Electric Brewery's

[Scott H]

We spoke about creating a discussion so people who have or people who are thinking about and/or building can share pic's info and pitfalls to avoid.

Just about finished building my bench and hopefully will have a chance to start wiring it up this weekend. Pics to follow shortly.

[Barry]

That's awesome, good news Peter.

[Norrii]

Hi all. So I am about to start the process of building the electric brewery (thanks Barry and Scott for your help already). Two concepts I am after some feedback on:

1. Is there any reason why you would/wouldn't add an additional PID to the controller to run a temp controlled fermenter fridge? I get that the Control Box would need to be on 24x7 and STC1000s can do the trick. Just trying to future proof and think of everything up front.

2. On the electric brewery site, they have a "what would I do differently next time" page on the forum. I would be keen to set one up on this forum given so many of you have gone before us to find out what you would do now, knowing what you know.

[Brett Mason]

1. Can't think of any advantage to diving your fridge from the panel. A pid driving a ssr is going to kill the compressor in your fridge. You could use the relay output but would need a compressor delay somehow. Also fridges can pull a bit of power so might overload your supply to the panel.

2. Great idea. I took definitely took advantage of other people's build reports to save a lot of mistakes.

[Norrii]

Thanks Brett. 1. - makes good sense! 2. Done - electric-brewery-what-i-would-change

[Norrii]

Anyone got experience with SS316 ball valves versus SS304? Amazon are 304 whereas aliexpress are 316 (http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-1-2-Threaded-NPT-316-S...)

[mattd2]

For brewing either is fine.

[Norrii]

Thx Matt

[mattd2]

No problems, sorry for the short reply earlier.

More information is 304 SS contains Nickle and Chromium, whereas 316 contains Nickle, Chromium and Molybdenum. The Molybdenum in 316 helps provide better corrosion protection against chlorides, which is why it is used over 304 in a lot in marine applications.

For brewing we don't need the "extra" protection really. 

[Richard Loynes]

Has anyone used these?

Dual Digital PID Temperature Controller Kit REX-C100 with SSR-40DA ....  I'm looking to use these with the SSR driving a 5.5KW Element.

[Cain Harland]

Looks like what I got. All wired up but haven't used for real yet seems fine in tests. Was 4 degrees too cold after I changed the probe for a pt100 but you can adjust the reading in settings. Also over shot on heating by quite a but with factory settings but auto tune mode reduced that a lot and I'm sure I can refine settings further.

[Brett Mason]

That link doesn't work for me but it sounds like the set I originally got from aliexpress.

I quited liked the REX controller. Worked fine without calibration but it died on me after ~4 brews so I've switched to a Sestos which is a nicer controller but has been a pain to calibrate.

Also the SSR I got with my purchase was a fake Fotek. It worked but ran a hotter than a real 40a one so was probably a lower rated one with a 40a sticker. I was only running 9a - much less that you would be with 5.5kw element so take care. Some links: canada here and a breakdown of a fake. I don't know what is weirder - faking something that is already cheap or faking the sticker but not making it the same as the original.

[Norrii]

So I've made some good progress on my control panel finally. Where did you guys end up sourcing your labelling tags?