properly or a fuse could go out or controller just malfunctions like one of my DSPR120's. If you have a working knowledge you can repair and move on with your brew day if you have spare parts. There is a secondary reason I use 2 separate controllers because if one goes down I can get through my brew day using just 1 controller. I've never been a fan of pump switches in a controller anyway which forces you to have a neural wire instead of just 2 hots and a ground. I have my pumps plugged into a separate 110 volt GFCI outlet and I control the pumps with a wireless remote control that works great. There are many situations through out a brew day where it is not convenient to reach for my controller to turn pumps on or off. I have less money in my commercial 50 amp controllers ( not that you need a 16"x16"x8" box for homebrewing)than this little box your looking at and they were very simple to build or repair. EZBOIL, Timer, Contactor, 2 SSR's( I use 40 Amp), couple of fuses, a float sensor input, temp input, power in, 2 power out, a master switch to turn on the contactor, and light to show power out after SSR's.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

How common is it for a 40A SSR to fail? Have any of you experienced it first hand?

 

[superiorsat]

Yep. A few years back. I can't remember the exact symptoms but vaguely remember smelling burnt electronics. Maybe heard a slight sizzling sound. It was swollen up and obviously bad. I had extra ssr's on hand so I used my other controller to finish the mash while I fixed the bad part on my first controller.

 

[superiorsat]

That is why I use 40 amp in the first place hoping not to burn up a 25 amp pulling 25 amps with my element all the time but burned one up anyway. I think they have a life span of a million or couple million on off cycles. Probably adds up pretty quick when you see how often the element light flickers on and off during a brew day.

 

[doug293cz]

How common is it for a 40A SSR to fail? Have any of you experienced it first hand?

Failures seem to be most common in the really cheap SSR's like the Foteks (many of which are counterfeit.) People have documentied the cheap generics being built with underrated components, e.g. a 10A TRIAC in a "25A Rated" SSR.

Failures can be either permanent, or soft (intermittent.) Soft fails (or "latching") usually occurs when the SSR overheats and the internal TRIAC will no longer turn off. So the SSR latches in the "on" state. The SSR will then un-latch when it is allowed to cool down. Overheating and latching problems are most often due to inadequate heat sinking for the SSR.

Brew on

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Failures seem to be most common in the really cheap SSR's like the Foteks (many of which are counterfeit.) People have documentied the cheap generics being built with underrated components, e.g. a 10A TRIAC in a "25A Rated" SSR.

Failures can be either permanent, or soft (intermittent.) Soft fails (or "latching") usually occurs when the SSR overheats and the internal TRIAC will no longer turn off. So the SSR latches in the "on" state. The SSR will then un-latch when it is allowed to cool down. Overheating and latching problems are most often due to inadequate heat sinking for the SSR.

Brew on

Should I presume that Auber avoids such SSR's?

 

[doug293cz]

Should I presume that Auber avoids such SSR's?

I have not heard reports of Auber SSR's failing. Mager SSR's (shop on eBay) are an inexpensive brand that has a good reputation.

Brew on

 

[Reneauj62]

How hard is it to change out the DSPR 110/120 to the DSPR 320? is the wiring diagram the same?

 

[doug293cz]

How hard is it to change out the DSPR 110/120 to the DSPR 320? is the wiring diagram the same?

The DSPR120 is terminal compatible with the DSPR320, but the DSPR110 is not.

DSPR110 terminal assignments:

​

DSPR120 terminal assignments:

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DSPR320 terminal assignments:

​

Brew on

 

[Reneauj62]

The DSPR120 is terminal compatible with the DSPR320, but the DSPR110 is not.

DSPR110 terminal assignments:

View attachment 722232​

​

DSPR120 terminal assignments:

View attachment 722233​

​

DSPR320 terminal assignments:

View attachment 722234​

​

Brew on

Ok, I have a Unibrau Controller SV220 220v. Could I change out the Auber EZBoil 110 for a DSPR 320?

 

[doug293cz]

Ok, I have a Unibrau Controller SV220 220v. Could I change out the Auber EZBoil 110 for a DSPR 320?

Of course. Just have to make sure you hook things up to the correct terminals.

Brew on

 

[Bobby_M]

Ok, I have a Unibrau Controller SV220 220v. Could I change out the Auber EZBoil 110 for a DSPR 320?

Yes, and tighten all the screw terminals on everything inside that box while you're in there. Mine were so loose I figured a four year old girl did the wiring job.

 

[Reneauj62]

Of course. Just have to make sure you hook things up to the correct terminals.

Brew on

Well, I know about electrical, just not much about electronic but, it seems pretty straight forward