Klarstein power setting....??

[BrianBrewer]

Hi All,

I have a Klarstein Brauheld 15, it seems really good, but I have a couple of questions...

1. The temperature measurement reads 97C when it's boiling, so the timer never starts - does anyone know a work around?

2. What is the power setting for????

I measured the temperature variation over 30 minutes (with 10L of water), temperature set at 67C and could see that it varied by about 0.6C every 3 minutes (66.6C -> 67.2C -> 66.6C). This was with the power set to 1600W
I guess if I set the power far lower this will vary over a far longer timescale, but I'm not sure if that is useful.

Can someone help :)

Thanks!!

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi Brian

I don't have the same piece of kit, but I do have a BrewDevil which is a variant from the same "roots" ...

1. The temperature measurement reads 97C when it's boiling, so the timer never starts - does anyone know a work around?

... from a quick search, I was able to download the manual for your machine from there (link) and found the following advice in it ...

What should I do if the boiling temperature is not as accurate as the thermometer?
Start calibration by pressing the „SET+“ &“SET-“ buttons simultaneously. Correct the displayed temperature by up to +10°C or -10°C by pressing the „Set+“ or „Set-“ button. Wait five seconds to accept the selected value.

... not trying to come across as all "RTFM!" there, I appreciate it's easier when you know what you're looking for

What is the power setting for????

... erm, for specifying how much power the machine uses when it's heating ... sorry, couldn't resist ... yes, by reducing the power the machine uses it will tend to use less power, so heat less quickly, and so overshoot the target temp by less when it does ... what a lot of people will do (including me) is to set a short mash time with a high power setting (to get the liquor/mash up to temp) and then a longer time (at the same temperature but) at a lower power setting to maintain the temp for the mash duration ... so to mash at 66C for 60 mins, you might set the programme to control that as 5 mins at 66C with 2500W, then 55 mins at 66C with 900W, say

There was a long thread over there about the ACE Microbrewery (link), which was another variant of the early Klarsteins, which I found really useful when I first got my BrewDevil and I think it might help you to have a peruse too :hat:


Cheers, PhilB

 

[BrianBrewer]

Thanks PhilB,

Humm, I wasn't clear with point 1) I set the temperature to 100C for a boil, but because the thermostat is inaccurate it only reads 97C and so never reached the set point and consequently doesn't start the timer. I expect that if I set it to 97C, it will reach it, start the timer then cut in and out trying to hold the set point.

Thanks for your answer to point 2) that's really useful, I'll give it a go :)

Cheers!

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi Brian

I set the temperature to 100C for a boil, but because the thermostat is inaccurate it only reads 97C and so never reached the set point and consequently doesn't start the timer. I expect that if I set it to 97C, it will reach it ...

... but you don't really want to set it to 97C ... you want to set it to 100C and for the thermometer in the machine to show 100C on the display, and start the timer, when the wort starts boiling.

For the wort to be boiling and the thermometer in the machine to be measuring that at only 97C, it must be measuring around 3C too low ... which might well also mean that when you set the mash to 66C, it'll actually maintain the liquor and mash to around 69C ... and to correct those issues you need to calibrate the thermometer in the machine, so that when (for examples) the liquid in the boiler is at 66C, the display shows 66C, when the liquid is 97C, the display shows 97C and when it's boiling the display shows 100C ... that is why Klarstein built the calibration functionality into the controller (see the instructions in my previous post, for how to use it).

Ideally, you'd calibrate the thermometer in the machine to another (known to be accurate) thermometer ... or to things of known temperatures (like some melting ice and some boiling (pure) water) ... but getting it to at least recognise boiling wort as boiling, would be a start

Cheers, PhilB

 

[BrianBrewer]

Thanks PhilB, I didn't quite understand your first post. Apologies!

I think the RC-4 I used to make the mash temperature measurements above was fairly accurate (calibrated against a therma 5 thermometer).

I expect the sensor in the brauheld has an error that isn't constant over the temperature range. I'll try the calibration and measure again.

Thanks again :)

 

[foxy]

If you are boiling at 97 C hold the '+' and '-' buttons at the same time for a few seconds calibrate the temperature on the screen by + 3 degrees. That should bring you to boiling, when checking the mash temperature you must hold the probe / thermometer you are calibrating from up against the kettle probe, but not quite touching (that is the only place the probe takes the temperature) so you have to do likewise.
I have one SVB which even when calibrated the boil starts at 90 C even though it is not boiling I just add 5 mins to the boil time for that.