StillDragon® Community Forum

Welcome!

Be part of our community & join our international next generation forum now!

In this Discussion

4800W Electric Heating Element

these elements that @punkin has. I have 2. I has question.
The 2 wires coming out. Can they be unsolder or unscrewed or something.
I don't want to have long wires in side my element guard.

Comments

  • Just cut them shorter?

  • @jonno said: Just cut them shorter?

    I could do that but I would be much happier if I just had the one connection rather then 2 in the small space.

  • So where do you plan on making the connection then?

  • I don't think my question was clear. I would like to take the wire off the element and solder my 15 amp lead strait to the element terminals

  • Haven't seen these particular elements but some are crimp only on the legs. I used big screw type connectors (chock blocks) so I could clamp the cables directly to the legs.

  • @Myles said: Haven't seen these particular elements but some are crimp only on the legs. I used big screw type connectors (chock blocks) so I could clamp the cables directly to the legs.

    Thanks mate I striped the heat shrink back to have a look these ones are pressed on with one of them fancy crimping tools. I ended up leaving it the way it was and soldering the joins then about 12 layers of heat shrink over that. I'm still not happy with it tomorrow I'm going to go get some of them electrical joiner tern outs. I'm worried the heat shrink might get hot with the high current draw.

  • Perhaps some people could post a pic or two of how they have done theirs? God knows i've shipped enough of them out. :)>-

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • I cut my element leads shorter, and crimped the flex straight onto it (as Jonno suggested)

  • The 2 elements are working good I loaded the boiler with water till I had about 2 inch water on the elements tern every thing on and let it rip. While I was heating it up I keep a real close eye on the feel aka thermal flow of the boiler. What I found was the boiler temps where all over the place. While the top was in the 90 range the bottom was only 12c and the water surface was around 79c. Once it got to this temp i closed up the man way but I continued to monitor the temps. My temp prob that was in one of the 2 inch side ports hit 90c and stayed at that for about 25 minuets before the bottom temp changed. The bottom temp changed instantly. Then with in a few minuets it had the water boiling.

    This thermal flow problem makes me ask a few questions and I'm hopping that some of you that run the 120lt boiler's might have some incite on this topic. This would only apply to those that are using power.

    Q1. Could this thermal flow problem be due to only having a low volume charge.

    Q2. Could it be because I was using water.

    Q3. The last question is. Dose SD have a modular agitator that can be used with the 2 inch feral. If not why not that's a bloody good idea.

    PS The controller box works a treat.

    1. No
    2. Yes
    3. No.

    1 and 2. The still is a completely different animal when there is enough alcohol in the boiler. A water only run really does not do anything for a CM (bubble plates) still. It needs alcohol to work. It tends to shut down production of any sort when the alcohol is depleted.
    3. A boiler is either built with an agitator or it is not. The agitator motor is connected to a gear box that turns high speed-low torque into low speed and high torque. Enough torque is generated that it could tear off the ferrule that it was mounted to. A non-agitator boiler like yours has a minimum of 2mm wall thickness but the smallest agitator boiler made has a minimum of 3mm wall thickness and the agitator mounting for the gears must be welded in during the construction. The bearings and seals are installed and without the agitator shaft it would spew vapors. Its not an add-on.
    On a small boiler the agitator will more than double the cost of the boiler. On a big boiler it adds thousands of dollars.
    In general, agitators are built to withstand moving a dense boiler charge of a fruit slurry but I've seen some folks rig up a drill motor with a paint stirrer with a thin wash. I don't know how they do it exactly but maybe someone here can chime in or provide a link? You'd need to remember that without the gearing you may be OK to rig up something for a thin wash but the motor could damage your boiler if it was strong enough or simply get hot and burn if undersized. In any event the blade needs to turn A LOT more slowly than hundreds of RPMs - as in 6 to 20 RPMs or so, depending on the size of the boiler and blade.

    The DIY controller kit is a charm because it is simple and low cost. I think after you make your way through your first build you start thinking you should have a spare, at least I did, because its simple but takes a bit of thought and planning to complete.
    Its easy to start adding things like meters and switches and fans but for someone with no electrical experience the basic assembly can be daunting. After it works and you consider the time invested you quickly see its just as easy to build 2 as 1.

  • Thanks Lloyd for the info.
    The agitator I was thinking along the lines of a variable speed drill for thin wash. Just a matter of getting the right seals and few other parts. But I think I will hold off till I see how the thermal flows work during heat up with a spirit run. With some luck will be on Saturday Will keep you all posted.

  • There has been a fair few reports of stratification in electric boilers since someone first brought it up on Artisan last year. People have tested it and the same thing happens in a keg boiler.

    There a few ways to deal with it that have been suggested and a few threads here on it somewhere. Mostly of the pro people have been using small heat resistant pumps and pumping the charge from the bottom of the boiler back in again creating a bit of turbulence.

    The same thing can be done with an air pump.

    A tee on the drain with one of the $20 little brown solar water system pumps from ebay would work, or you could just give it a bit of a stir through the manway with your mash paddle every now and then till it's nearly boiling. Once boiling and stirred convection will take care of the rest.

    I have a paint stirrer i got from Aldi's that would mount through one of the spare caps on top i reckon, Swede or someone did something like that to a boiler on Artisan i remember a few months ago.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

Sign In or Register to comment.