Boil Timer starting before reaching 100c

[Normski]

BM 20L 2015 Boil Timer starting before reaching 100c

I have had a problem with the boil timer starting before reaching 100c.
It means that the hops addition alarms are unusable, and it has to be put in to manual mode to complete the brew, and use a separate manual timer.
I contacted Speidel, and after a few mails they asked for the controller to be sent to them to inspect and upgrade the firmware.
They upgraded the firmware to Dec 2015 V1.23.
Upon its return I brewed a few times and it still had the same problem.

I did some homework and read a few similar posts and I even read the manual.
I started to think the problem was that the element was not heating fast enough and the 2 min per 2c increase was making the boil timer activate.
I sparge quite heavily and often have 30+ in the boiler. This I was guessing was too much for the 2k element to heat at the expected rate.

I contacted Speidel again and they suggested I make a change in the engineer settings?
I didn’t know there were any setting that as a user we had access to!
I made the change to the T_GRAD setting and it worked. I have only done one brew with the new setting but it looks promising.
I don’t know if these setting were available in the earlier firmware revisions, but they are in V1.23.

Here are the instructions to change the T_GRAD setting.
It worked for me but,You Do This At Your Own Risk.

Go to the settings on the controller.
Press 4 x arrow down
3 x arrow up
1 x arrow down
1 x arrow up

Then up to T_GRAD and confirm.
Change the setting from 180 and set it higher to 300.

I hope this will be of use to any of you having a similar problem.
Norm

[IPA]

As I remember,certainly on the earlier models, it says that the boil timer will start once 97 degrees has been maintained for more than 3 minutes. Incidentally I did once make a huge IC which when placed in the BM 15 minutes before the end of boil brought the wort temperature down below 97 and the timer stopped until it reached 100 again.

[Mr. Dripping]

I've noticed that my timer will start at 99 sometimes. There is usually a fair bit of wort bubbling away, so near enough.

I've also had the same problem IPA mentioned when putting in the IC or a big load of late hops.
To prevent this, I've been pre-heating the IC.

[Normski]

Yeah the 97c boil start, does line up with the 2c per 2 minute that appears to be a safety function.
If you have lots of wort as i often do, Or add cold water or wort, then it needs a longer ramp time.

[f00b4r]

Great info, wonder what extras you get if you put in the Konami code?

[Haydnexport]

Down, R , Up, L, Y , B ?