Electric Mash Mixer Motor Question

[Normans54]

Hi all,

I am thinking about building an electric mash stirrer to use to rake the top 1/3 of the mash bed on my 10gal Blichmann BrewEasy in order to eliminate temperature pockets, prevent channelling, and improve efficiency. To do that, I need a motor but am not sure how powerful it should be. I've looked through the forums and in the one other thread I could find that goes into depth about this, the legendary @ClaudiusB said that the mash stirrer his 200L mash tun uses a 1/9HP motor outputting 146 lb-in of torque. While I am sure I can get away with something that has considerably less "oompf" (given that my mash tun is less than 1/3 of the size of his) I also imagine the motor will still need a good amount of power if it is going to be able to stir several pounds of grain steeped in water. Will this motor get the job done or am I gonna need something beefier (and if so, what would you recommend)? Thanks for the help!

 

[cyberbackpacker]

8nm is ~70 in lbs. I know some people use those motors to power 2 roller grain mills, which should need more torque than what you will need for your intended purpose.

That said, personally I think that particular motor is overpriced. If you have a U-Pull Car parts, scavenge a windshield wiper motor-- probably $20. Or scour eBay... I've had great success finding motors there-- but you do need to be patient sometimes. Or if you just want it, and don't mind spending the money, go for it!

 

[cfrazier77]

People used to use old style ice cream maker motors and they worked well and where in the right room range allready.

 

[Normans54]

People used to use old style ice cream maker motors and they worked well and where in the right room range allready.

I've seen this and it's definitely tempting (particularly given that you can find used ice cream maker motors on ebay/craigslist for basically nothing). However (and I may be missing something obvious) I am not sure I understand how they attach the mash paddle to the motors. With the one I linked in my original post, all it requires is a shaft coupler attached to the paddle rod. However, every ice cream maker motors I have seen require something that will attach to this:

 

[cfrazier77]

While I have never seen it in person, I would weld an extension on the shaft of the mixer blades. I would then either let it sit on the bottom of the mash tun holding it up in the slot. Or I would weld a washer on the shaft and have that sit on a metal bar with a hole in it. And that bar on top of the mash tun, again holding it in the motor slot.