Part 1, the kettle. I couldn't help it :-)

[VANDEEN]

As I said on my intro post, I've brewed a few kits in the past, both wine & beer & decided to knock up a batch of Brewferm Abdij to take to a friends at Christmas, dragging the old gear out I discovered the push fit tap washer on my trusty old HK Plaastics 25L bottling bucket was looking a little the worse for wear.



Try as I might I couldn't find any new taps to fit in the 1 1/4" hole that the original fitted so after trawling the web & knowing I wanted to have a go at extract brewing for a batch of a "Saltaire Blonde" clone for Christmas day I decided rather than scrap it, I'd enlarge the hole to take a Kettle element instead.

With the help of a rather worn flap sander I soon had it out to 38mm & a Tesco value kettle element duly installed. They seem to have changed the design again slightly compared to most I've seen online so when I pick up a spare I'll share a much simplified strip down which only entails removing two screws to get to the element retaining screws.

After an overnight "wet test" I wired it up using the existing spade connections from the base reshaped to fit the prongs and let the first boil commence




80 mins to get to a rolling boil, that would never do, and as you know one thing leads to another, so off to Tesco once more & a second element was fitted.



This reduced the time down to 43 mins for a rolling boil from cold tap water <> 13 Deg C, which was easily maintained when I dropped down to a single element (NB both elements are powered from different ring main circuits in the house)

Next was a trip to Maplin to obtain a couple of the "Hot Condition Euro Sockets" http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-10a-ho ... cket-n08kc

I wasn't really happy with their fit & felt they were rather wobbly, the "partial insertion" I felt was to blame with just over 4mm of contact being made on the pins.



The main cause of this seemed to be a protrusion around the earth pin, highlighted here



A bit of "fettling" with a file I opened up the earth hole on the socket & a bit more work reduced the depth of the front flange on the plug as well.







This improved the fit considerably, and increased the contact depth to a shade over 7mm



Happy with the fit the next consideration was a bit of "Splash protection, the end of a tub of Schwartz Madras spice mix, and a little more material removed from the "element holder" led me to come up with this,



With a flapped hole in the bottom for the plug and cable to pass through this is a nice snug fit all the way up & onto the silicone washer.

Bit of insulating tape for extra insurance & I'm good to go



Next is a trip to see a mate at the Plumb Centre tomorrow to sort myself out with some sort of ball valve, tank connector & hose barb type equipment, he says they don't do stainless ones so I think it'll be brass or copper, thoughts?

These do look nice, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-2-Threaded- ... SwBvNTopYt but I can't wait for the delivery time from China.

Any thoughts, comment, suggestions, web links on what & where to buy for the tap?

PS If I don't leave with some copper pipe to make a wort chiller as well I'll be most surprised

PPS I've tried various liks to my potobucket accoun but none seem to show the pictures? is that cos I'm a newbie & need to have the approved?

[irv]

i think you need so many posts before your pics work?

As I said on my intro post, I've brewed a few kits in the past, both wine & beer & decided to knock up a batch of Brewferm Abdij to take to a friends at Christmas, dragging the old gear out I discovered the push fit tap washer on my trusty old HK Plaastics 25L bottling bucket was looking a little the worse for wear.



Try as I might I couldn't find any new taps to fit in the 1 1/4" hole that the original fitted so after trawling the web & knowing I wanted to have a go at extract brewing for a batch of a "Saltaire Blonde" clone for Christmas day I decided rather than scrap it, I'd enlarge the hole to take a Kettle element instead.

With the help of a rather worn flap sander I soon had it out to 38mm & a Tesco value kettle element duly installed. They seem to have changed the design again slightly compared to most I've seen online so when I pick up a spare I'll share a much simplified strip down which only entails removing two screws to get to the element retaining screws.

After an overnight "wet test" I wired it up using the existing spade connections from the base reshaped to fit the prongs and let the first boil commence




80 mins to get to a rolling boil, that would never do, and as you know one thing leads to another, so off to Tesco once more & a second element was fitted.



This reduced the time down to 43 mins for a rolling boil from cold tap water <> 13 Deg C, which was easily maintained when I dropped down to a single element (NB both elements are powered from different ring main circuits in the house)

Next was a trip to Maplin to obtain a couple of the "Hot Condition Euro Sockets" http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-10a-ho ... cket-n08kc

I wasn't really happy with their fit & felt they were rather wobbly, the "partial insertion" I felt was to blame with just over 4mm of contact being made on the pins.



The main cause of this seemed to be a protrusion around the earth pin, highlighted here



A bit of "fettling" with a file I opened up the earth hole on the socket & a bit more work reduced the depth of the front flange on the plug as well.







This improved the fit considerably, and increased the contact depth to a shade over 7mm



Happy with the fit the next consideration was a bit of "Splash protection, the end of a tub of Schwartz Madras spice mix, and a little more material removed from the "element holder" led me to come up with this,



With a flapped hole in the bottom for the plug and cable to pass through this is a nice snug fit all the way up & onto the silicone washer.

Bit of insulating tape for extra insurance & I'm good to go



Next is a trip to see a mate at the Plumb Centre tomorrow to sort myself out with some sort of ball valve, tank connector & hose barb type equipment, he says they don't do stainless ones so I think it'll be brass or copper, thoughts?

These do look nice, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-2-Threaded- ... SwBvNTopYt but I can't wait for the delivery time from China.

Any thoughts, comment, suggestions, web links on what & where to buy for the tap?

PS If I don't leave with some copper pipe to make a wort chiller as well I'll be most surprised

PPS I've tried various liks to my potobucket accoun but none seem to show the pictures? is that cos I'm a newbie & need to have the approved?

[guypettigrew]

Nice one, irv!!!

Guy

[asd]

Looks good!

When I'm fitting a tap, I always use Dowty washers to get a seal. It's much better than a tank connector, in my opinion.

The Dowty washer was developed for sealing aircraft engines, and the like. Its got metal sandwiching a nitrile (or other substance) ring. When tightened, the nitrile ring extrudes into the thread of the thing you are tightening, giving a fantastic seal.

You can get them from lots of places.

I go, cut a hole the right size (preferably with a Q Max cutter), a stainless nipple through the hole, a stainless barrel on the back, tap on the front, a stainless Dowty between nipple and barrel, and another one between tap and barrel.

I spent ages fiddling about with unsatisfactory partial solutions to how best to fit a tap before I discovered this method.

The latest setup I did was in a 1500 litre black barrel,for my cider this year. I've used the setup on 60, 120 and 250 litre blue mango barrels for the last few years, and it has never let me down.

As far as the tap goes, BES is a good place (and for all the other parts except the Dowty washers).

[VANDEEN]

Thanks for reposting Irv, I was getting frustrated at the picture links not working...
& to asd for the washer advice

Anyway on to Part 2 of the kettle.....