Crown Urn Element Mod?

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Wisey

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I Just bought a crown urn, and after reading the thermal protection overide fix, blokes are having their urns fail.

I was wondering whether you could put a exposed element in place of the concealed element, like in crown's later series of urns?

Otherwise this urn mayhave to go back to craft brewer in exchange for a better setup.

I dont want it to blow up after 15 brews.

Cheers
Matt
 
soooooo.... concealed element urns are blowing up after the mod.

I have a 40L concealed element crown that I am going to use for my HLT - oh so shiny..
I'm going to run some testing on it tonight and see heating times, mark out volumes on the sight tube, accuracy of dial, variance of temps etc etc
while I am waiting for my mashtun to be completed.

in the meantime, until my mash tun is ready... I've been reading about BIAB using the urn... and wouldnt mind knocking out a few AG's from the urn itself..
until I continued on and read...
*vuvuzela sound*
the elements fry themselves if you do the mod, and don't hold a boil if you don't.

hmmmm what to do what to do..
 
i got an exposed element crown for boiling wort, just holds a boil with no mods and urn lagged with a 3x layer of cheapo camping mats... What's the mod? I didn't hear the thermostat cutting out on my urn for my boil, so don't see how a mod could make it boil harder? I assume the boil could only be lesser with a concealed element?

Also my 'just hold a boil' is based on a statistically insignificant single use of the urn thus far :)
 
Here's mine boiling

Concealed element with mod.

The video doesn't do it justice though, mine boils very well I must say.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
i got an exposed element crown for boiling wort, just holds a boil with no mods and urn lagged with a 3x layer of cheapo camping mats... What's the mod? I didn't hear the thermostat cutting out on my urn for my boil, so don't see how a mod could make it boil harder? I assume the boil could only be lesser with a concealed element?

Also my 'just hold a boil' is based on a statistically insignificant single use of the urn thus far :)

Havent tested the boil yet- but the concealed element crown that I have has "boil dry protection", which, from what I read, turns the element off to hold it just at boiling point so it doesn't boil dry. You can mod it by disconnecting wires to the sensor, so you can boil away - effectively boiling your BIAB wort in your urn - happy days.
Problem is that reportedly, the concealed element doesnt like this, and burns itself out, over time.

I havent read of the problem with exposed element urns, because the wort that surrounds it protects it from burning out.

JD
 
after reading this thread i just spend the last 45 mins reading the other thread on the mod - it would seem you are correct and that it is only the concealed element that suffers from the mod as it drops down into the base.

i will insulate a bit better, the mats I had were just fairly loosly wrapped around and will perhaps boil inside to see if boil improves. the whole reason i got an urn is because i didn't want to **** about with mods etc :)

so to add to your actual post jesters, I guess you could insulate and boil without mod, or probably get away with up to 15 or so boils with the mod! should be OK until your tun is ready?
 
Having been a Birko man for the last 2 years I bought a Crown so I could do double batches (BIAB) but I got the exposed element. Compared to the Birko it gives equal performance but is far easier to clean the element, the tap is more robust and you get about a litre less boil off as it's taller and thinner. I would recommend the exposed, obviously less to go wrong, but I can't see anything wrong with the concealed element as a HLT, after all you aren't going to go over around 73 degrees or whatever strike is in a 3v or HERMS system.
 
What's the actual problem? :unsure:

I have just recently got into AG and bought a Crown 40L Concealed element urn. The largest boil I've done is 30L and it easily keeps a strong boil without insulation/modification. Have they changed the design? :blink:
 
after reading this thread i just spend the last 45 mins reading the other thread on the mod - it would seem you are correct and that it is only the concealed element that suffers from the mod as it drops down into the base.

i will insulate a bit better, the mats I had were just fairly loosly wrapped around and will perhaps boil inside to see if boil improves. the whole reason i got an urn is because i didn't want to **** about with mods etc :)

so to add to your actual post jesters, I guess you could insulate and boil without mod, or probably get away with up to 15 or so boils with the mod! should be OK until your tun is ready?

Yeah I am leaning towards giving it a go.

I'll give it a test tonight with water unmodded..
If it goes how i'm expecting , i may mod it, but use the dial to just nudge a constant boil -
From reading it looks like people are frying their elements becuase they're getting to 130+ degrees for sustained periods, and ferociously boiling their wort... and over time.. fzzzt.

But then again, my kettle is nearly ready too (just want to sort out a pickup tube that I am stuck on), so I might BIAB urn, and boil in gas fired kettle...
Aaaah thinking while typing...
 
What's the actual problem? :unsure:

I have just recently got into AG and bought a Crown 40L Concealed element urn. The largest boil I've done is 30L and it easily keeps a strong boil without insulation/modification. Have they changed the design? :blink:

I think maybe? My crown that I bought 3 days ago has a square loop shaped element, all the pics I have seen of what I *think* are crown's have a round spiral element.
 
What's the actual problem? :unsure:

I have just recently got into AG and bought a Crown 40L Concealed element urn. The largest boil I've done is 30L and it easily keeps a strong boil without insulation/modification. Have they changed the design?

Birko used to be a round coppery spiral, Crown exposed is sort of a rounded double rectangle. Maybe they have beefed up the performance of the concealed element model? Ross says they are quite amenable to feedback which is why they offered to bring out an exposed element, if I understood him right. I expect over the last few years a lot of their sales were for home brew purposes, it's not every day that the old urn in the church hall carks it or they build a new retirement home. :rolleyes:

:icon_offtopic: Hey AusRider how are the brews going? :icon_cheers:
 
:icon_offtopic: Hey AusRider how are the brews going? :icon_cheers:

Yeh, pretty good, Bribie! :icon_cheers:

Still only 4 AG's under my belt. 1st & 2nd ones are still in the keg but 1will be hooked up and getting gassed up ready for this weekend! Go the Titans! :icon_drunk: Both Fermenters are still full as both current brews are still a couple points off FG. I guess I will put it down to the 17-18 temps they've been at but I thought they would finish up by now. The first 2 are basic "Aussie Ales" and the 2 in the fermenter now are Ross's NS Summer Ale and one I made up. I posted it here.

I told myself I wasn't going to require any more equipment other than stocking up on ingredients etc but I think I might get a CPBF in my next order. Would make giving samples to friends and taking beer out from the brewshed easier.

Sorry for O/T.

It's interesting to note how many actual use the 40L urn for BIAB. Makes AG very simple to get into.
 
What's the actual problem? :unsure:

I have just recently got into AG and bought a Crown 40L Concealed element urn. The largest boil I've done is 30L and it easily keeps a strong boil without insulation/modification. Have they changed the design? :blink:

Batch size may be the answer. I brew with the intention of having 20L of wort into the fermenter. Maybe people going for bigger batches (even only a few litres bigger) have problems with the boil?

I add about 29L of strike water at the start so my boils are definitely smaller than some.
 
So I've just had the element explode on my 40L Crown Urn (concealed element). Damm boil dry mod? Only 6 brews in!

Does anyone know the cost of having the element replaced?
 
Guys,
I have a 40L Crown Urn with the concealed element. After doing some research, I decided not to mod it. Here is why
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=608682

The thermo-switch that is bypassed (see the beginning of that thread) stops the element from staying at max temp all the time. Apparently, reading somewhere from another Crown Urn owner, the element goes to 130 degrees, cuts out, cools to 70 degrees and cuts back in. The constant 130 is destroying the electrics...not to mention voiding the warranty.

In the end, I went and bought a 60L alluminium stock pot from Craftbrewer and had them drill holes for, and fit, a ball valve and electric element. This now gives me a teo-vessel system that works quite well.

:icon_cheers:
EK
 
The thermal cut-out switch is off at 130C, back on at 110C.

In this case the only things damaged were the plastic connectors that melted and the thermal cutout (which wasn't actually connected at the time).

After replacing the thermal cutout (~$5 from farnell) and putting some high-temp heatshrink on the exposed terminals everything was fine though.

I think it is more because of the enclosed space than anything else.

If there is any crap on the top of the element try giving it a soak in PBW and scraping it off.
 
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