Swan Boiler SWU20l

[SniffTheGlove]

Hi,

Hoping there is some one here who has had the same issue as me and fixed it, or someone who can offer advice.

I have a Swan SWU20l Hot Water Urn that I have started to use for my mash however I have an issue.

After a short intermittent time the cutout switch trips cutting power to the element and I have to press the reset button and the process starts all over again.

I spoke to Swan who told me to contact a company called NLC on 01384573999 and I spoke to someone called Rob who told me the issue was the cutout switch had gone faulty, so I purchased a new cutout switch for £9.98 (inc P&P) from them.

It arrived today and I took the out cutout switch out and put the new one in using new thermal paste.

Put the urn back together again and filled up with 5 litres and did a test. Again the cutout tripped intermittently just as before and need to reset.

I let it cool, the put a glass thermometer resting in the water and touching the base and ran it a few times to see what the temperature was when it cutout.

Each time it was between 65deg C and 68deg C when the trip happened.

I put the old cutout back in and tried this a few times and again when the temp got between 65-68 the cutout tripped. So either the new cutout is faulty as the old one or they are both working correctly.

The specified temp of the cutout sensor is 140deg c. So I need some way of measuring the underside of the base where the cutout is located to see what the underside surface metal tempreture (their will be water in the urn - ie not to boild dry) is as this could be at 140deg c and the cutout is working correctly.

Before I try this awkward measuring does anyone know what else it could be. It can not be that much as it is just the element, thermostat and cutout.

So in my theory is the element overheating and bringing the base up to 140d very quickly without actually boiling the water oor is there another problem?

Thanks

[f00b4r]

Some people have seen this issue with dirty spade connectors on electric boilers so you may want to check all of of them if you have replaced the thermal cutout already.

[aamcle]

The cutouts I've seen are attached directly to the element with/without thermal past. Your thermometer was measuring a different temperature.

What I have had success with is removing all the " protections" running the element directly under the control of a PT100/PID combination.

Remember Urns are not designed or setup for brewing so you can expect to modify them.


Atb. Aamcle

[SniffTheGlove]

Thank for the replies.

Had a tinker today but no luck, so tomorrow I am going to take the cutout off the base and have it free floating and then try the boiler and see if it actually does boil etc until the thermostat kicks in, then I will know if the boiler is actually working.

If successful, then I use it like this in an observed fashion to mash my grains etc

thanks