Hot Water Cylinder & Fridge Questions.

[fw00r]

Hey guys,
Ive been lurking for a bit, thought this topic would be AHB worthy.
I do extract brews at the moment but been looking at all grain as a possibility for a long term plan.

Hot water cylinder :huh:
So there is a dead (thermostat) electric 230L (I think) hot water cylinder in the roof... I have been looking for sucsessful conversions of cylinders to brewing equipment and havent been able to find much info at all. It would take a fair bit of effort and planning to get it out of the roof, I need to know it would be worth it.
I suppose it could be 2 insulated pots (probably 100L or less after its been modified) or something like that. Does anyone have knowlege of these conversions? Other useful info on the matter?

Fridge :blink:
(I havent done as much research on this as the previous topic)
Despite what you might think, The temprature here in tassie doesnt sit at lagering temps consistantly =(
I want to know if old fridges are inefficient because of the old compressor and fan motor... or for some other reason like poor insulation etc. As far as I know you can replace door seals and such so that would be an easy enough fix... but can you replace compressors? How accurate does it need to be in terms of specifications ( I understand the problems with a charged system and releasing to atmosphere, I wouldnt release the gas myself)

Thanks guys, :beer:
Hopefully you know something I dont! h34r:
Fwoor

 

[Andyd]

If you're not too worried about your power bill, old fridges work fine!

New compressors tend to work a bit less than old ones (I'm not a fridgy - just empirical evidence), but the old ones will work just find if you treat them well.

My understanding is that if you leave them running for 4 years, you will have saved the difference in price between an old, second hand unit and a new one. Of course, if your old unit is about 10 years old and in good nick, it's going to last a lot longer that a lot of new ones, so over a longer period the economies will change...

Make sure your door seals are good, and that the surface on which the close is clean, smooth and free of rust (unlike one of my monsters at the moment). As long as you're not losing cold air continuously you should be fine.

Andy

 

[MHB]

If the HWS is very old it might be copper, newer ones are mostly glass lined (enamel) mild steel.

If you climb up, remove the cover plate where the element and thermostat go, you should be able to see the base metal, if it's steel - leave it there.

Even a copper one will be fairly thin; I think it would be worth more as scrap than as a "copper".

Bear in mind that it was probably abandon because it leaked.

MHB

 

[fw00r]

Bear in mind that it was probably abandon because it leaked.

MHB

My understanding (It failed while we lived here) is that the thermostat died.

I think the cover is off already so I might check it out.

Thanks for the info Andyd and MHB

 

[Tony M]

There are a number of stainless cylinders about as well, so dont dismiss "steel" without plonking a magnet onto it.

 

[fw00r]

Gotcha, Good advice Tony M.

Thanks

 

[Darren]

Chances are it is enamel ined as MHB said. If it were stainless steel it would have cost more and still working 8(

Worth a look though. I reckon lower grade Stainless steel will stick a magnet. I could be wrong.

cheers


darren

 

[fw00r]

Chances are it is enamel ined as MHB said. If it were stainless steel it would have cost more and still working 8(

Worth a look though. I reckon lower grade Stainless steel will stick a magnet. I could be wrong.

cheers
darren

Yeah, I think it will be enamel after some research on the brand... Its a Hardie Dux I believe... I will still check it out but my feeling is that it will be useless as far as brewing goes

 

[T.D.]

So is the problem with enamel that it sould be hard to cut/modify? Other than that it would be fine for boiling wort wouldn't it? Pretty sure I recall seeing a pic of an enamel pot in Palmer's How to Brew...

 

[warrenlw63]

Think it's more a problem if you cut or drill enamalled pots/vessels it cracks and chips away at the area and the metal underneath corrodes?? :unsure:

Warren -

 

[dicko]

Hey guys,
Ive been lurking for a bit, thought this topic would be AHB worthy.
I do extract brews at the moment but been looking at all grain as a possibility for a long term plan.

Hot water cylinder :huh:
So there is a dead (thermostat) electric 230L (I think) hot water cylinder in the roof... I have been looking for sucsessful conversions of cylinders to brewing equipment and havent been able to find much info at all. It would take a fair bit of effort and planning to get it out of the roof, I need to know it would be worth it.
I suppose it could be 2 insulated pots (probably 100L or less after its been modified) or something like that. Does anyone have knowlege of these conversions? Other useful info on the matter?

Fridge :blink:
(I havent done as much research on this as the previous topic)
Despite what you might think, The temprature here in tassie doesnt sit at lagering temps consistantly =(
I want to know if old fridges are inefficient because of the old compressor and fan motor... or for some other reason like poor insulation etc. As far as I know you can replace door seals and such so that would be an easy enough fix... but can you replace compressors? How accurate does it need to be in terms of specifications ( I understand the problems with a charged system and releasing to atmosphere, I wouldnt release the gas myself)

Thanks guys, :beer:
Hopefully you know something I dont! h34r:
Fwoor

Re your fridge enquiry,

If you are using it for fermenting I think you will find that it will hardly turn on at all.
I have a mashmaster controller on a fridge and i did a lager just as the weather started to get cold and for the 14 days that it brewed I didn't see the fridge come on at all, although it probably did come on a few times when I wasn't home. I had it set to 12 deg c.
I have made a dual control unit from two mashmaster controllers and in the winter the heating side, which controls a 25 watt globe, is the one that comes on and usually this is overnite. BTW the fermenter fridge is in the shed and I tape both sensors to the outside of the fermenter.

 

[barneyhanway]

I use an old hot water cylindar - a copper one.
I cut it in half, bottom half is my HLT, top half is my boiler (with new elements). I got a friend to braise in brass fittings that take a element and taps. They're insulated with a foil covered camping mat and some tape, they run off a dedicated hot water outlet. The current drain is considerable, I wouldn't recommend plugging them into a standard 10amp outlet. We got gas hot water installed so the circuit/fuse/outlet were sitting there unsed.

It works really really well, I'm so glad I gave it a crack. I'd much prefer electrical to gas, especially for the HLT.

Someone above mentioned scrap, they might be right. With the price of copper at the moment you might be able to get 2 big pots for the scrap value.

 

[fw00r]

The fridge would probably come on very infrequently in winter even brewing a lager in there... But I have to have it as efficient as possible for the times its on.

Thanks for the info on current draw, I am not sure exactly what the shed is rated to but it was put in with welders and such in mind. I hope it would be ok.

As for scrapping it, If its not copper or stainless then I dont know if it will be worth taking roof panels off and lowering it 4 meters to the ground. Who would be interested in it for scrap anyhow?

Cheers