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Update to old topic and equalizing volumes during cleaning

 
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siestakey




Joined: 10 Mar 2017
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PostLink    Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 7:02 pm    Post subject: Update to old topic and equalizing volumes during cleaning Reply with quote


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Kal, I wasn't sure if I should keep this in the same thread as the old or split it off. Here's the old thread I posted about temperatures not equalizing. http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31570

I've been brewing for about 7 months now on the system and no matter what I did, my temperatures in the MLT were always 2 degrees lower that the HLT. One of my pumps seized up on me (I had chugger pumps before) last weekend and I took the opportunity to purchase 2 new rip tides. I performed an auto tune and did a water test. I'm happy to report that my temperature gap has closed 1 degree now and the probes are reading at the same temp as a thermapen. I've got some more things I want to try and will post an update if they work out to see if I can close the gap all the way.


Next, I decided to take the time to clean everything with a 3 hour PBW cycle.

I remember seeing in a thread on cleaning a while back to go BK -> Wort Pump -> CFC -> MLT -> Water Pump -> BK when doing this cycle. I filled up the BK and MLT both with about 10 gallons each and began the cycle. I came back about 20 minutes later and the MLT was empty and the BK was just at about the brim. I have a Blichmann whirlpool port with the linear flow valve on the BK. I have to dial that nearly all the way down and just let a trickle into the BK or else the MLT will run dry in short order. I put binder clips on the sight glass and came back 10 minutes later and the volume was definitely higher in the BK than the MLT.

I'm not sure how to tell where my bottleneck is. Based on previous previous issues, I think something might be wrong with my MLT but that is just a hunch.

Kal - when you do your PBW cycle do you open up the valves all the way and let 'er rip?


Differences off recommendations:

I kept the Liner Flow Valves on the BoilerMaker G2s and I use a Blichmann Hop Blocker. Pumps are Rip Tides. I have a whirlpool port on the BK. Everything else is identical.
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kal
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Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 7:25 pm    Post subject: Re: Update to old topic and equalizing volumes during cleani Reply with quote

siestakey wrote:
Kal - when you do your PBW cycle do you open up the valves all the way and let 'er rip?

Nope. Since the resistances on the two paths are different, the flow will be different, and eventually one kettle will get fuller than the other like you saw. So you have to watch it. You can set pump that's on the the shorter/less restrictive of the paths fully open, then throttle the other pump down a bit to match.

A binder clip on the sight glass is a handy way to watch the level - I do this when fly sparging and it only takes ~2-3 minutes to get the two pumps to be in agreement and flow in = flow out.



Kal

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siestakey




Joined: 10 Mar 2017
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PostLink    Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah, ok. So I was worried for nothing (as usual).

I can say without a doubt the rip tides are awesome!

Thanks Kal
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siestakey




Joined: 10 Mar 2017
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PostLink    Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As an update to the first part of the post about closing the temperature differential - I mentioned previously that the rip tides helped close the gap by 1 degree. I was measuring the temperature of the wort coming out of the recirc hose in the mash tun and the wort was coming out slightly below my set mash temp. My next thought on this to close the gap was to shorten the hose between the outlet of the HERMS coil and the inlet on the mash tun (from 4 feet to 14 inches). Unfortunately that didn't make a difference either. I'm just going to stop worrying about this and set my temperature higher.
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dp Brewing Company




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PostLink    Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 1:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Were is the actual location of the two probes in question?
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siestakey




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PostLink    Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 2:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

outlet of the MLT and outlet of the HLT
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dp Brewing Company




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PostLink    Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 12:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You will need to calibrate your probes at their locations. If I read your previous statement correctly, you were talking the readings of the Mash tun on the liquid leaving the coil going into the mash tun. That will not give you an accurate reading of the actual mash tun probe at the mash tun outlet.
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siestakey




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PostLink    Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 2:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My reason for doing that is if your set point is 152, but the mash tun probe reads 150, if the new recirculated wort coming in is only 151, there's no possible way it will reach 152.
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dp Brewing Company




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PostLink    Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 2:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

siestakey wrote:
My reason for doing that is if your set point is 152, but the mash tun probe reads 150, if the new recirculated wort coming in is only 151, there's no possible way it will reach 152.


The Mash Tun probe should read what the actual temp is, not what you expect it to be after leaving the coil. In some cases you have to bump your HLT up an extra degree.

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siestakey




Joined: 10 Mar 2017
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PostLink    Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 2:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, that is what I'm going to start doing instead of trying to chase this down. On my last brew I offset the HLT +2 degrees and got my desired mash temp.
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dp Brewing Company




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PostLink    Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 3:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would highly recommend checking/changing your values to the following and do a Auto Tune:

P 40
I 350
D 2

Kal recommended I did that to my system and it worked like a champ after that. I was having several temp related issues. I had to always set my HLT about a degree or two high. I no longer have to do that. After I followed his advise it works perfectly.

Here is the page with the details.

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel-setup

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siestakey




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PostLink    Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

change those on the HLT PID only?
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PostLink    Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

siestakey wrote:
change those on the HLT PID only?


Correct.

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siestakey




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PostLink    Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2019 7:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was out of town and just checked these values on my system:

P: 1012
I: 297
D: 81

t: 12


The last time I performed an auto tune was when I acquired the riptide pumps.
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