Grainfather!!

[Pkrd]

Watt's Law. A 1600 watt heater pulls over 13 amps at 120 volts, but less than 8 amps at 240. Amps x Volts = Watts.

The current requirements is double, but the heat generated at the plug is:
P=I^2xR

Where R is the plug resistance. So with double the current you end up with 4x the heat at the plug.

 

[Jag75]

@WhiskeyRanger & @Pkrd . I dont follow . I have absolutely no knowledge of electricity. I'm taking it your saying the wire and plug in were intended for 240v however if the controller and plug were wired for 120 it would be fine ?

 

[eimar]

Watt's law, exactly. Worse, the heat dissipated in an electrical component is proportional to the square value of the current. So if the current double, the heat generated will be multiplied by 4 .

The whole chain must be adjusted for the higher current.: the controller, the receptacle, the plug on the cable, the cable and the heating element. That's why only replacing the plug on the receptacle doesn't make sense to me.

An analogy: the road for going from town A to town B, half is a higway but the other half is a dirt road.

Jacques

 

[eimar]

I think it is a marketing decision to sell 120V because that is what US households have. We have 220V for driers and stoves, but, many people won’t want to unplug those major appliances to brew.

That makes sense but I'm willing to unplug my 220 Volts electric stove and plug a 220 Volts grainfather.

 

[eimar]

Question about stuck sparge: I don't remember where I saw that in case of a stuck sparge the grainbed should not be stirred but sliced. What kind of tool should be used for slicing the grain bed ?

 

[Seaug1122]

Sorry not the best photos, but the one prong has melted plastic all over it and the long blade socket is disfigured a bit.

View attachment 633642View attachment 633643

That is exactly what mine looks like and they have replaced the controller. I have now burnt two controllers and that pin with the crust on it broke off when I tried to disconnect them. I am rather disheartened with it now.

 

[alestateyall]

Question about stuck sparge: I don't remember where I saw that in case of a stuck sparge the grainbed should not be stirred but sliced. What kind of tool should be used for slicing the grain bed ?

I think a knife would work. A long blade would go deeper: like a machete, saw blade.

 

[eimar]

I think a knife would work. A long blade would go deeper: like a machete, saw blade.

Good suggestions.
Now I remember where I saw the warning about slicing and not stirring the grain bed in case of stuck sparge:
"BE VERY CAREFUL not to twist the basket while the basket is in the sparge position which could knock it off the support ring. If the sparge is “stuck” (not draining), then remove the top perforated plate and slice the grain bed with a stainless paddle or similar. Cut through the stuck mash from the center towards the outside repeatedly until it starts draining. This should keep the basket safely located on the support ring. Do not stir the grain bed as this could twist the basket off the support ring"
It is from the grainfather manual.
https://grainfather.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/V6_GF_A4_Instr_Bk_WEB.pdf

For whatever reason, the manual that came with my unit doesn't have that warning.

 

[murphyslaw]

I just stir and hold onto the grain pipe so it doesnt fall over. Seems to me that slicing would just create channels.

 

[elgee]

That is exactly what mine looks like and they have replaced the controller. I have now burnt two controllers and that pin with the crust on it broke off when I tried to disconnect them. I am rather disheartened with it now.

I had the ground pin snap off on mine. I cut off the plug and wires a new one, the issue is they don’t provide a long cord, so once I wired the new plug, it did not reach the controller box. Now I need to lower the control box so it can reach.

 

[jlinz]

I have burnt out one controller now and hoping it doesn’t happen again. Anyone just try not ever disconnecting the plug? I noticed mine was working fine until I got nervous one day and checked and sure enough it was melted to the box. Wondering if I should just leave this one alone. Don’t ask, don’t tell sort of thing...

 

[Chino_Brews]

I have burnt out one controller now and hoping it doesn’t happen again. Anyone just try not ever disconnecting the plug? I noticed mine was working fine until I got nervous one day and checked and sure enough it was melted to the box. Wondering if I should just leave this one alone. Don’t ask, don’t tell sort of thing...

jlinz, LOL. Ignoring the problem will work great until the controller catches on fire. If you're lucky, the controller will short and trip your home's circuit breaker and all you'll get is a bit of smoke or melting plastic aroma. Worst case scenario you have a fire extinguisher on hand and nearby.

 

[Jag75]

I unplug mine every brew when I clean it . Easier for me to take the controller off and clean .

 

[jlinz]

jlinz, LOL. Ignoring the problem will work great until the controller catches on fire. If you're lucky, the controller will short and trip your home's circuit breaker and all you'll get is a bit of smoke or melting plastic aroma. Worst case scenario you have a fire extinguisher on hand and nearby.

Haha, probably true. But I wonder how many brews I did with a melted plug before I actually took a look...

 

[lewandowski46]

That is exactly what mine looks like and they have replaced the controller. I have now burnt two controllers and that pin with the crust on it broke off when I tried to disconnect them. I am rather disheartened with it now.

I emailed Grainfather and they sent a new boiler and latest version of the connect controller to replace my manual old style controller. Couldn't be happier considering mine is a Gen2 unit, just cresting 3 years old when I emailed them. Great customer service.

 

[Seaug1122]

They sent me an email telling me to go back to the distributor. I now have 4 old controllers. I liked the guys idea of hooking up a fan so I am going that route. Brewing Friday and I hope it fixes it.

 

[skleice]

This new app is the worst piece of trash ever created! Timer still doesn't work. Doesn't count down at all. You used to be able to easily skip to a different stage, now it's a giant hassle. All its good for is monitoring the temp. Every other feature is garbage. FFS Grainfather fix this thing or roll back to the other app.

 

[speavler]

I agree with this sentiment. I often will edit recipes on the fly during a brew. The app just cannot handle this. An input will say (in gal) but actually calculates in liters. I'll enter a sparge time for 60 minutes and it'll count down 60 seconds. It literally did a 60 second sparge, folks. This is a disaster!

 

[Jag75]

Well last brew I did app worked fine . Now I'm trying to connect to no avail. Tried to pair but the bluetooth cant find . Ticks me off

 

[Pkrd]

Updated the app earlier today, and again just now. Fingers crossed for tomorrow’s brew.

 

[Jag75]

Updated the app earlier today, and again just now. Fingers crossed for tomorrow’s brew.

I guess I brewed a day to early

 

[rjmaillie]

For some reason this godforsaken app isn't connecting to my recipe and I'm having to manually set times and temps (I know, first world problems). I've used the new app a few time (iPad version) with no problem, today not so much. Anyone else?

 

[Jag75]

For some reason this godforsaken app isn't connecting to my recipe and I'm having to manually set times and temps (I know, first world problems). I've used the new app a few time (iPad version) with no problem, today not so much. Anyone else?

I had the same issue on my last brew which was Aug 2nd. The update was available on the 3rd . Somebody brewed with no issues on the 3rd if I remember right. Check your update

 

[Jag75]

I stand corrected the update was available on the 1st but I didnt update till the 3rd .

 

[Pkrd]

Brew went ok tonight. Had to restart the app once because it was stuck at the temperature screen (the temperatures and back button were off the top of the screen). Recipes more readable now, could be much better.

I pretty much always need to clean out the ball valve after running the chiller for a length of time to get a reasonable flow.

 

[eimar]

Brew went ok tonight. Had to restart the app once because it was stuck at the temperature screen (the temperatures and back button were off the top of the screen). Recipes more readable now, could be much better.

I pretty much always need to clean out the ball valve after running the chiller for a length of time to get a reasonable flow.

Do what most of us are doing: take the spring and the ball off the valve.

 

[thedon986]

Well, after three years of use and roughly 30 batches (old version controller) I went to heat up my mash for a small batch and the controller started smoking I sent an email to Grainfather support and gave them all the info I could. Waiting to hear back now. So weird that it has worked for three years and now it does this. I opened up the back of the controller and the contacts on both the plug and the the mash/boil switch were very burnt. Super disappointed, but hope Grainfather will come through. What is it with all these controller problems!!

 

[smarch0]

I did a brew the other day with the new app version, and had walked away for a bit. It seemed like after the mash stage was done, it automatically started heating for boil. Because I was out of range, it heated the mash higher than I would have liked before catching it. Has anyone else experienced this with the new app version? I'm pretty sure the old one did not do that. I can't find an option to disable that "feature".

 

[Pkrd]

Beer before last my recipe didn’t include a mash out step, usually it’s automatically added while building the recipe so not sure what happened. Shaved some time off brew day so no biggie.

 

[WBB]

I did a brew the other day with the new app version, and had walked away for a bit. It seemed like after the mash stage was done, it automatically started heating for boil. Because I was out of range, it heated the mash higher than I would have liked before catching it. Has anyone else experienced this with the new app version? I'm pretty sure the old one did not do that. I can't find an option to disable that "feature".

Normal. After mash it will auto go to 100% boil. It’s heating up to boil while you sparge. If it didn’t it would be another 30-40 minutes.

 

[shortyz]

guys, open up your controller and put a plug on the controller, quit screwing around with new controllers. They all had this problem, just fix it yourself.

 

[shortyz]

Oh also, incase anyone doesnt know theres a thermal overload reset switch on the bottom of your unit right in the center.

cheers

 

[Jag75]

Is that just a short female end of a plug you attached?

 

[shortyz]

yep if u go back to 101 i did a little howto on it. ive added some zip ties so it doesnt strain the connection aswell now.

it may not be pretty but it sure as hell beats the original.

 

[shortyz]

doggy brew day!

 

[thedon986]

Well, after three years of use and roughly 30 batches (old version controller) I went to heat up my mash for a small batch and the controller started smoking I sent an email to Grainfather support and gave them all the info I could. Waiting to hear back now. So weird that it has worked for three years and now it does this. I opened up the back of the controller and the contacts on both the plug and the the mash/boil switch were very burnt. Super disappointed, but hope Grainfather will come through. What is it with all these controller problems!!

Well, Grainfather did come through and replaced the unit even though it is past warranty! My replacement should be arriving today. In the meantime I bought a Connect unit and have brewed twice with it. I took the advice of another post here and have a fan pointed at it from heat up through the boil and the unit has stayed nice and cool.

 

[eimar]

shortyz ,
[URL='https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/members/shortyz.179197/']I checked page 101 about the modification. I'm still confused,my controller is another version as your. There are 3 receptacles. They receive plugs from the 110 V outlet, the pump and the heating element. Which one did you modify ?

Jacques[/URL]

 

[2LiveBrewCrew]

Is reflectix wrap better that the Graincoat? I found the Graincoat at a decent price.

 

[Jag75]

Is reflectix wrap better that the Graincoat? I found the Graincoat at a decent price.

I'd buy the jacket then of you got a good deal

 

[2LiveBrewCrew]

Thanks Jag75, I think I'll get it. It's around $44.00 shipped.. Haven't seen one cheaper yet...