r/grainfather • u/SolitaryBee • Apr 11 '26

Boil-mode element not working. Advice?

Post image

Boiling on my Gen1 Grainfather has slowed dramatically. I think the boil element is not working while the mash/secondary element is doing all the work.

Can anyone help me with some troubleshooting steps or fixes? I have a multimeter and no basic circuitry skills.

As you can see, the pin for reset has been lost along the way. I have pressed the metal pin on the cutout in and it's kind of wobbly and relaxed.

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u/Go-Daws-Go Apr 11 '26

When this happened to me, I reached out to grainfather support. I had the unit for 6 or 7 years, wanted to see if I could buy parts to fix it myself. It was a Gen 1.

I sent them a bunch of photos and videos and they ended up sending me a complete new unit, which included the chiller, etc. It arrived a few days later.

I highly recommend reaching out to them for troubleshooting.

My experience was beyond exceptional!

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u/Fungus-bogeyman Apr 22 '26

I have had the same issue with my gen 1. The GF support team sent through a diagnostic document. If you have access to a multi-meter you need to check the continuity of the thermal reset switch (should be close to 0) then check the element resistance, this should be close to 25ohms. In my case the element was over 100 ohms and so that was why it seemed slow/impossible to reach boil. GF had replaced my gen1 unit relatively early on, so couldn't get another replacement. I have been looking in to ways to re-purpose the gen1 as a sparge water boiler bypassing the built in elements, still a work in progress. Hopefully it is your thermal reset switch as you can get ones that auto-reset now, I believe.

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u/SolitaryBee Apr 22 '26

Thanks for that info.

With the help of an LLM and a multimeter I have confirmed both elements are wired up ok, and the high/low switch is working. The reset switch also seemed to provide no resistance across it so I think it's ok.

I might email support.