Mains suppressors

[newshound]

Thanks, all very much appreciated. This is the first controller failure following a dozen or so heater failures over the past few years, I think perhaps I will leave the cheapie unprotected and if it happens again, put in a transformer and varistor. The cheapie is rated for 90 to 265 volts, so presumably switched mode power supply.

At less than a third of the price of a West (and some people are asking nearer £400 for one) do you reckon the cheapie has a seriously compromised design/construction, or does West have a seriously large markup. I know which I would believe.

[meow2222]

Having never seen either unit, who knows.

NT

[newshound]

I don't think you can tell from visual examination. That is *exactly* my point. The PCBs, soldering, etc. are likely to be indistinguishable. If you go back a bit in time and handle a Leica II and a Zorki IV, it is obvious from the "feel" which was mass produced down to a price, and which was hand made and fettled.

I assume that modern West controllers are made and assembled in third world factories, just like the cheap eBay clones. Perhaps the designs are pirated which will reduce the cost. Perhaps "genuine" Wests are built from selected chips and given better or tighter QA checks. No doubt if you buy a West from a UK supplier there will be a more generous replacement policy if it fails. But is this worth a 3x price premium? Or

10x? I am actually replacing a West 6500, and they are more than £500 on ebay.

Piracy in aircraft spares can have real significance: fasteners made from mild steel instead of heat treated alloy steel, for example. But I am inclined to think that for items like this, there is very little risk in buying a clone. The parts cost for the SMS is so low that there is no saving made by redesigning with a traditional power supply.

[fred]

In article , newshound writes

That sounds sensible.

Agreed, yes.

Maybe a bit of both . . . . . but at those sort of prices, there's not doing to be much in that box.

I suppose what is needed is a bit of a light risk assessment, what will it cost if the controller locks up in mid batch and overheats the mix? Likewise if it fails to off and it runs cold.

Does it run unattended? What could happen in the event of a long term overheat? Hopefully not damage to the vessel?

I don't need to know the answer to any of those but it is something for the operator to consider.

If an overheat would be a problem then perhaps a simple overheat stat linked to a loud sounder is all that is required.

[newshound]

It's a big open topped stainless steel tank which is heated by off-peak electricity to around 80 C. Failed on is going to end up boiling the tank, but it would take days to boil dry: overtemperature (and certainly boiling!) would be picked up by the brewer coming in to brew, followed by pressing Big Red Switch and phoning me!

I agree, in an ideal world we'd have an overheat trip or alarm but that's a bit techie for this site. They do have a high water level trip on the pump (now).

:-)

[fred]

In article , newshound writes

Much as I thought, any overheated brews can be sold as a special having enhanced caramel flavours :-D

[newshound]

The brewer is pretty fussy about his sparging temperature; and if the tank is a bit hot he can always top it up with cold after he has run a little off.

But yes, back in the early days, a big prize-winning brews was the result of, let's say, a not very well controlled production process. Which then took some trial and error until they managed to replicate it again.

[Windmill]

I've had a couple of electronic timers start to act erratically when used with washer or dryer. Probably because of sensitivity to spikes caused by the appliance. So in that limited case, suppressors might help.