stir plate for HLT/ herms

[augiedoggy]

I made a stir plate for my HLT /herms kettle for a 2" stir bar which works well.... the only issue I had was I HD the man gets/ fan motor too close to the kettle and it transferred too much heat and started to over heat after an he or so... easily fixed though. I used a household dimmer switch and a 120v muffin cooling fan. With hard drive magnets. simple-cheap and suprisingly effective. I cut the blades off of the fan motor but it wasn't needed.
It appears the browser on my phone is incompatible with allowing me to attach images so I will have to do it through my tablet tomorrow.

 

[Smellyglove]

Is this instead of recirculating water in the HLT with a pump?

 

[augiedoggy]

yes sir I use this to keep the water moving and consistent temps for the her ms heat exchanger when mashing.

 

[Smellyglove]

yes sir I use this to keep the water moving and consistent temps for the her ms heat exchanger when mashing.

Nice idea.

But, do you think it's as effective as a pump? with a pump you pull out the water at the bottom, which is hottest, and recirculate it to the top. Will the stir plate do the same vertical movement as a pump?

 

[augiedoggy]

Well I had three thermometers hooked up to the halt when brewing on Sunday... the pid rtd sensor which was about 4" up from the bottom.... the one at the Base of my sight glass and one sticking about 3" into the top... with 15 gallons of water they all were within a degree and that's good enough for me (well the ones at the base of the sight glass read off until after I momentarily blow into the top of the sight glass to disperse the water that temnds to sit and not circulate but this is true of my boil kettle to even with mixing pumps going) I could see the whirlpool action by placing two bits of paper towel into the water.... its clear all the water was actively moving.
This freed up the use of my pumps and I don't get the top loss from the water going through the hose outside the kettle.
I had the stuff lying around.