Good Deal On Thermowell

[SugarJohnson]

While looking for a thermowell to fit the MLT T-apllication on my brutus build I found this. Got it yesterday and fits and looks great. You do have to remove the coating on the love probe to get it to fit. Much cheaper ($12.50) then other vendors I found. I also got one of Derrins 16 inch thermowells for the HLT and would throw him a plug as well. Really nice work and super fast shipping. Just throwing it out there.


http://www.coleparmer.com/catalog/product_view.asp?sku=9043381

 

[Brewers Hardware]

Thanks for the business!

That is a good deal on a thermowell. I just added threaded thermowells to the line. I was reluctant to do so because there are so many other ones out there for so cheap, but after pointing a couple would-be customers that direction, they all tended to come back with the same basic comments: "yeah, but it's not polished like your stuff", "None of them have heat shields", " it doens't get the cable far enough away from my keggle" and finally "can you just make me one like your other stuff?"

So, I added heat shielded and un-shielded polished thermowells in 2-8" 1/2" MPT:

The hose barbs serve no purpose, it just turned out to be a great fitting to make these from.

 

[MadDwarf]

When using these in an MLT, do you lose any heat between the thermowell and the probe, or does it read at exactly the same temp as putting the probe directly in the mash?

 

[Brewers Hardware]

When using these in an MLT, do you lose any heat between the thermowell and the probe, or does it read at exactly the same temp as putting the probe directly in the mash?

If you have a probe that can be placed directly in the mash that's always going to be better. Accuracy wise there won't be a difference, at least there has never been in the limited testing I've done. There is, however, a slight increase in lag time since you have more thermal mass between the actual sensor itself and the medium being measured. This seems to be pretty negligible and I've never noticed it to be a problem. I did some testing a while back with two digital Taylor thermometers and noticed the one directly in the mash would react 1-5 seconds faster than the one in the thermowell. Faster at higher temps. Not enough, in my opinion, to add to an overshoot problem.

I did see a problem with some copper thermowells I made before I could weld. Whenever the burner was on, the temp would read 1*-3* higher. This was with a copper thermowell with a copper heat shield in the burner wash around the MLT. I believe the heat was being conducted into the vessel and picked up by the sensor before it was dissipated into the mash. I haven't seen this issue with the stainless ones; most likely since they stainless doesn't conduct the heat nearly as well as the copper.

Admittedly all very unscientific, but my observations none the less.

 

[Hermit]

When calibrating oven thermostats with a highly sensitive digital thermometer I found it best to put some aluminum foil on the end of the probe to slow it down for a couple of reasons. First, customers would freak out if they saw huge fluctuations. Second, people don't bake thin oven temperature probes and adding some some mass gave a better indication on how the stove would react for them.

Yeah, using the fitting is going to be a tad slower, but it may actually give you a better idea of what is going on strangely enough. It will be more like taking an average the more mass you add.

 

[MadDwarf]

Thanks to both for the answers. In the mash, I wouldn't expect to see huge fluctuations, but I would be wary of lag time if it ran too high, since it's easy to overshoot temps doing direct fire with recirculation.

I like having my temp probe right in the middle of my kettle so it's not unduly affected either by the burner or by the liquid being returned. Unfortunately, it's difficult to get a probe that deep into the mash without running into waterproofing issues. Basically, I'm looking for the convenience I have now with the bi-metal analog thermometer and 1/2" coupling, but with better accuracy and calibration.

Hmm, I wonder how well the Thermapen would work in one of these. It's accurate and crazy-fast, but might be hard to get a good reading since all the sensors are at the tip.

 

[humann_brewing]

Thanks for the business!

That is a good deal on a thermowell. I just added threaded thermowells to the line. I was reluctant to do so because there are so many other ones out there for so cheap, but after pointing a couple would-be customers that direction, they all tended to come back with the same basic comments: "yeah, but it's not polished like your stuff", "None of them have heat shields", " it doens't get the cable far enough away from my keggle" and finally "can you just make me one like your other stuff?"

So, I added heat shielded and un-shielded polished thermowells in 2-8" 1/2" MPT:

The hose barbs serve no purpose, it just turned out to be a great fitting to make these from.

Thanks Derrin, I got my order, a couple days too late to use on last weekends batch but will use it on the next.

Thanks!!!