15 Amp For Braumeister

[Crusty]

Hi guys,
As I have sold my 3V rig & am looking at a 50L Braumeister, a 15A socket is required to run the BM, or is it?
I have heard mention a couple of times that it is possible to buy a 15A extension lead & plug the BM into it & chop off the male plug on the other end & wire up a standard 10A plug so you can use it in a standard powerpoint. If nothing is running at the same time from the powerpoint, can you do it? I only rent & installing a 15A dedicated power supply may be prohibitive.
No I don't want a 20L BM.
Can any sparkies way up on this please.

 

[alcoadam]

You'll need the 15A socket. You could modify a lead (i have made one for the caravan) but I'm sure you'll void any product and house insurance you have if something was to go wrong.

I've seen people that have just ground the earth on these plugs......does work, but I wouldn't do it!

 

[malt_shovel]

I am not an electrician, and neither was the guy who sanded my floor recently with gear that ran off a 15Amp extension. He used an angle grinder to shave the earth pin to fit a conventional socket. Not endorsing this, just pointing out what seemed to work for him (the circuit breakers on the temp power supply were greater than 10Amp, 20Amps I think...)
Have you floated the idea of a 15Amp circuit fit-out to the house with the landlord? A "No" is the worst that could come of it.

 

[MastersBrewery]

Brian,
back in the day when I was landscaping full time we had a few 15amp tools one was the brick saw, it was pluged into more standard 10amp sockets than you can poke a stick at..... all we did was resize the earth pin with tin snips, as long as nothing else was running on that circuit all was good. Note not a sparky and I wouldnt recomend the tin snip meathod for something as precious as a BM. If the place your renting has RCD's and CB's in the power box with doing as you decribed you might trip the circuit and of course then have to reinstate the 15amp plug, and get a sparky out togive you a dedicated socket. Not really sure on over heating issues within house wirring. We ran that saw for hours on end at lots of diffferent places without problems.
Mike

 

[ledgenko]

I am a electrical TARD ... and there is no way in GODS earth I would modify a 15 amp cable to use a 10amp power point ... spend the money .. get a sparky in ... maybe just ask him what you could do to reduce the cost ... run the cable ... drop a few beers in to the deal ... give away your first born ... whatever .. worth the effort ... (kidding about giving away first born ... although if you had mine you could be tempted at times ;-) ) ..

 

[adniels3n]

http://www.caravansplus.com.au/catalog/pro...roducts_id=8993

These have just been approved for use at a large digging operation I may work near. You can plug in a 15A appliance into a 10A outlet, but it will still trip if the current exceeds the 10A limit.
Probably cost more than a dedicated circuit, but it can be moved if required in a rental.
EDIT: I am an electrician but it has been approved for use on site by someone much higher up than little ol' me.

 

[jlm]

Depending of your switchboard type and location, you could get away with sticking a 15A gpo in it/next to it. If your not planning on moving any time soon that would be your cheapest (and safest) option. I've installed gpo's in properties I've been renting to make life easier (yes, licensed sparky so cost isn't a major factor) and not worried about going through the realestate or landlord. As long as it isn't in a stupid spot I doubt you'll have an issue.

And a quick word on the extension lead idea, the lead may be rated at 15a, but your gpo is only 10. With the above examples, brick saw ect., the load is generally only on for short periods of time (not that I'm saying that's ok), with your braumeister, I'll make the assumption that it will be roaring along at full load for a good 90min (boil) at least, and that after your mash schedule has already warmed things up, so you'll be overloading the contacts and switch on that gpo for an long, long period of time. Not a good idea.

 

[Batz]

You need a 15A for the 50lt Braumeister, the 25lt uses the standard 10A

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

grind the earth pin.

I usually run my caddy welder off it and it hasn't skipped a beat

 

[poppa joe]

DO IT PROPERLY......Dont grind the pins..
Jim is right.. AND .. You willNOT have Insurance..
Get a n Electrition..
You will regret it if you dont.
PJ

 

[Screwtop]

What is the current rating of the BM?? It may be just above the 10A limit under the AU standard and require a 15A cord and plug.

Screwy

 

[jlm]

That caravans plus dealy......from what I can tell it has a 10A breaker on it, so once you go over, off goes the power. The idea would be for caravans which generally have a 15a outlet (or outlet in reverse, anyway...) on the side. The van itself probably only has a few outlets and lights which are never going to draw over 10A, so this allows them to use a normal 10A outlet and limit their maximum draw when they're parked out the front of another grey nomads house. I doubt it will be practical for the BM, which needs 10A plus.

 

[QldKev]

Since the 50L runs 3200w heating plus 2 x 23w for pumps
3200+23+23 = 3246w
3246w / 240v = 13.525 amps

During the heating of the strike water and during the boil you will be sitting on this level for quite a while.
I would not look at a 10amp outlet.

QldKev

 

[stux]

You can at least plug 10 amp plugs into a 15A GPO

 

[Wimmig]

I understand numerous people modify earth pins to get them into 10a sockets. Does this work to some extent? Yes. Is it a good idea? No.

Using a modified 15a device on a 10a circuit is bad news. The powerpoint itself can melt and malfunction (this happens from the rear press board on the circuit) and you would never know. Then one day, it goes up. Not only will your home insurance provide you with nothing, you can also face legal action from the council, and can, and will be found liable for all damages, and costs.

There is no "safe" way to do this. The only way is to have a sparky take care of a 15a circuit & point for you. Not keen to get this done? Get the 25L 10a version.

Do it right, do it once.

 

[Crusty]

Thanks for the replies all.
I'm not worried about the costs of getting a 15A installed just trying to avoid asking the landlord if I can pay to have one put in.
Hell, we've been in this rental for 6yrs & asked 2 yrs ago if we could get a screen door put on the entry door, double doors with no screen.
$350.00 rent per week & treat the place like it's our own, still 2 weeks in advance with our rent & their reply was we will pay $100.00 for it & you guys can pay the rest. :angry:
I'd hate to even ask to alter their electrical box.

 

[hughman666]

Think about the cost of sticking in a 15a plug and the benefits you will get from having the Braumeister.

I'm a landlord and personally if somebody wanted to alter the wiring of my place to indulge their hobby, I wouldn't expect to pay for it. I'd say "get it done by a certified sparky, pay the cost and no problems".

Much the same, if you want to get Foxtel installed, you don't expect your landlord to pay the install fee do you?

It's your hobby, it's your requirement. Just pay for it and get stuck into brewing beautiful beers with that awesome thing!
:icon_cheers:

Thanks for the replies all.
I'm not worried about the costs of getting a 15A installed just trying to avoid asking the landlord if I can pay to have one put in.
Hell, we've been in this rental for 6yrs & asked 2 yrs ago if we could get a screen door put on the entry door, double doors with no screen.
$350.00 rent per week & treat the place like it's our own, still 2 weeks in advance with our rent & their reply was we will pay $100.00 for it & you guys can pay the rest. :angry:
I'd hate to even ask to alter their electrical box.

 

[TonyC]

I would love to think there is a sparky/brewer who would love to help you out somewhere near you, no disrespect but i have idea where yamba is. Come on you sparkys, get on board.

Tony

 

[hotchilli]

I have heard mention a couple of times that it is possible to buy a 15A extension lead & plug the BM into it & chop off the male plug on the other end & wire up a standard 10A plug so you can use it in a standard powerpoint. If nothing is running at the same time from the powerpoint, can you do it?

Wow, lots of uninformed scaremongering going on in this thread :huh:

Bottom line is that legally to do anything more complicated than changing a light globe you need a licensed electrician. I'm not, but I was in exactly the same situation recently as I wanted to run a 3.6kW heating element for my kettle which draws 15A. Because any electrical DIY is illegal in this country I found no reliable info online (but did get find some good discussion on NZ forums where the laws are a bit more "practical"). In the end I got hold of and read AS3000 to make an informed decision on whether to go to Bunnings and spend $10 to make a 15A to 10A adaptor lead.

On page 380, Table C8 details how many 10 and 15 amp points you can have on a single circuit, depending on cable size and breaker rating.



The minimum cross sectional cable area for any power circuit is 2.5mm2 - so lets assume you have this size cable. My interpretation of the table is that if you have a 16 amp circuit breaker (more than likely), you can have one 15A socket outlet and one 10A socket outlet on the same circuit (if you have permanent air-con!).

There are a whole bunch of other requirements in AS3000, but you can only assume your circuits are already installed to the code.

Furthermore, in Appendix C it states:

"For circuits supplying a single item of equipment, the circuit current is simply the nominal load current of the equipment. The circuit conductors and the protective device must have a current carrying
capacity of not less than 16 A (nearest standard rating)."​

My solution was to make the adaptor cable and run my 15A element on a circuit with nothing else on it. A couple of dozen brews later and all is fine. The circuit breaker has never tripped and why should it - it's rated at 16A and I'm only drawing 15A. The cable is rated to take the load too.

Again, if you assume your wiring has been done to AS3000, then your circuit breaker is going to trip long before your cables melt. So the worst than can happen if you overload the circuit is you'll trip the breaker. My only recommendation would be to make your cable out of 2.5mm2 cable as a minimum - Bunnings sell some nice heavy orange 3 core cable which does the trick.

Oh yeah, and if your building explodes when you turn the Braumeister on... I was never here h34r:

 

[jlm]

All valid points, except for the fact the switch on a 10A outlet is rated at that.....it's the weakest in the chain so to speak. You can turn everything off in your house, you're still overloading that device.

Oh shit... That doesn't mean you can just bang a 15A gpo on in a standard pwr cct and it's legit.....There's a lot more to consider than what has been posted above when doing these things (properly).