How to it a Thermometer to your boiler, HLT etc

[guyb]

I have brewed with my AG set up for about 12months now, and up until now, I've measured the temperature with a digital meat fork (this is a bit tricky due to the fact that I have to hang my siliconed oven gloved hand over the boiling wort, and it's not very safe, plus last time I dropped it in by accident, and now it's a bit hit and miss if it works).

I used a 21mm Q-Max cutter from FFX tools: here £9 delivered
I used a fixed stem thermometer from this supplier on ebay: here about £15 incl delivery

I'm pretty sure that this is the spec of the thermometer and the thermowell: here

I used a tank connector to make the connection: here £2.49

I used one of these as a female to female connector: here £0.99

Firstly I decided to use a recently finished minikeg as a trial, I was going to re-use the minikeg, but in the end I'd bought two cornies, so no longer had any need etc:

Here's the parts I've used:

I drilled a pilot hole, then made it out to 10mm to fit the Q-Max cutter through:

Here's the Q-Max cutter with a blob of grease on the end (as advised in the instructions):

The bolt from the cutter is pushed through:

The cutting head is threaded on, tightened up with allen key (5/16 iirc, it seemed to fit better than the 8mm):

Went through like a knife through butter, here's the result:

Here's the tank connector threaded through the hole:

1/2" BSP socket screwed on (I will used some PTFE when it comes to the real installation):

Thermowell going in:

Gauge added:

View from the inside:

The thermowell protruded about 65mm on the inside.

Hope that was useful etc.

Just need to go do it to the real pot now.

 

[bobsbeer]

Good one. :thumb:

 

[Sean_Mc]

Thanks Guy, will be following the info provided very soon :thumb:

 

[John_Henry]

Looks good! I wondered how accurate it is? I've been wanting to do the same myself, but was a bit concerned that it wouldn't be as accurate as my digital, I get very OCD when it comes to temps.

 

[Dieseljockey]

Looks good! I wondered how accurate it is? I've been wanting to do the same myself, but was a bit concerned that it wouldn't be as accurate as my digital, I get very OCD when it comes to temps.

I have this setup, work well enough for me. I used a digital one till it went pear shaped half way though a brew 6 degrees out, now I double check HLT & Mash with a large glass one..just to be sure. This type of setup you can see at a glance what the temp is if anything does go wrong.