Because “Intelligent Design” was already taken…
I’ve had a RIMS brewing system for quite some time now, but I had several problems with it that I will get into later, so I decided to make some changes and upgrades and hope to share a little info here. Also, I needed to utilize my Doctorate in Craptacular Engineering (D.C.E), so what follows below is, hopefully, informative:
Heating elements:
I previously had one low-density heating element from Grainger (catalog #2E768). I was a little unhappy with the amount of time I spent doing temperature increases, though it would usually work OK. I figured if one is good, two is better. I was also unhappy with how hard it was to clean out the heating chamber, and I had some problems with the terminals on the heating element rusting a bit.
So I came up with a several-part solution - Two heating elements, use a tri-clamp pipe for easy dis-assembly, and seal the terminals of the heating element somehow. I found some deals on tri-clamp parts I needed on ebay, St. Pat’s, and JVNW. All in all, my experience with JVNW was the best. They’re really easy to deal with. St. Pat’s charges a hefty re-stocking fee, so look out. If you use ebay, caveat emptor, as always.
Reverse engineer this!
I used some 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe couplings to enclose the end of the heating elements to attempt to stop myself from getting electrocuted. I figured I would epoxy the terminals to keep everything secure. This also helps stop any interlopers from reverse-engineering my craptacular design.
Stolen from Anna Nicole.
I didn’t have enough epoxy, and I was worried that if the wires wiggled too much, they might break over time, so I threw some clear silicone in there to fill it up the rest of the way. A more elegant solution might have been to use a pour-able epoxy and use a 1 1/2 inch PVC end-cap with a hole drilled in the middle for the power cord to exit. The silicone is rated to 400 F. Hopefully I won’t have to find out if that’s for real.
Then I assembled the whole mess. In all its craptacular glory.
So long…
More coming soon…