New toy

[Bogwoppit]

I was just presented with this baby from a lab, it's going to be converted into a new HERMS system once I figure out how it works.

The heating element is 2.5kw which will hopefully be enough, it has a chilling coil too but I haven't figured out the capacity of that yet.

Needs a clean first as its full of oil.

[Dr Horrible]

Great stuff, I'd  love to get my hands on one of them, well wear!  You should be able to find an operating manual onlline easily enough. Mind you, if I had it I'd keep the oil  in it and use it for fermentation temp control.

[Bogwoppit]

I hadn't thought of that, I think for the moment though I'd get more benefit out of it as a HERMS.
I think it's something that I'll be able to fit into a lot of uses.
It might even get used as a cooler for serving from cornies.

[Dr Horrible]

Definitely, it's a very flexible piece of kit.  Keep the oil when you drain it, that stuff isn't cheap and probably shouldn't go down the drain anyway - could come in useful later on.

[Bogwoppit]

I've just been reading the manual, I can replace the oil with distiller water which would be safe and easy but a bit more research is needed if I want to keep using it with oil as i have no idea what it uses and the manual doesn't say.
Any ideas? You sound like you know a bit about the machine (I've never seen one before ).
Bw

[Bogwoppit]

Holy moly batman!
Just found the oil, €650 for 10 litres!

I guess I'll be using it with distilled water!

[Dr Horrible]

Yeah, they're very popular  - seen them in a good few labs.  They're used mostly for supplying jacketed reaction vessels that need good  levels of temperature control.  The distilled water should be fine as you'll be operating between 0-100degC, the oil allows you to go from something like -20 to 200deg so possibly could be used for anything from boiling water to crash cooling.  Make sure you clean out the oil well, it's probably  Dowtherm or Syltherm or something else you don't want to get near your beer.

[Bogwoppit]

One thing the manual doesn't mention, do you think the system is food safe?
The manual doesn't mention it, I'll drop the manufacturer an email next week with a few more questions on the unit.

[mcgrath]

  They're used mostly for supplying jacketed reaction vessels

O.K now I'm with you..

[Dr Horrible]

One thing the manual doesn't mention, do you think the system is food safe?
The manual doesn't mention it, I'll drop the manufacturer an email next week with a few more questions on the unit.

They will nearly definitely say that they're not food safe, that's not what they're designed for - and the oil is definitely not.  The safest way to use it is to connect it up to a stainless steel coil (HBW do them) and stick that in whatever you need to heat or cool - then you've no worries about the insides of the unit.

[DEMPSEY]

  They're used mostly for supplying jacketed reaction vessels

So to find out if your cow is a reactor you connect a temp prod to this unit and stick it up the cows arse no

[Bogwoppit]

It'll also tell you if she's up the duff and if shes a Celtic supporter.

[Dr Horrible]

Guess I wasn't being too clear then!  These  pieces of kit, generally called 'Julabos' are devices that have a bath of liquid (usually some sort of oil) that can be heated or cooled to whatever temperature gets  dialled in.  They also have a pump that can circulate this liquid through whatever you want and back into the Julabo.  They're used in labs to circulate around stirred vessels to control the temperature of the vessel, which is why I was suggesting that they'd  be good for fermentation temperature control, but there's loads of things you could use them for while brewing that needs temperature control, which Bogwoppit will probably have a lot of fun finding out! (Unless you drink the oil - that won't be fun)