HLT Low Water Alarm/shutoff

[Walker]

Maybe the water tank is not grounded in your espresso machine, but the rest of the body is?

Beats me. My espresso "machine" is an old italian kettle (wife is italian) that we sit on the stovetop.

 

[bruin_ale]

Maybe the water tank is not grounded in your espresso machine, but the rest of the body is?

Beats me. My espresso "machine" is an old italian kettle (wife is italian) that we sit on the stovetop.

I thought of that, and since the tank is made of plastic I though maybe - but there's no way they'd risk the liability that someone gets shocked by touching the water in the tank.


My roommate in college had one of those stovetop espresso makers, it was my introduction to straight shots of espresso. I've moved on to a nice Heat exchange machine.

 

[AiredAle]

Sorry to come late to this party, but I use stainless steel float switch in my HLT to turn off the power to the element before the water drops below it. Here is an eBay item number to see the type I use - 120705706650 I wired it in series with the power to my element relay. I got a 120V AC switch, not sure if this one is, but if you search for stainless steel level switch or float switch a bunch of these show up. Cost me about $20 for two I believe.

I'd post a pic, but I'm having trouble doing so right now.

 

[Yooper]

You want a float switch wired in series with your control signal from the PID to the SSR.

I have no idea how he did it (I'm NO electrical contractor/EE) but lschiavo put a float in my HLT, and a float in his own. He has two floats, from what I understand- a "full" and an "empty". Mine is just the low version. If I leave the element on during the sparge, and get too low on volume, the power is interuppted to the element. I can ask him to post the specifics if anybody wants. It's really very simple. Although my goal is to not have to actually need it, it's there.

 

[bad coffee]

I'm definitely going to put one of these in my kettle.

Sent a message to the guy on ebay asking how many to get a price break...

B

 

[MadViking]

I'm pretty sure that would trip your GFCI. If the wort conducts, the a path from those wires to ground would exist via the groud wire on the kettle (which is also touching the wort).

First of all, in the intial post, he mentioned that he used a cooler, so I'm figuring that it is a plastic picnic cooler and therefore would be non-conductive and can't be grounded.

Second, to make this work, the control wiring for the contactor would have to be 12 volts. It's been about 10 years since I worked as an electrician, but the code doesn't change that much and from what I remember, 12 volts doesn't need to be grounded. Using control wiring over 12 volts for the contactor could be dangerous when trying this because of the possibility of electric shock.

The more I think it through, and I could be wrong, but I believe that even if a person used a properly grounded keggle with control wiring that is 12 volts that this would still work. It would be cleaner than having a float inside the cooler or keggle. Just my two cents.

 

[Walker]

First of all, in the intial post, he mentioned that he used a cooler, so I'm figuring that it is a plastic picnic cooler and therefore would be non-conductive and can't be grounded.

The outside material of the element is conductive, and the element base should be grounded, so there is a path from these wires to ground via the liquid and the metal element.

 

[artbrau]

As a hardware geek I get the idea that a complicated solution is cooler than a simple one, but why not just insulate the HLT and shut off the heat based on a time parameter (even zero) well before the sparge is finished.

I am even more relaxed. Since I boost the mash to 170 before I start the sparge, the enzymes are done,no? If the sparge water drops 10 deg by the time the last runnings are draining, what's the diff?

 

[bruin_ale]

solubility of the sugars is supposedly better in hotter temps, but there seems to be some dispute about that as there is a cold-sparge contingency here that claims that is hogwash.