My heating element control box

[GreenEnvy22]

I have a 50L keg I converted into a boiler. It has two 1500W elements in it.
I went with 120V for simplicity (can bring it anywhere).
I built a power control box to manage the elements. The left side of the box has a motor controller good upto 4000W, right side one is good upto 10000W.
All the connectors/switches are good for 120V/15A, load bearing wiring is 14 gauge, accessory wiring 16 gauge.

 

[augiedoggy]

I like the simple straight forward design. You might know this already but if not just be aware that unless those controllers have been updated in the last 2 years, they were originally designed to work on 50hz 220v handling only half the amp load and theres a bunch of people that have had failures from solder traces burning up... Basically the same issue the earlier versions of the robobrew had. You will probably not have an issue due to the fact that they are designed to handle such large loads at 220v wattage wise... To be realistic the 4000w one is designed to handle up to 2000w at 120v and the other 5000w since when you cut the voltage in half you double the amp load on the components to get the same output. From what I remember from an old thread on these the failure usually occurred where the fuse holder was soldered to the board. (and the fuses are sized for the amp loads at 220v btw) Hopefully this will all be a non issue for you but just mentioning so you are aware.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Thanks for the info. I don't know if these will have that issue or not. They were sold as "120v", but I did see some 220v references on the units packaging.

 

[augiedoggy]

Thanks for the info. I don't know if these will have that issue or not. They were sold as "120v", but I did see some 220v references on the units packaging.

yes the chinese figured out that a lot of stuff designed for the common 220 in other countries will still work on 120v but in this case the drawback can be the issue I mentioned since to get the same wattage at 120 as you would at 220v you need to double the current going through the wire and components. basically it just stresses everything twice as much as if it were the same amount of power being drawn at the higher voltage. if anything the 4000w one is the one I think youll want to keep an eye on.