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KGL 100 not hot enough
I’ve got a funky one for you on one of my KGL 100 kettles.I got called over today, they had 15 gallons of water in the kettle, on full blast. Wouldn’t get to a boil.I dry fire the unit, PSI cuts off at around 40 PSI on the dot. From what I understand, 40 PSI steam is at around 287 *F.The other unit they are comparing it to, cuts off at 45 PSI which is closer to 300*FThe 1st unit (the one that cuts off at 45 PSI) is working fine and they are happy with it.The 2nd unit (the one that cuts off at 38-40 PSI is not good and they are not able to use it for certain things due to it being like this.I Then went to look at everything, potentiometer is fine, thermostat is fine, it’s consistently shutting off at 40 PSI, not varying at all, they use it fine when there is more water in it which is what is so odd about it. I then tried to turn up the potentiometer on the controller, didn’t change anything.When I first learned to calibrate these I would set them too high and they would blow the valve in the back so I know they can go above 40 PSI, so I put a new controller in, still wouldn’t go above 40 PSI so I jumped out the high limit and then it would go above 40 PSI. So to me it seems the high limit is failing.So I checked the specs on the high limit, seems like it cuts off at 140-150*C (140*C is 284*F, 150*C is 302*F)So I’m thinking it’s shutting it off early and that I should replace the high limit.They want the water at a furious boil around here, I think they got a name for every kind of boil you can imagine but the one where you can barely see the water because there is so much steam, and it’s ALMOST boiling when it shuts off, I think the extra 10*F might be what’s killing the mojo here, that’s the only big difference I see between the 2 kettle’s.What do you think, am I missing something? -
3 Replies
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Are u in vacuum on cool down?
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Make sure your gauge is true.Â
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Verify that the pressure switch piping is straight and downward to the switch. No belly or loop to act as a trap. Or obstruction like a piece of mineral in the tubing.
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Measure dry temp to be 260FÂ on 10.
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Items that will reduce capacity are air in the system, Mineral build up in the heat transfer areas, and inadequacy of heat input.or fire.Â
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Only you know your water and age of the machine. Older ones that have not been cleaned often get a lot of minerals in the jacket as well as the boiler. It also doesn’t take much to get a air leak in vacume. any air will reduce heating of the jacket and raise pressure like a refrigeration condenser does..
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Gauge is in vacuum when cold, no worries there.
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The safety switch is what’s cutting it off, not the control module like it should be doing, so I’ll replace that high limit.
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On the other unit as mentioned, it cuts out at 45 PSI and it tends to heat faster. It’s odd, sometime’s they’ll have it set to 10 and the pressure won’t go all the way to 40 before it cuts it off, but I guess it’s only to add heat that it turns off. It seems when you turn it on the first time it will go all the way up, but if you maintain the temp, it won’t keep going back up to 40, it’ll be less.Â
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It’s not necessarily a problem, it’s just a bit confusing and I don’t know why it would do that.
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Only water ever put in was distilled.
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The odd thing is, I should be able to set the controller to heat it up past the 50 PSI mark, but I can’t, when I first calibrated them I learned you could set it wrong, in my eyes it would be, Controller should shut it off, if it doesen’t the pressure valve blows, if the pressure valve doesen’t blow, the high limit cuts it off. That way you have 3 things supposed to kill it.
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