Good heating element

[jceg316]

Hello. My homebrew equipment keeps breaking, possibly because I'm using "budget" parts. I would like to make a good electric brew kettle, and I was originally using one of the Peco Electrim mash and boilers, but the element keeps breaking, the bucket is getting warped and I'm putting a lot of time and money into keeping it going.

So I'll start a brew kettle from scratch. It's gonna be at least 30 litres, SS, but I don't know of a good heating element. according to the spec where I brew, it can't be more than ~2.5KW. Does anyone know of a good element?

Thanks.

[Rick_UK]

I would recommend going over to gas. The money you spend on buying and fitting elements could be spent on a gas burner (30ish quid) and it's less hassle to set up and maintain. You only need to fit a tap to your SS pot which you can probably transfer from your current one.

Rick

[jceg316]

I've looked into gas but it's cheaper, safer and easier use electricity for the time being.

[Jocky]

I'm sure you can find similar spec elsewhere if BrewBuilder doesn't get them back in stock soon.

http://www.brewbuilder.co.uk/index.php? ... duct_id=47

[Rick_UK]

I had a basic immersion element in my old boiler, (which is now a HLT) and it cost 12 quid and has been totally reliable and bomb proof - but at 3kw would exceed your spec.

[Grumpydev]

Out of interest, why the wattage limitation? Assuming you're 240V that's only around 10amps draw?

[jceg316]

I've found something which looks really good, pretty much what I want to build from my favourite HBS: http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... P84EoGsXpA. If I can use 1 element at a time that would be perfect. I would also have room to expand if necessary.

About the limitation - I really don't know much about electronics. My dad is an electronics engineer and he says the plug I use can't take more than 3KW. Maybe something to do with me brewing in an old garage or something, electrics haven't been changed in decades?

[themadhippy]

he says the plug I use can't take more than 3KW. Maybe something to do with me brewing in an old garage or something

modern uk plugs have a fuse fitted,the largest fuse is 13A,13A x 240v gives you 3125 watts

[rpt]

All standard UK sockets are 13A which is 3kW.

[Fil]

As a long time patio brewer i would run a 2nd extension lead from the living room ring main to supplement the extension lead from the kitchen ring main to power 2 x elements concurrently just use cable rated to carry 13a and fully unwind it to the brewpoint..

budget kettle elements are cheap and easy to remove the overboil protection from, the down side is they are a tight spiral and a pita to clean off post boil, and may be a little on the hi watt density side..

already mentioned i think but the homebrewbuilder aka mrlard sells 100%ss brewing elements in 2.4 and 3kw versions. but they are priced according the their quality. I bought these for my big kit and am very happy with them, less crud/build up on these lwd elements post boil than on the tesco kettle elements i used befor in the blue barrel boiler.

i used 2 x 1.5kw budget chinese/ebay elements in my placky hlt, if making a new boiler now i would consider useing 3-4x of these 2 x can be wired to a single 13A socket and with say 3 fitted simply by pulling the power lead from the element you have 33 66 and 100% power options

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AC-220V-1-5KW ... 43bbcd064b

the naff placky shroud for the element back is in fact a very nice addition to the element bundle, even tho its cheap n plastic its a neater solution than many diy options such as modded cartridge tube or the small sandwich boxes i used on my blue barrel

the lower kw rating and open design of the elements make them less hasle than a tight spiral to scrub back post boil too and do i think offer a low(ER) watt density option than budget kettle elements.

as a 90 min boil is beyond what most elements are ment to provide power for having 2 x (or more) fitted provides a degree of back up redundancy should something go wrong with 1. when using a blue barrel with 2 x elements fitted i only need one to maintain the boil and found it faster to get the boil going with both fireing

[jceg316]

Thanks for your advice and help. Fil, that was very detailed and interesting, however I think the safest option would be to go for that 56 litre pot.

I need a temp controller to go with it though, and looking at the stc 1000 I see it only gets up to 99c which is a few degrees short of what a rolling boil should get. I'll start a new thread about the beat temp controller for a boiler.

[vacant]

As a long time patio brewer i would run a 2nd extension lead from the living room ring main to supplement the extension lead from the kitchen ring main to power 2 x elements concurrently just use cable rated to carry 13a and fully unwind it to the brewpoint..

budget kettle elements are cheap and easy to remove the overboil protection from, the down side is they are a tight spiral and a pita to clean off post boil, and may be a little on the hi watt density side..

As a long time carport brewer I'd agree with the power supply option and most of the rest. Tight spiral is easy to clean if done soon after the boiler is emptied i.e. a cloth and tooth brush will do the trick. I remove the elements every six months and clean them with citric acid. I've had one cheap kettle element fail in 68 brews. Doesn't stop the brew-day if there are two in the boiler.

[themadhippy]

I need a temp controller to go with it though, and looking at the stc 1000 I see it only gets up to 99c which is a few degrees short of what a rolling boil should get.

put a bypass switch across the heating output,switch open temperature controlled,switch closed power straight to element

[alexlark]

Have a look on YouTube for BIAB Induction Hob, been quite a bit of interest in them lately. Very portable