Does anyone know of a water kettle that has a PID controller? My Pino kettle is causing trouble, and I called the company today. I actually talked to the owner of the company and mentioned PID control. He really does not know much about it but said he would look into it. Meanwhile, how hard would it be to convert the Pino Pro kettle to work with a PID?

Not hard at all. A detachable RTD seems the easiest.
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_...20a&page=1
You'd need a SSR and a PID controller.

The only "problem" I would see is the cost. This is what Scott is talking about:



And here is one source: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-ContextMenu&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7ACGW_enUS385US386&q=Pino+Pro+kettle&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=11235765454896875388&ei=ougwTeDLEIfMgQeOzpSPCw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCgQ8wIwAg#

The technicals are "duck soup" ; the aesthetics & accompanying cost of putting the PID & SSR in a housing with the wiring would equal the cost of a new Pino Pro even at dealer cost.

A decent kettle can be had for $20. Then just add PID controls. Total project <$100.

What happened to the spirit of the Kettle-surfer? Full power will get you to the 212F. A few seconds latter and you are in the 208Fs (if that's what you want).

It is a little tricky to keep a constant temperature all through the pour with a kettle. I use an induction heater. That way, it heats fast and the tip of the kettle also stays hot. I reheat the kettle about three times during the poor. If using a PID, the kettle, the pid and the heater should all be one piece (to keep the temperature constant while pouring during the pour. You could get false readings, as the heat needs time to "flow" through the water, and different parts of the water would have different temperatures.

Cheers

Bluecold wrote:A decent kettle can be had for $20. Then just add PID controls. Total project <$100.

This is what I did for my La Peppina. I have a thermocouple dipped into the water kettle and the espresso machine plugged into the PID. Should work fine for an electric water kettle. I even used it once to control my Crock Pot to try out Sous Vide cooking of a vac sealed steak (turned out pretty nice).

One day I'd like to see stove tops come with PID control, just pull down a probe into your pot and dial in your temp.

Chris, Auber does sell a device for that purpose. The Pino kettle allows the kettle to be disengaged from the base for pouring, and I would like the PID to be in the base but still allow the kettle to separate for pouring. That is not an issue with the La Peppina. We need a home version of the Uberboiler!