First batch today with my new HERMS system, and found that it's a challenge to heat up the right volume of strikewater in the HLT, mash in and hit the strike temp, and then add a second volume of water to the HLT and heat it up to run the HERMS. If it takes 15 minutes to get the second volume of water up to temp, but the majority of conversion happens in 20 minutes (if you believe that, I've never tested it), then how can you be ready to use HERMS to maintain the appropriate mash temp to run an efficient mash?
I heat all of my brewing water in my BK to my strike temp, pump my calculated volume of strike water into my MT, then pump the rest into my HLT and turn the burner on. Its usually only 5 mins or so to get the water up a little higher than the mash temp to use the HERMS.
