ATC 800 query

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Talon_Ted

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Having suffered a burn out in my pid controller i have been using my atc 800 to run my HERMS set up. i was told by the supplier (of the pid) that i didn't need a relay. very poor advice as i have now discovered.

Yesterday i thought i would monitor the boil using the atc800. big mistake! i came into the brewery to check on things to find the alarm on. i took the probe out of the copper and thought no more about it.

this morning i drained off the wort and put it in the fermenting cubboard and dropped in the sterilised atc800 probe. to my surprise it read 46degC. i felt the side of the poly bucket and knew that wasn't right. i checked it with a thermometer and it was 28degC.

so have i knackered the atc 800 or is there away of correcting it?

brewing with no pid and no atc800 will be a major set back or a lot of extra replacement cost.

any ideas anyone?

TT
 
Just wondering what the power rating of your HERMS is? The ATC 800 has an internal relay, but it is only rated to a max of 10amps or 2.4kw, and normally I'd like to be conservative with that type of thing.

But if I understand correctly, it was whilst monitoring the boil (i.e. just as a thermometer) that it broke? If so, that sounds a bit unfortunate (assuming you weren't still accidentally switching/controlling the herms, anyway?). If you have the ATC 800+ rather than the older 800 then this can measure 'nearly' to boiling so I'd not expect there to be a problem at boil temperatures unless the probe sat directly on the element (or base if using gas). IIRC though the older ATC 800 went less high, so not sure about that, but I'd 'thought' it used the same probe..

If you've tried the obvious powering off and on again to reset everything then it may be worth seeing if its just the sensor (new ones can be got from forttex) for a few pounds plus P&P. In fact if its one you got from Forttex then I'd drop them an email as they've usually seemed quite good to me.

Cheers
kev
 
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