Klarstein 35 litre Maischfest mash kettle

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Hi. I have the 30ltre version and whilst I use it for all my brews now I don't use it as it was intended and just use it as a boiler (which it is very good at)

These are the issues I have found with the mash side:
The grain basket seems to be a badly designed afterthought. It is too small and there is a lot of dead space around it.
There is no hop filter and the basket sits too low to fit one (I tried a bazooka one there may be another type that would fit) prior to the mash and you can't fit one afterwards as it is full of hot wort.
It is awkward to lift and fit the basket support as it does not lock automatically. (you also need to carefully measure your sparge water as you cant see how full it is getting)
You can't really rely on the temp gauge for mashing as the probe sits at the bottom so only really measures the temp of the water rather than the mash basket.
At one point I just ditched the basket and fitted a bazooka filter to the back of the tap and used that as the mash tun. Worked really well although you do need an additional vessel to collect the wort during sparging. The grain can then be cleaned out and the unit re-used as the boiler. I stopped this as the extra vessel was an old mash tun so I just use this for the mashing now.
I also added so extra insulation around the out side just to keep a bit more heat in.

Having said the above it is a good boiler. The 3kw element allows it come up to boil fairly quickly and the 1500w element maintains the boil (3kw is a bit too vigorous). Again don't rely on the temp readout as it can lag behind (possibility of a boil over)

So you can use it as is but there are a few issues with the mashing side.
 
Hi. I have the 30ltre version and whilst I use it for all my brews now I don't use it as it was intended and just use it as a boiler (which it is very good at)

These are the issues I have found with the mash side:
The grain basket seems to be a badly designed afterthought. It is too small and there is a lot of dead space around it.
There is no hop filter and the basket sits too low to fit one (I tried a bazooka one there may be another type that would fit) prior to the mash and you can't fit one afterwards as it is full of hot wort.
It is awkward to lift and fit the basket support as it does not lock automatically. (you also need to carefully measure your sparge water as you cant see how full it is getting)
You can't really rely on the temp gauge for mashing as the probe sits at the bottom so only really measures the temp of the water rather than the mash basket.
At one point I just ditched the basket and fitted a bazooka filter to the back of the tap and used that as the mash tun. Worked really well although you do need an additional vessel to collect the wort during sparging. The grain can then be cleaned out and the unit re-used as the boiler. I stopped this as the extra vessel was an old mash tun so I just use this for the mashing now.
I also added so extra insulation around the out side just to keep a bit more heat in.

Having said the above it is a good boiler. The 3kw element allows it come up to boil fairly quickly and the 1500w element maintains the boil (3kw is a bit too vigorous). Again don't rely on the temp readout as it can lag behind (possibility of a boil over)

So you can use it as is but there are a few issues with the mashing side.
Cheers @Dads_Ale for the review as I was nearly going to purchase but after having a good look I have decided not to bother as I have a 30l 3kw Burco, a 52l mash Tun and a 20l boiler with a heat exchanger and all I would be doing is is collecting more gear and besides I get pretty good efficiency as it is and have just purchased a 3 roller grain mill which should help a bit.
👍🍺
 

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