New beginnings with near gear....

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lol No worries, just be warned, if you get the same sort of Gazebo, you'll want a smaller one for autumn and winter use. This big one is lovely, plenty of room to brew in, plus when my parents came for a barbecue we sat under it to shelter from the sun (which given that my mum has already had skin cancer surgery once, is quite a good thing), HOWEVER once the winds pick up and I have to take it down, it's staying down until the gentler weather returns, as it took 3 of us to put it up!!! So we're getting a 2nd, smaller, pop up Gazebo that can be put up and taken down quickly and easily for the less pleasant seasons, when nobody is going to want to sit out there anyway... lol

Recirc pipe on my old DIY rig was some platinum cured silicone and various fittings...

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I had a T fitted under the lid to return the liquid, with a veg steamer sat on top of the grain to stop channelling. It was clumsy, bulky (especially the control box) and a pain to use, but it worked well and I got higher efficiency than I've managed so far with my new equipment.... Cleanup was a nightmare though, used to take ages and leave me in serious pain. The pump was a middle of the road one, a TS5 from Brewbuilder, £47.50 not including PSU. Ran brilliantly, and as far as I know still does, even handled solids (better than the one on my Klarstein). If you don't have one already, and want something that's not as expensive as a Chugger etc, I recommend them.

Water, I have an outside tap sat right at the back of the gazebo, with a drain below it. I'm a bit naughty as I use normal hose pipe, but I reason that the water isn't exactly sitting in the hose whilst plasticisers leech into it, and the hose is ran before each use, so any water that was left in the hose is gone when I fill my boiler. I have a Hozelock gun fitting that's good for both filling and cleaning afterwards. The hose and fittings are ONLY used for brewing, the garden hose is a big reel one. I use the brewing hose for my plate chiller too, it has an aquastop fitting on it, so I can just take the gun off and attach it to the chiller (I've made a short length of hose with a QD on 1 end, a hozelock fitting and male to male on the other).

Power, again I am sort of naughty. I have a heavy duty extension real with a thermal protection circuit in it that I use. To be quite honest though, the plugs barely get even slightly warm, even after a 90 minute boil at 2500 watts (the highest setting on the Klarstein). Maybe if I was using a 3kw element it might be an issue.
 
I just wanted to update this thread to show how well the jacket on my FV works. Room temperature is about 18 degrees C. Cooling consists of 3 freezer packs, which I switch each night then each morning for fresh ones. I only started using the freezer packs once fermentation was pretty much done as it's Voss Kveik yeast...

This pic, the probe is hanging in the area immediately under the FV:-

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This one the probe is pressed against the middle of the FV:-

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Not bad for just some freezer packs and in insulating jacket.
 
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