80 ltr Thermo box to mash tun conversion

[Garth]

Dont you have to be careful mixing different allows against stainless, Stainless will rust in these conditions, Just a thought

do you mean alloys?

[brewmasterflex]

Yes Sorry Thats what I meant, Just curious as I would love to build something this good that will last Forever?

[Garth]

I don't think anyone has had any problems with this, do you mean like putting brass next to stainless?

if you are bothered about this use all stainless fittings, I did this but they are considerably more.

[brewmasterflex]

Okay Thanks Goo dPoint well presented, I will try it

[leedsbrew]

searched everywhere. cant find one of these anywhere on the interweb! Anyone any ideas?

[MightyMouth]

You mean you can't find a Thermo Box? It looks like the company who used to sell them on ebay has stopped trading.

[stu-le-brew]

Late last year I bought on Ebay a 70ltr stainless themos that I now use as a mash tun, it is listed again periodically as are several other smaller ones.
For reasons only understood by EBay, you have to log on to EBay France that's (http://www.ebay.fr)and search for "MARMITE THERMOS" they are delivered from Germany. Total cost inc shipping was in the region of 110 euro's. this link may work

http://shop.ebay.fr/merchant/catering-s ... &_osacat=0

It is well insulated and keeps its temperature really well, I usually mash overnight - temp drop about 15 degrees.
good luck (bon chance)

[MightyMouth]

Yep those are the ones, same company too just not selling from ebay UK anymore I guess.

[adm]

I'm going to bump this thread, as it's so good and my recent RIMS project has had me thinking about making something similar....

So firstly, Vossy - how has the long term road test worked out? Has the JB Weld held well over a number of brews?

I am thinking about buying a 70, 80 or 100L Thermobox, cutting out the entire bottom outside skin, removing the foam insulation and attaching a circular silicone heater to the underside of the inner skin. Something like this:



You can get a 12" diameter 1.5KW version, which would be ideal. Although one with a central hole would be even better so you could also do the Vossy bottom drain too.

Stick that onto the inner skin and take the power leads out to a Powercon connector, put a sheet of rockwool in the bottom and seal it all up - and Voila! you have a self contained, electric RIMS mashtun. You could also add a PT100 sensor in the bottom drain pipework and all you'd need would be an external pump and a PID controller box. It would be an extremely elegant solution. It would even cooler to fabricate a collar type bottom for it that could accommodate the pump and PID/SSR so it really was all a single unit.....

I really fancy making one of these as my next shiny brewery project as I should probably upgrade to 100L batches at some point in the future. Another 100L Thermobox with a good sized immersion heater mounted in it would make a good boiler too....

[leedsbrew]

These one's have holes in matey! Any good for you?

clicky

[adm]

Yep......summat like that would be just the ticket.

(Adds link to project bookmark folder....)

Ta!

[jubby]

Well worth a bump I've been picking through this thread for a while as i'll be converting an 80 litre pot soon. I've got all the gear, but the thermo pot arrived badly damaged, so in the process of getting a refund which is a real pain (dealing with a German company through French Ebay ) I had not seen that type of heater, but it looks good. Too late for me though, i've got 2 Backer elements.

Instead of the modified elbow and JB weld that Vossy used, i have gone for one of these: http://www.foxsonline.com/acatalog/info_AF2-70000.html
The only disadvantage is you will still be left with about 1/8" of water in the bottom, but i will try and form a recess in the bottom of the thermo pot with a press to get round this.

[Garth]

I used a similar fitting to Jubby in my 50 litre thermopot with fibre washers on the outside. There is no need to use JB weld, making it easier to take apart later on.

In a water/leak test I am left with about 900ml in the bottom of the tun, but this is less when there is grain in there, as there always is. The deadspace actually collects a lot of small bits of grain which makes the run off clearer.

[adm]

Those types of fittings look ideal. I can't see 1/8th inch or so of liquid left being a big deal anyway.....

Thinking about this a bit more......using a pot like this in RIMS mode means that the heater would be heating the liquid at the bottom of the tun, but instead of rising upwards through the mash, it would be getting sucked down through the outlet and recirculated into the top. Might make probe placement tricky....

[DarloDave]

Had a read through this thread, great help, upgrading to shiny is something I want to do in the very near future.