StillSmart

Despite the house being in a state due to 3 months of rebuilding and alterations. The garage and sheds stuffed to the hilt with all the contents from the house, including all my Airstill and ancilleries, I've only gone and bought myself a nice shiny T500 with the copper condenser!

And there they sit, in their big brown cardboard box pleading with me to play with them, and there is me standing in the middle of a house with no running water and some basic electricity grinning thinking that I know I should not have done it. The electricians, overpaid and as sloppy as anything are all curious to what i'm staring at. The chippie needs paying, and I've just had to order an extra 5mtrs of oak for the kitchen, the new oven doesn't fit and pay day could not come quick enough. So sod it! I thought I would add to our national debt and splash out.

The missus has finally calmed down a little...


The bruises will subside in a few days

Mine arrived today....just ran the first wash

Go that man

Jeez H12rpro, I've not even got space to get a wash on the go at the mo!

I'm having fun winding up Mrs Klunk though. I open the box "mmm shiny!" I close the box. I open the box "mmm shiny!" I close the box. She's not loving me at the moment

But it doesn't seem that you are trying very hard to be loved?.....
I'm guessing that the Klunks have been together for quite awhile?

One day you will have shed space to spare and all the free time that you require to pursue your hobby.
I raise my glass in your general direction.

Robert.

34 years in all, though a fair bit of that I worked away to give the poor cow some respite

Hopefully should be back in the shed next week, and hopefully before we go off on vacances!

A couple of questions, and I'm not sure I have seen it covered here but do you guys have a recommended method of prepping the T500 prior to running a wash through it or do you literally run it out the box. With the airstill I just boiled up a load of water prior to using it.

The other thing is power controllers/regulators. Thinking of getting one as leccy can be a bit hit n miss, and expensive. Is there a preferred one to use in the UK?

Apologies if I've gone off topic a bit but, thought I'd ask while I remember

Cheers,
Klunk

Looking at Klunk's question on power controller, can controlling the power input to the element cause any stress to that element, possibly leading to failure?

Just curious.
Not familiar with T500 Klunk but a good wash out with hot water and whatever suds you're using to clean your brewing/fermentation clobber should suffice.

The instructions say to just rinse out the boiler with a weak washing up liquid and soft cloth .....rinse well and wipe dry. .....chuck the boiler conditioner thingies in and fire it up !
No mention of a cleaning run or owt with the column ....just crack on

packapoo wrote:Looking at Klunk's question on power controller, can controlling the power input to the element cause any stress to that element, possibly leading to failure?

Just curious.
Not familiar with T500 Klunk but a good wash out with hot water and whatever suds you're using to clean your brewing/fermentation clobber should suffice.

I have not noticed any deterioration in my own still heating element,(not a T500) due to using a power controller over the last four years, so I wouldn't expect any here.

Robert.

H12rpo wrote:The instructions say to just rinse out the boiler with a weak washing up liquid and soft cloth .....rinse well and wipe dry. .....chuck the boiler conditioner thingies in and fire it up !
No mention of a cleaning run or owt with the column ....just crack on

Maybe just me here, but I would run some sort of sacrificial cleaning run through a column before first use for real.
If you don't have sacrificial spirit available, try using vingar, diluted.
Either will clear manufacturing lubricants from the column and any packing used.
Follow with rinsing with water and you are good to go.
IMO.

Robert

+1 vinegar.

Thanks Robert

Not got anything to sacrifice as not had anything on the go since March so will go with the diluted vinegar, thanks for that tip Robert, much appreciated.

Just now down to power controller. Is there something preferred for the UK. I started googling and got side tracked in controllers for Hornby train sets

Some here have gone this route, prompted by YHB in the dark past...
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3904&p=36358&hilit=yhb+power+controller#p36358
Clickable links contained therein.

Some have more recently gone for PID

Search Power controller in the Build your own section.
Choose your own path grasshopper.

Robert.