HLT Controller

[Jeltz]

Well having seen the BCY07H temperature controllers on Ebay I decided to take the plunge and try one as an HLT controller. 1st thing to say is that its limited to 95°C so won't do a boiler.
It arrived a few days ago (I paid £14.58)

My first thought was that it would mount into a pattress box, alas it doesn't so I bought a cheap junction box and cut a hole in the lid to mount it.

Well it works OK. Mine reads about 0.5°C wrong and its slow to register temperature changes so ideally it wants to be used in a good volume of water. The default settings mean that its turns off when its 3°C above the target temperature then switches on as soon as it drops below target, the slow registering means that it overshoots badly if left set to that as the heat has been on and the sensor is still catching up when it switches off.

The hysteresis (as its known) can be reduced down to a minimum of 0.5°C which is what I have done, but it still overshoots by about 1.5°C initially although as the temperature of the water evens out and slowly sinks back to target that variance reduces.

My element isn't working 100% so I need to re-test when a replacement arrives but initial indications are that it will work and I will probably set it 1°C below the temp I actually want.

 

[Jeltz]

It had its first brewday usage today.

I set it to come on at 6:45 and bring the water to 78.5°C at 7:30 when I got up the mash water was at strike. It reads around half a degree high and over shoots due to a little lag in registering the increased temperature from heating. I checked the temperature manually with my thermapen and it was spot on for doughing in so unplugged the element and got on with it.

Then 40 minutes into the mash I turned the controller to manual set it 85°C, filled the HLT with the sparge water and reconnected the element let it get on with it, again it worked fine.

 

[evanvine]

If you've learned its idiosyncrasies and you are happy with it then all is well.
Just wondering why you didn't go the STC1000 rout. :wha:

 

[hairybiker]

I can see one advantage over an stc1000, the timer.
If you regularly use a timer to switch on an HLT then this would do double work.

I am quite tempted but already have an stc1000 on my HLT. Maybe later in the year if I have any spare cash. :nono:

 

[evanvine]

Good point, but time switches are dirt cheap these days!

 

[Jeltz]

Well partly to see if these are a viable unit and bear in mind the STC-1000 is 10A unit so with a 2.4kw element I'd be operating at the top end of its rating, where as this unit is a 16A one. Also the timer is built in and has a battery backup so if there is a power cut in the night then so long as the power is back on by the time its due to go on then it will start up.

If I was doing the same with an STC it would be the unit + an SSR + a 13A timer to achieve the same result and a lot of the dirt cheap timers are 10A.

 

[evanvine]

I wonder if that's why Tesco/Asda elements are 2.2kw, just a thought.

 

[Jeltz]

I assume you mean the EU standard electrical supply is 220V so its almost certainly that they have been designed to be 10A ones, rather than they are planning for us to rip them apart and attach them to an STC-1000