Burco boiler issue and advice sought

[fivetide]

Hi there. I was posting in the eBay area but the issue has changed now that I have made the purchase. Basically I won an auction for a graded but fully refurb Cygnet boiler on eBay. I expected scratches or dings but at least the product to be the one described. Anyhooo...

It arrived today, totally different to product described. Badly dented, which is okay I guess for graded product, but it was Burco, not Cygnet, and had been used a number of times already - sufficiently to leave a boiled-on coating of water scum on the interior, water drip marks under tap externally and even malt extract spattered all over the product.

Time to return, is my initial thought. Mind you, it's £145 new, and a bit larger than the other, maybe I should put up with it? I'm annoyed, but unsure.

Here's the interior, exterior and ding...









Also, has anyone changed the tap on something similar to this, or could advice me on how to do it most simply? I'd like something 'rotary faucet' style rather than flip and lock, with controllable flow for a sparge tank. Here's the gen, thanks for any suggestions of what to get for this or the replacement product. This is what it looks like now outside and in:





Thank you as always.

[Dan]

i have no experience with burco boilers but the tap should be easy to change

a lot of people on the fourm (myself included) are using ball valves. all thats required is piece of 1/2" threaded tube and valve and a locking nut plus some way of sealing it eg. rubber o-ring or ptfe paste. of course you would need a hole measuring somewhere between 20 and 21mm in diameter

the stuff is available here bes

[fivetide]

Thanks both. I think a ball-joint tap would allow me to use it as a HLT with controlled flow and more chance of connecting tubing and a sparge assembly - I don;t know how this tap could be connected although of course as a free flow on a boiler into a fermenter it'd be just fine. Perhaps 30L is too small for a boiler still though? (I was thinking I'd get one of those plastic 10g jobs as the most cost-effective solution, but I don't really know what I'm doing.)

I can go to a plumber's merchant and get some bits for this and also buy some 10mm microbore copper tubing for a chiller at the same time perhaps. I've taken the old tap off though and it's cruddy underneath with a tired material gasket.

Excuse my ignorance of plumbing, but it leaves a hole with flat sides, full diameter just marginally over 1". What tap description would fit that, say on that BES site? Thanks again.

(By the way, DaaB, the dent surrounds most of that thermostat tap in the previous pictures. Must have fallen off a surface onto the knob. I took the bottom off though and it all looks okay inside, connects to a 3Kw hotplate thing)

[fivetide]

Great, I checked the diagram against parts on Toolstation and understand now.

One last thing - as you use the tap I've got already and it's free, do you reckon there's any mileage in pushing on some fattish pipe as far as it will go and using a well-tightened metal hoseclip - or is that dangerous?

[delboy]

Why not just let the boiled wort run free from the tap into the fermenter unfettered and free as nature intended

Unless of course you given up all hope of using this as a boiler and its goin to be a HLT only in which case i'll let DaaB field that one

[fivetide]

Hi Delboy. Well, the more I'd read on the forum and elsewhere the more I had decided in my mind that an oversized boiler would be better, especially for beginners?

The 'Max. Fill' on this Burco is 30L, then there is a little headroom. If you reckon I could use that as my main boiler without too much pain it'd certainly save me cash as an insulated sparge tank is obviously much cheaper than a boiler or heated HLT.

I want to build a tiered insulated mashtun setup that once running clear will run directly into the boiler and I didn't fancy the idea of topping up with extraneous sweet wort as and when evaporation allowed. Also I've been reading a bit about two-batch sparging and thought an oversize boiler would be handy for this too?

If not and 30L is good enough, this boiler could actually become quite shiny and only really needs a new washer behind the existing tap and some cleaning up.

Maybe getting sent this rather than the 27L Cygnet is okay after all? Good enough for a main boiler rather than HLT?

[fivetide]

Those pictures are superb, very reassuring, thanks very much for that! Great so it'll make a good HLT with a secure hose connection and some new washers.

And it might even be quite a nice boiler too, but with 30L max fill plus headroom could be snug. Boils that volume nice and quickly though. Hmmm... need to decide whether to buy a large insulated tub as an HLT or invest more for a 10 gallon boiler.

I can't wait to get all my AG kit assembled and the shed all sorted

[fivetide]

I tried a test boil this evening after fitting new washers.

It took about 35 minutes from cold tap water to boiling point and then cut out. Half an hour later it still won;t cut back in, so I assume I need to push the reset switch under the 30L of boiling water - great.

What's the easiest way of overiding this, and is it safe to do so to create the 90min or so rolling boil? Thanks.

[Andy]

Is the element nice and clean ? If coated in residue/scale then that would make the cutout more likely to occur.

Otherwise you're going to have to disable the cutout, on my Burco it looked like quite an easy job (mine never cutout so didn't have to) but it's probably got a completely different element to yours.

[johnmac]

You purchased a Cygnet but were sent a Burco that doesn't work properly?

Just file a Paypal dispute for the purchase price including postage. " item not as described". And let the seller pay for return postage on the Burco, if they want it back.

[fivetide]

I quite like it now, I just want it to continue boiling rather than cutting out.

Still, it was handy having all that hot water on tap to clean up equipment and bottles tonight!

[scarer]

My 30Lt Burco takes about an hour to boil very cold tap water when max full.

It's brand new and doesn't cut out.

Have you checked the capacity to the max line, I checked mine recently and thought it was more like 28lts....would be good to know if you make it any different.

I did a boil at the weekend with the wort to the max and it was fine. It was a good rolling boil not sure I would have called it vigorous though?

Burco make the Cygnet boilers, i think Cygnet might be their cheaper range so you may have got a better model as Cygnet only seems to go to 27lts anyway.

http://www.burcodean.com/products/index ... 4020483d54

[fivetide]

It's good to know yours works well at least. Mine was great until it cutout at the full boil and I'd REALLY appreciate any help from anybody who understands thermal cutouts on these things. Basically I want to disable it so the the boil continues regardless. I also want to make sure this is a reasonably safe thing to do - some don't have this feature so I assume it is unless it boils dry.

This is what it looks like. A plastic stick protrudes from the underneath through a small hole in a tin cover. When the cut out kicks in this stick pokes out a bit further. Maybe I could just physically force this in so it doesn't pop out? Don't know. Lump of plasticine or something!


Inside the cover, the black plastic stick attaches to two white switches which I guess pop out with the cut out and simply use the black stick as an extension to the outside of the boiler bottom cover.


Here's a close up shot.


I just want to make this bleeder boil continuously so I can control the roll with the thermostat. It's a nice big 3Kw element and it would be a shame to make this the HLT i feel? Thanks so much for any guidance.

[GTOrichie]

If you have a mutlimeter check what the switches are doing when they are out and in (make sure you have unplugged the unit first). If they are just "making the circuit" when they are in the on setting and "breaking the circuit" when it's tripped you could bridge the wires that the switch "makes and breaks". As for safety, I used to have a burko boiler for making tea in my shop and it only ever tripped when it was left to boil dry and the element was starting to heat the wires inside, it's entierly up to you whether you want to risk it, the wires do get VERY hot inside when it trips.

[fivetide]

Damnit. Can't send it back now, I've cleaned it and changed out all the tap washers and stuff. Also I told the seller I'd let him off the error.

It isn't crud on the element as this is beneath a stainless bottom. Thought as the element clearly works up to the boil it might be a thermostat issue or something and the tendancy to cut out would be fixable. Pfft. Bugger.