Steam extractor

[Budgie]

Evening all,

I know this has been discussed on here previously but I thought I'd canvas opinion all the same.

I'm in the process of converting my utility room into a brew room (which means I'm not actually getting any brewing done! :-( ) I'm currently replacing the damp course which is a pain, but I hope to have everything up and running in the next few weeks.

I'm moving from 10L BIAB to a 3 vessel system and I'll be doing mostly 5 gallon batches. I've looked at in line shower type extractors as well as cooker hoods but not sure what the best option would be. I prefer the look of a decent cooker hood and I'm trying to make the whole thing as aesthetically pleasing as possible (to satisfy my OCD if nothing else). My kettle will be against an external wall to whatever option I go for it'll be going straight outside.

Any thoughts/experience?

Cheers.

 

[Dutto]

My only experience is carrying out a one hour boil in my unmodified garage last winter.

NEVER AGAIN! By the end of the boil, the walls were running with moisture and every tool that I had hanging on the walls was wet through.

The lid of the boiler is normally off during the boil, a loss of over three litres of liquid per hour is not uncommon and with a "liquid to gas" ratio of 1:1700 three litres of water will turn to 5.1 cubic metres of steam.

So my comment is to make very, very sure that your extraction system is big enough and close enough to remove ALL of the steam produced by a ninety minute boil ...

... and perhaps running a de-humidifier for 24 hours, after the boil is completed, may help to ensure that the space returns to a non-humid state. :thumb:

 

[hoptoit]

If you can fit an extractor through the wall I would go for a 6" wall mounted. In-line fans have a tendency to trap moisture in their workings. A cooker hood is OK but the fan in them is nowhere near as powerful as a through the wall. Cooker hoods are more for food smell extraction.
I've only done two ag brews upto yet. I've found that I use a desk fan on kitchen worktop with the window open blows the steam straight out. Not had any walls or cupboards dripping that way.

 

[Budgie]

Thanks for the replies fellas. @hoptoit if I go for a wall mounted, I assume if need to knock up some kind of hood/flue system to direct the steam? Or am I missing something?

 

[Cwrw666]

I did my first AG in the kitchen and even with the windows open the whole place was dripping - so never again. I now brew in a draughty outbuilding where it doesn't matter if things get damp.
However, if you have a 6 inch extractor fan and a hood that comes quite low over your boiler I'd have thought you'd get rid of most of your steam problems. Probably have to make sure that the outlet doesn't have the wind blowing straight into it though.:lol:

 

[Spoon]

I'd go with a shower extractor fan, or even 2, if you have a core drill and a torque limited SDS drill to make the holes, then adding more fans is pretty cheap. And they'll look less 'odd' than a cooker hood if you ever come to sell the house.

 

[Budgie]

I'd go with a shower extractor fan, or even 2, if you have a core drill and a torque limited SDS drill to make the holes, then adding more fans is pretty cheap. And they'll look less 'odd' than a cooker hood if you ever come to sell the house.

Using 2 seems like an obvious thing to do, yet it never occurred to me. I wonder if 2 would pull the steam out without the need for some kind of hood. A case of trail and error I suppose.

 

[GermLish]

The boil is necessary to get the DMS (cooked vegetable taste) out of the beer. When using a hood you should make sure the condensate does not drip back into the wort

Pictures at the German overengineering forum: http://hobbybrauer.de/forum/viewtopic.php?p=88718#p88718

 

[Budgie]

Cheers GermLish. Some nice looking bits of kit on that page. I did try to read some of the comments, but my elementary Deutsch let me down!

I've been looking at some 150mm extractors, but they state the air flow as opposed to extraction rate. I'm not sure what the difference is, or even if there is a difference. One says 245m3/h, 68L/s which seems like it might do the job.

 

[Poochops]

We have one of these in our kitchen, good value for the money
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/househ...ToEDg&ef_id=V7ta6AAABWZ4tvwZ:20160822202500:s
800m3 per hour with a 6" outlet through the wall, it'll suck the head of your pint if you stand too close. Coring a 6" hole through a cavity wall isn't for the faint hearted, I did ours from either side and had to hire a heavy duty machine, wasn't fun on the top rung of a stepladder!

 

[Spoon]

Using 2 seems like an obvious thing to do, yet it never occurred to me. I wonder if 2 would pull the steam out without the need for some kind of hood. A case of trail and error I suppose.

I was thinking just doubling up to double the airflow, putting 3 extractor fans above the worktop. But actually you could put one in and one out, that way you're not trying to pull a draught from the rest of the house. I've been thinking of doing similar in the conservatory, it's warm enough even in winter for drying clothes, just needs some airflow so I was thinking one extractor and one inlet.

 

[hoptoit]

When ever we did catering kitchens we always had a supply fan plus the extract fan. So if you have a outside door near by, leave that open and 6" through wall should do it. A in line looses efficiency through ducting. As said, I have found sooner than extracting, blowing with a fan has been far better.

 

[Budgie]

A quick update on this one, the room currently has a shower extractor in the ceiling above the kettle and it seemed to be working fine till I hit boiling point. It couldn't quite manage the amount of steam so I had problems with that as well as condensate forming on the fan and dripping back down.

I've done some quick calculations Fromm The Electric Brewery site as follows:
The required extraction rate in CFM is Element size (w) / 17.6. So my 2.4kw element needs a minimum of 137CFM. Converted to new money that's 233m3/h. The fan that's currently there is only rated at 76m3/h so therein lies my problem.

So I've got 3 possible solutions. I can either get a kitchen extractor (270m3/h) that I can just swap out for the one that's there. It'll fit directly into the current ducting so will be an easy job. I'd still be worried about condensate forming on the casing and dripping back tnough.

Second option is an inline centrifugal fan (350m3/h). That's a bit more of an industrial option but I need to look into how much efficiency, if any, will be lost via the ducting.

Option 3 is core a larger diameter hole in the wall and get a big ass industrial fan with a speed controller. That might be overkill though.

As a result of all of this I've spent most of the week reading about extraction systems and haven't actually gotten much work done. Whoops!

 

[hoptoit]

If I was you I would go for something like this.
http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p36631?table=no
You would not believe how much condensation collects in the ducting on In-line fans. I have emptied gallons out when I have been called other to repair fans.

 

[Budgie]

If I was you I would go for something like this.
http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p36631?table=no
You would not believe how much condensation collects in the ducting on In-line fans. I have emptied gallons out when I have been called other to repair fans.

That's looking like it might be the best option. The only thing that really lead me toward inlines is that's what The Electric Brewery and a few big ass (20gal) home brewers in the US use. And it's going straight out of the all so very minimal ducting involved.

However, as you can tell my knowledge of fans is rather limited!

 

[Budgie]

Just noticed you're in Teesside hoptoit. I'll give you a shout when my fans break down! :lol: