Hello all,
Wondering if anybody has had shorting issues with their SSBrewtech heating elements or controllers?
Background is I purchased a 10 gallon 2V system 3 years ago, then later added a RIMS unit. Stuff sat for awhile as we bought a house and had to get appropriate electric power installed. After about 18 months and maybe 30 batches I was doing a batch, heating strike water. I left the room for 10-15 minutes, and came back to a smoke-filled room. The cord was melted where it enters the pot, and there were copper balls brazed to my (thankfully) stainless table next to it. The HLT side of the controller also got fried during this. I contacted customer support and was informed that I was out of warranty, but they would be happy to sell me another HALO unit. Basically pound sand.
I decided not to throw good money after bad, so I found a heating element that would work with the 2" fitting, bought 2, and found a cord elsewhere. While putting it together I notice that the new element has a very robust wire nut securing the cord before it goes into the area where the connections are. The SSBrewtech stuff has just a molded cover, but inside the cord was not secured in any way, free to spin and short out inside of there. I replaced the controller with Blichmann brew commanders, and lo and behold but those also had the securing wire nut over the cord where it attaches. I still had one working HALO unit and one side of the SS controller still worked so I was using that as a boil pot, and brew commanders for HLT and RIMS. I also sold the SS RIMS unit on EBAY and replaced it with Blichmann's version as the thermometer wasn't compatible. This was working fine until I moved everything to a different house, at which point during the first batch there the boil pot HALO unit shorted out and self-destructed.
Bottom line, I cannot recommend any electrical stuff from SSBrewtech, particularly anything relatively high-amperage like heating elements or controllers. I had 100% failure, and if I didn't have a steel table I would have had a house fire. If anybody has had similar events please contact me. Maybe there are enough of us to get something going to do something. They literally should do a recall for these, they are unsafe. If you have this stuff, be sure to be extremely careful with the cords.
Wondering if anybody has had shorting issues with their SSBrewtech heating elements or controllers?
Background is I purchased a 10 gallon 2V system 3 years ago, then later added a RIMS unit. Stuff sat for awhile as we bought a house and had to get appropriate electric power installed. After about 18 months and maybe 30 batches I was doing a batch, heating strike water. I left the room for 10-15 minutes, and came back to a smoke-filled room. The cord was melted where it enters the pot, and there were copper balls brazed to my (thankfully) stainless table next to it. The HLT side of the controller also got fried during this. I contacted customer support and was informed that I was out of warranty, but they would be happy to sell me another HALO unit. Basically pound sand.
I decided not to throw good money after bad, so I found a heating element that would work with the 2" fitting, bought 2, and found a cord elsewhere. While putting it together I notice that the new element has a very robust wire nut securing the cord before it goes into the area where the connections are. The SSBrewtech stuff has just a molded cover, but inside the cord was not secured in any way, free to spin and short out inside of there. I replaced the controller with Blichmann brew commanders, and lo and behold but those also had the securing wire nut over the cord where it attaches. I still had one working HALO unit and one side of the SS controller still worked so I was using that as a boil pot, and brew commanders for HLT and RIMS. I also sold the SS RIMS unit on EBAY and replaced it with Blichmann's version as the thermometer wasn't compatible. This was working fine until I moved everything to a different house, at which point during the first batch there the boil pot HALO unit shorted out and self-destructed.
Bottom line, I cannot recommend any electrical stuff from SSBrewtech, particularly anything relatively high-amperage like heating elements or controllers. I had 100% failure, and if I didn't have a steel table I would have had a house fire. If anybody has had similar events please contact me. Maybe there are enough of us to get something going to do something. They literally should do a recall for these, they are unsafe. If you have this stuff, be sure to be extremely careful with the cords.
