GUTEN

[Grok]

Your old SSR was 40A, they are capable, but you need to have good heat dissipation to use the higher currents. Do the maths: 3000w divided by 240v= 12.5amps
I would at the very least drill air vent holes above and below the SSR heat sink to allow natural convection to occur, cool air will come in from the bottom and rise through into the element compartment which will actually help heating the kettle as well (a bit!). Also I have put a rat tail file over my base to allow more incoming air, see photo.

 

[Jayvan90]

Your old SSR was 40A, they are capable, but you have to have good heat dissipation to use the higher currents. Do the maths: 3000w divided by 240v= 12.5amps
I would at the very least drill air vent holes above and below the SSR heat sink to allow natural convection to occur, cool air will come in from the bottom and rise through into the element compartment which will actually help heating the kettle as well (a bit!). Also I have put a rat tail file over my base to allow more incoming air, see photo.
View attachment 121176

Good call on the holes Grok thanks ! - also when I did some research on the fotek SSRs it seems they are prone to failures so I just accepted that it was possible I got a bad one and replaced it with the one I did figuring that my 2500w element at full power is just a little over 10amps and well under the rating of the replacement SSR. Will get the drill out tomorrow morning !

also while researching the fotek ssr I found a great YouTube of a guy testing the temp of the ssr with different loads - at around 10amp load for over an hour the ssr heat sink temp stabilised at about 48c so this added to my conclusion of having a faulty ssr in the first instance.

 

[duncbrewer]

@Grok
Good advice, I wanted my maths checked, thanks for confirming I haven't forgotten it all. I think that jayvan90 has only 2500 watts on his Guten, but not totally sure.

I've got some fairly heavy duty PC chip heatsinks with inbuilt fans so I think come the day I'll see if I can fit that on instead of that rather inefficient looking heatsink and fit a bit of ducting to allow cooler air in and hot air out. Probably good for all of the electronics to keep them a bit cooler.
The Guten 70 doesn't sit on a complete ring of plastic but has gaps of several cm between the supporting parts of the plastic base ring and also a vent grille in the side of the base which I can put the ducting onto.
Should be a cool solution.

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

Got it working with a 2 terminal switch, thanks for the info @Jayvan90. Got the smart PID tuned in and it's now sitting just under by 0.2c max or spot on the set point, which I'm more than happy with.

Those mods for whirlpooling and CF chilling are something I want to do next. You guys have given me inspiration.

Cheers

 

[Jayvan90]

Got it working with a 2 terminal switch, thanks for the info @Jayvan90. Got the smart PID tuned in and it's now sitting just under by 0.2c max or spot on the set point, which I'm more than happy with.

Those mods for whirlpooling and CF chilling are something I want to do next. You guys have given me inspiration.

Cheers

Don’t forget to back off the boil power a bit or you will get a bit of scorchio like I did !

 

[duncbrewer]

back it off to about 800w if you are using the condenser lid on the Guten 70.

 

[hopnotic]

I went pretty crazy on mine also mate

Jeepers I have that same SSR that came with the SmartPID on my Guten 70. I think it's time for a replacement!

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

@Jayvan90 what are you using to filter the trub and hops when you're whirlpooling and chilling?

 

[Jayvan90]

Jeepers I have that same SSR that came with the SmartPID on my Guten 70. I think it's time for a replacement!

It should be fine - I spoke with Davide from smartPID about it and we accepted that it may have just been a bad one - he said it’s happened only twice since he has been selling the kits. I realised I had a problem when it took 75 mins to get from 22c to 50c @ 100% power

 

[Jayvan90]

@Jayvan90 what are you using to filter the trub and hops when you're whirlpooling and chilling?

Hey Crazy, I have the lauter helix and false bottom and both have advantages and disadvantages. I have however ditched both and have a right angle faced toward the bottom. Post whirlpool/cooling I will let settle out before pumping to fermenter where I use a sieve to catch any random hop matter that gets picked up .. I don’t worry too much about any break material that ends up getting through .. I am also working on a different solution so will report back with pics if it ends up working out

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

Hey Crazy, I have the lauter helix and false bottom and both have advantages and disadvantages. I have however ditched both and have a right angle faced toward the bottom. Post whirlpool/cooling I will let settle out before pumping to fermenter where I use a sieve to catch any random hop matter that gets picked up .. I don’t worry too much about any break material that ends up getting through .. I am also working on a different solution so will report back with pics if it ends up working out

How far is that elbow from the bottom?
Cheers

 

[Jayvan90]

How far is that elbow from the bottom?
Cheers

The picture doesn’t show it very well but half is hard to the bottom on the ring around heating plate and the other half of the opening has about 4mm gap over the top of the second ring out from centre. This is on a 40L can, the bottom of the 70 may be different. It was just how it worked out fitting the cheeky kit to the hole that housed the tap it shipped with

 

[duncbrewer]

@FarsideOfCrazy
I'm using a home made trubtrapper to catch the whirlpool hops, it catches a lot of the break as well, but not all of it. I did try the helix coil just laying in the bottom as a ring ( joining it to itself was better than with the T piece it had a flusher fit ). I've just bought the hop missile so will be adding that into the system with some hulls in to catch some more of the break or use it as a hop back depending on the recipe.




The first trubtrapper I made was for my Robobrew 3.0 so was a bit smaller and had larger mesh in it, still pretty good at catching the hops, I added the helix as a second line of defence and then dropped the helix and made a larger diameter trubtrapper with finer mesh. I should have gone even finer with the mesh on the second one.

 

[Ballaratguy]

@FarsideOfCrazy
I'm using a home made trubtrapper to catch the whirlpool hops, it catches a lot of the break as well, but not all of it. I did try the helix coil just laying in the bottom as a ring ( joining it to itself was better than with the T piece it had a flusher fit ). I've just bought the hop missile so will be adding that into the system with some hulls in to catch some more of the break or use it as a hop back depending on the recipe.
View attachment 121202View attachment 121203View attachment 121206View attachment 121207

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The first trubtrapper I made was for my Robobrew 3.0 so was a bit smaller and had larger mesh in it, still pretty good at catching the hops, I added the helix as a second line of defence and then dropped the helix and made a larger diameter trubtrapper with finer mesh. I should have gone even finer with the mesh on the second one.

Hmmm you got me thinking with this. I use the helix coil and a false bottom but maybe I’ll try a trubtrapper under the false bottom as well
(The false bottom has made quite a difference with capturing solids)

 

[duncbrewer]

@Ballaratguy
Yes you could fix the trubtrapper under the false bottom so that when you dropped it in it would be positioned nicely and seat well on the bottom.
You could have the helix in there as well.

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

@FarsideOfCrazy
I'm using a home made trubtrapper to catch the whirlpool hops, it catches a lot of the break as well, but not all of it. I did try the helix coil just laying in the bottom as a ring ( joining it to itself was better than with the T piece it had a flusher fit ). I've just bought the hop missile so will be adding that into the system with some hulls in to catch some more of the break or use it as a hop back depending on the recipe.
View attachment 121202View attachment 121203View attachment 121206View attachment 121207

View attachment 121209View attachment 121201

The first trubtrapper I made was for my Robobrew 3.0 so was a bit smaller and had larger mesh in it, still pretty good at catching the hops, I added the helix as a second line of defence and then dropped the helix and made a larger diameter trubtrapper with finer mesh. I should have gone even finer with the mesh on the second one.

I was going to make something like that trub trapper as I've got some fine SS mesh.

Where did you get silicone rubber seal from, eBay?

Cheers

 

[duncbrewer]

@FarsideOfCrazy
I got the seal from here

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32968937392.html?spm=a2g0s.12269583.0.0.30c545fckoTYLP
The one I got was 6x10 mm but a little wider would provide a better footprint on the kettle bottom, but it is higher so would perhaps hold more wort back.

Not sure why I went for the red, should have gone for translucent.
If you aren't going to anchor it down with a false bottom then you do need some weight to it.
Ideally would be a stainless steel ring and the rubber over that. I used an 8mm stainless steel threaded rod for concrete ( I think ) that I got from Bunnings. It was a sod to bend.
Have a look at
https://www.brewtools.com/products/...ssories/trubinator-s-ø320-7712699-p0000000402
for general design plans.

 

[Ballaratguy]

@Ballaratguy
Yes you could fix the trubtrapper under the false bottom so that when you dropped it in it would be positioned nicely and seat well on the bottom.
You could have the helix in there as well.

Done

 

[duncbrewer]

That's looking good, obviously want a good seal on the bottom of the kettle otherwise it will all run underneath. My first small trubtrapper I put a piece of silicone hose split down it's length over the fit edge to contact the kettle bottom.

 

[Jayvan90]

Ok @FarsideOfCrazy reporting back on my (possibly dubious and not yet tested) trub solution as I am awaiting another whirlpool attachment.
I have butchered the false bottom to make this.. I abandoned the false bottle a while ago as I was experiencing really interesting boil activity. The false bottom was doing a good job of keeping trub and hops out from underneath it but I would get this weird thing where the wort level would increase as it boiled then the boil would appear to collapse and the wort level would drop 50mm or so and completely stop boiling. This would repeat until I was done. Anyways i was not particularly confident that this was doing my beer making any good so now …
The false bottom is my trub stopper !
The idea being keeping the heating element clear so it doesn’t impede the boil and to create a well for the trub. I also did a redo on the pickup tube figuring if whirlpooling gets all the bits you don’t want toward the centre then the closer to the outer edge of the can the less trub is likely to be there to pick up.
The whirlpool fitting is above the top of false bottom so it pumps out from underneath the trub stopper and delivers above.
Will report back with pictures if / when the results appear positive