urn element...

[leighaus]

Hey guys. My mate bought one of the newer model birko urns second hand. Anyway, long story short..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cmegtob8utxyaad/DSC_0016.JPG?dl=0

His element looks like this after one brew. Not sure what he's done to it.. Any
suggestions aside from replacing the element?

Anyone know a good source for birko elements if it comes to that?


Cheers!

 

[MastersBrewery]

Looks like the element was on it's way out to begin with, you can get replacements from tobins.com.au. Though if your looking to just try and clean it up a little PBW would be the go. how ever I think replacement is the best option

 

[Bribie G]

Urn elements are copper coated with nickel. Eventually after a lot of scrubbing the nickel starts wearing off, eventually revealing a nice shiny copper element. You can see where the copper has started to show through in the area of the thermostat.

Personally I'd just attack it with a stainless steel "birdsnest" style kitchen scrubber pad and scrub hard till it's all clean. If the element is working well electrically, a good scrub won't do any harm. I've been using SS wool on my Crown for nearly 5 years now.

ed: having a closer look, he could pre-treat it by tipping in a tub of citric acid (baking section at supermarket) and a kettle of boiling water. That should nuke the white stuff. Then go with the scrubber.

 

[leighaus]

Cheers guys.. I'll pass it on. His last boil wasn't vigorous enough and he overshot his volume into fermenter massively.

I'll get him to do the above and lag his urn and see how he goes.