Marco 27 Litre Manual Fill Water Boiler

[Mther]

Hello everyone,

I found a used Marco water boiler/heater which I was thinking to use as HLT (http://www.caterkwik.co.uk/cgi-bin/trol ... zNePrw_wcB).

Has anyone used a water heater before? I would want it to heat up to 90C for the mash water basically... do you think it will work?

Cheers

[LeeH]

I think it's expensive.

http://www.caterkwik.co.uk/cgi-bin/trol ... prod_AWB40

[lord groan]

Yes it'll work, but as LeeH says it is expensive, my own HLT uses a 27l burco which is basically the same thing, the manual temp control is not good, they seem to have a tolerance of 10 degrees or more, so it can be a pain getting the right temp for mashing. I ended up sticking a digital temp controller into mine (build details on this forum a few months back) and now it works really well

edit- sorry should have said i got the burco v.cheap 2nd hand so the whole build came in under £30, thats why £119 seems pricey to me

[Mther]

I bought mine off ebay for £26.

My only worry is if it does not boil up to 90C. The temperature can easily go down to 75C by the time I transfer the water in the mash tun... but if it heats up to 70C only then I will have a problem... How do your boilers work?

Cheers

[LeeH]

I have a buffalo with a PID controller switching a 13A contractor.

Same as lord groan I guess.

Why the macro? The Apollo is much cheaper.

[lord groan]

OOps, sorry Mther should have read the original post better, the boiler will be fine for those temperatures if working properly. I bought a much smaller version of that urn a few weeks ago just to get the heating element, but i filled it and powered up to see if it worked ok, soon became obvious that it wasn't - when switched on with temp control fully on it powered the element randomly, switching off and on for no reason, stripping it down I found the thermal safety cutout mounted on the element was dirty and corroded. that was why I got it cheap then!
When i bypassed the cutout the urn behaved perfectly, but the accuracy of the thermostat was poor. fire it up and see what happens, if it comes on at all the element is fine, if it misbehaves the chances are its the safety cutout, there are lots of posts about thermal cutout problems with these types of urn.
Having bitten the bullet myself and got a digital temp controller I'd seriously recommend them, my burco conversion build is here- viewtopic.php?f=6&t=64804
it has made a world of difference to my brewing, now on a brewing morning I set the control for say 72c, that sorts out the water for the mash, then when the mash is going i change the temp to 80c for sparging. No more checking with thermometers, it just works!
hth

[Mther]

I have a buffalo with a PID controller switching a 13A contractor.

Same as lord groan I guess.

Why the macro? The Apollo is much cheaper.

I got it for £26 LeeH, so it is kinda cheap.

OOps, sorry Mther should have read the original post better, the boiler will be fine for those temperatures if working properly. I bought a much smaller version of that urn a few weeks ago just to get the heating element, but i filled it and powered up to see if it worked ok, soon became obvious that it wasn't - when switched on with temp control fully on it powered the element randomly, switching off and on for no reason, stripping it down I found the thermal safety cutout mounted on the element was dirty and corroded. that was why I got it cheap then!
When i bypassed the cutout the urn behaved perfectly, but the accuracy of the thermostat was poor. fire it up and see what happens, if it comes on at all the element is fine, if it misbehaves the chances are its the safety cutout, there are lots of posts about thermal cutout problems with these types of urn.
Having bitten the bullet myself and got a digital temp controller I'd seriously recommend them, my burco conversion build is here- viewtopic.php?f=6&t=64804
it has made a world of difference to my brewing, now on a brewing morning I set the control for say 72c, that sorts out the water for the mash, then when the mash is going i change the temp to 80c for sparging. No more checking with thermometers, it just works!
hth

Thanks lord groan, yours looks very nice, I was wondering if I could fit a sight glass on it, now I see I can, I just have to be careful not to damage anything. I will have it in July so I will let you know if it works alright! Thank you guys!