Please help a newbie get his electric keggle setup going

southwoodbrew · Feb 26, 2013

Hello! I'm an all grain brewer who recently bough his first house and is currently building an electric brewery in my basement. Eventually I plan on building Kal's system, but I think I have what I need to start brewing now. I bought the following ekeggle on ebay last december:

Here

After I got the keggle I asked him how to hook up the 220V In, and he said:

"Black wire on left and white on right on the bottom of the contact and ground to the green if you can look at the photos on the listing it kinda shows it. Then just flip the switch on the outside of the box to turn on and off. The temp gage only shows the temp of keg does not control it. It could if it was wired up right but I could not make it work"

The temperature controller is one you would normally use for a fermentation chamber, It is not a PID, and it is hooked to a contactor and I'm not sure if it will work or not. I found the following information on wiring the controller:

http://www.thermomart.com/download/DWH7016H.pdf

I am concerned I will need to replace it with a PID & SSR to work. Will this setup work?

Thanks in advance!

thargrav · Feb 27, 2013

A temperature controller is useless for boil. Water boils at a constant temperature and you can't use a temperature controller to adjust your rate of boil.

Instead of a temperature controller you need something you can turn up & down like the eye of your stove.

stlbeer · Feb 27, 2013

That looks like an STC-1000 temperature controller (not a PID). Search in this forum for STC-1000 and you'll find assistance to get it wired up correctly.

Is your 220v/30a circuit that you're using to power this device working correctly? i.e. each leg is 110v when compared to ground and 220v when both legs are checked using a multimeter?

southwoodbrew · Feb 27, 2013

stlbeer said:
Is your 220v/30a circuit that you're using to power this device working correctly? i.e. each leg is 110v when compared to ground and 220v when both legs are checked using a multimeter?

I haven't ran the 220 yet, I have the space in the panel, I still need to get the GFCI breaker and wire, I plan on running 4 wire 10 gauge. I was worried about that this controller might useless for my needs and wanted to get that straitened out before I did that.

stlbeer · Feb 27, 2013

Sounds like a good plan.

What size element is that? It looks like either a CAMCO 4500w or 5500w. You could accomplish better control for the boil if you used a pulse width modulator (PWM) and an SSR. Both can be had for less than $30. The PWM will give you the variable power much like that in a stove. Then the SSR will handle switching the higher amperage for the element.

If the previous or original owner used that temp controller to control the element, he might have killed the built in relay. I think the STC-1000 relay is only rated for 5amps.