Recent content by Vinylwasp

Good to know. athumb.. That heatsink I'm using is a bridge so has a long run of fins below the SSR and shorter runs either side of it so has plenty of surface area to dissipate heat. I'm thinking that when I mount it next time I'll use some adhesive mounting material that I've used in the past...

I hear what you're saying here, but if I'm understanding everything correctly, when the PID switches the SSR on, it's on 100% immediately or is there some sort of dwell time while it switches and gets to 100% power, or are you simply saying that when it's cycling (1-6) it's able to remain cool...

Lots of valuable information here. Thanks for taking so much time today to help us muggles (non-wizards) out. clapa You've really given me a kick up the backside to remediate some of the errors I've made. I don't think I've strayed too far from your guidance so that it's currently unsafe but I...

Thanks for the detailed reply, I now understand what Zero-Crossing means and will make sure I choose the correct SSRs going forwards. Interesting about the inverse impedance values of the elements, but that's why we have smart engineers. Cheers

This is a very interesting thread as like you @hoppyscotty I built my own electrics using opensource software and a proprietary brewery controller, and about 12 brews in I burnt out a 16A rated toggle switch rather than a terminal block as in your case On digging into this I eventually got this...

Updated my blog with an entry on fixing this switch burnout issue. After 1 brew it seems to have solved the problem. athumb..

Got another brewday in last Thursday, my interpretation of the Electric Brewery's Electric IPA. For the recipe and a full run-down follow the link. Electric IPA Recipe (my version in Beersmith) Ingredients (hops + yeast) Brewstand (boil is underway, just before I cleaned the MT) BrewBlox...

From "Your Lager can take the pressure" Lots of great detail in the full article sourced from commercial lager brewers who use pressure fermentation, and yeast company testing. HTH

Here's what Gordon Strong said in Rethinking Beer Faults None of his criticism of the final product appears to be related to the use of pressure fermentation, but rather the brewers desire to produce lager quickly and skip or reduce the lagering time.

This popped up on my YT subscription list today and I thought I'd pass it on.

Yep, good price, but you have to pay for shipping and this looks to be the same as the temporary replacement switch I fitted. Note the different ratings from the spec sheet. I have no idea why these are different (10, 16 + 20A @ 250 VAC) so I think I'm going to continue to add a healthy amount...

Amazon. When I did my apprenticeship, the pricing manager had this sign hanging up over his door. It's guided me well until now, but it's so hard to get stuff now. There used to be a Maplins in town but it's long gone and RS prices are insane.

When those two switches are turned on, there's zero load until the Solid State Relay's kick in which control power to the elements. There's also a brewing pump powered through the same arrangement with a separate SSR in each cabinet, but the total shouldn't be drawing above 13A. You can see in...

Hey guys, when I built my brewery I used some switches that are advertised as 16A 250V/20A 125V which I assumed would be sufficient for my build using 2500w elements. As you can see below, the switch failed in the middle of my last brew which I ended up replacing during the boil with a similar...

I think you've nailed it, it's fundamentally a design flaw which is exacerbated by large grain bills (taller, and heavier) , and crushes with higher ratios of fine to coarse particles.