Buffalo boiler false bottom

[rukkus]

I was brewing yesterday using my buffalo boiler. It has a hidden element but I ended up with some scorching over where the element is and ended up with a few cut outs. Is a false bottom likely to help?

[RichC]

Best course of action is to bypass the thermal cutout from the bottom of the element. Alternatively just move it further from the element. There's 2 and possibly 3 thermal switches that need this

[lordstilton]

I highly recommend bypassing the thermal fuse.. Caused me much heart ache this weekend

[rukkus]

Thanks will have a look at that. Do either of you use a false bottom on your setup? i'm curious if it would stop cutting out if there was no scorching on the bottom.

[Greg2013]

Contact of mine in UK bought a new Buffalo 40lt boiler off Nesbitts and is having the same problem, he will be bypassing the thermo switch he said

[lordstilton]

I don't think a false bottom will stop scorching as the wort is still in contact with the element plate..the false bottom will just filter out your hops and stop it blocking your tap..as lars said its the thermal switch which is attached to the element..http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=42675 shows you what it looks like..the problem I had was the thermal fuse blew which shorted out the entire unit not just cut out till it cooled down..this was due to a 2 hour boil..if you still fancy doing a false bottom this might help http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=54513

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I can get a good 75 minutes of full tilt boiling before I get cut offs.

Once you commit to a boil, you have to keep it going. It is not so much the wort scorching on the element - I have found that break material is big source of cut outs.

[Greg2013]

I can get a good 75 minutes of full tilt boiling before I get cut offs.

Once you commit to a boil, you have to keep it going. It is not so much the wort scorching on the element - I have found that break material is big source of cut outs.

If you are getting 75 minutes of a full tilt boil what more do you need ? 

[rukkus]

90 mins for doing lagers I was thinking it might be break material, very tempted to try a false bottom and see if it helps.

[Greg2013]

90 mins for doing lagers I was thinking it might be break material, very tempted to try a false bottom and see if it helps.

I am only a novice and you can tell me to fook off BUT, two of my youtube buddies in the UK use these 40lt Buffalo boilers as they seem to be handy enough to get from Nesbitts electrical over there. One of them is brewing over 20 years and he also thought that when he bought one not so long ago, completely wrong he said. Nothing to do with break material at all, he said problem stopped immediately he bypassed the thermo and he has not had a stoppage in over a year now.

The secon lad is bypassing thermo as well so i think you are just wasting your time and money IMHO

[rukkus]

I've been reading about some of the guys in aus doing that and burning out the element.

[RichC]

90 mins for doing lagers I was thinking it might be break material, very tempted to try a false bottom and see if it helps.

I am only a novice and you can tell me to fook off BUT, two of my youtube buddies in the UK use these 40lt Buffalo boilers as they seem to be handy enough to get from Nesbitts electrical over there. One of them is brewing over 20 years and he also thought that when he bought one not so long ago, completely wrong he said. Nothing to do with break material at all, he said problem stopped immediately he bypassed the thermo and he has not had a stoppage in over a year now.

The secon lad is bypassing thermo as well so i think you are just wasting your time and money IMHO

My cutouts were much worse when I had very poor efficiency/conversion, had a lot more scorching on the element from unconverted starches. Some of it is also break material and general crap left over from pulling the grain bag. It's a fact that BIAB leads to cloudier wort but it doesn't affect final beer clarity. I've all thermal cutouts in my boiler bypassed/moved. I also do 90min boil for most of my beers, particularly anything using lager malt
I used a false bottom made from SS splatter screen and it made no difference at all to the cutouts

[Cathal O D]

I use a buffalo boiler and I havent modified the thermostat.  Ive never had it cutout during a boil. There is always a little build up on the element at the end of a boil but this cleans off very easily with a scrubber. I made a false bottom to filter out the hops, maybe this post helps.

I have since replaces all the bolts with stsinless steel ones.

 

Here is a picture of the inside of my boiler. I use 5 two inch bolts to keep tye the mesh off the bottom. Im going to replace them with stainless steel bolts as you can see they have rusted. The handel is for lifting it out after the boil.

This is where I got the mesh.

Graepel Perforators and Weavers Ltd.
Unit 6, Ballymount Road Ind. Est., Lwr. Ballymount Rd.,
Walkinstown, Dublin 12, Ireland
http://www.graepel.ie/

[Cathal O D]

Here is the picture for the last post