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Date: 10 Jul 2006 07:59:02
From: cexshun
Subject: Screw-in immersion heater
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Hello Gentleman. I've been lurking around for a while and most of my
questions have been answered using the search functions. But, I've got
one that I can't find an answer to.
I'm an extract brewer, and I have an electric range. This makes doing
full boils nearly impossible. With the stove on full high, it took well
over an hour to bring 6 gallons to a boil. And the boil never really
hit a full rolling boil, just kind of a soft boil in the middle. Since
I live in a 3rd floor apartment, propane burners are currently out of
the question.
My first problem was that I was getting burnt on wort in the perfect
shape of the electric range burner. This was really bad with LME and
barely present with DME. In both instances, the pot was removed from
the heat when adding.
I spoke with my father who is a steel worker. He brough me home some
1/2in steel plate which he plasma-cut to fit the bottom of my pot. This
has worked well to dispurse the heat and avoiding burnt wort. However,
it has dropped the heat that reaches the pot. This has made full boils
completely impossible.
So, I picked up a 120v 1500W screw-in water heater element. I'm taking
my 7.5 gallon pot to a local fabricator to have a coupler welded onto
the pot so I can screw the heater in. Now, I know this heater alone
will not bring the water to a boil. However, my intention is to use it
in addition to my electric range.
So, my question is 2 fold.
1) Is this heater enough to do it's intended job of ASSISTING the boil?
2) How far up should it be mounted?
Regarding #2, I've been told to mount it at the bottom. Some people
have said that when they used one, the water under the element remained
cold while the water above was boiling. That makes sense if the element
is my main heat source. However, using it to assist the stove seems to
be a different story all together. I think placing it at the bottom
would concentrate the heat too much and cause carmelization and burnt
on wort. My initial thought is to place the element right around the 3
gallon mark on the pot. Any thoughts on this?
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Date: 10 Jul 2006 15:15:57
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Screw-in immersion heater
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On 10 Jul 2006 07:59:02 -0700, <coffee@libbintech.com > wrote:
> My first problem was that I was getting burnt on wort in the perfect
> shape of the electric range burner. This was really bad with LME and
> barely present with DME. In both instances, the pot was removed from
> the heat when adding.
There's another thread along these lines as well, regarding a black spot
on the bottom of the kettle. IMO, making sure you really stir the extract
well when adding it is very important. It takes a lot more stirring than
you might think in order to prevent it from settling out and sitting on
the bottom of the pot. As I mentioned in the other thread, personally
I use an electric hand blender, which I believe makes a big difference.
> So, I picked up a 120v 1500W screw-in water heater element. I'm taking
> my 7.5 gallon pot to a local fabricator to have a coupler welded onto
> the pot so I can screw the heater in. Now, I know this heater alone
> will not bring the water to a boil. However, my intention is to use it
> in addition to my electric range.
>
> So, my question is 2 fold.
>
> 1) Is this heater enough to do it's intended job of ASSISTING the boil?
I think so. Most people who rely on elements like this for their only
heat source have to use a couple of them, but for your purposes I think
you should be able to get away with one of them. You'll probably also
find that once you reach a boil you can shut off the element and just use
the heat from the stove to maintain the boil.
> 2) How far up should it be mounted?
>
> Regarding #2, I've been told to mount it at the bottom. Some people
> have said that when they used one, the water under the element remained
> cold while the water above was boiling. That makes sense if the element
> is my main heat source. However, using it to assist the stove seems to
> be a different story all together. I think placing it at the bottom
> would concentrate the heat too much and cause carmelization and burnt
> on wort. My initial thought is to place the element right around the 3
> gallon mark on the pot. Any thoughts on this?
I think you're on the right track. Using it to supplement your stove heat
source probably makes the placement less critical. IMO, keep in mind that
the higher you place it, the fuller your pot needs to be in order to use
it. IE, if you permanently place it at the 3 gallon mark then you will
not be able to use it in the future if you want to boil 2.5 gallons in
that kettle. I'd probably put it several inches off of the bottom, just
to give me the flexibility in the future of using it on several different
batch sizes. IE, if you ever end up in the future wanting to boil
a gallon or two of water without using the stove, you could use this pot
with the element plugged in by itself.
I don't think placing it close to the bottom will increase your risk of
burning the wort much. Generally that happens due to the direct wort/surface
contact on the bottom of the pot. I don't think having two heat sources
close to each other (IE the stove and the element) is going to scorch
the wort in between them, or anything like that.
I wouldn't put it right against the bottom, but a couple inches off should
be fine (I'm just guessing though).
John.
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Date: 10 Jul 2006 12:27:19
From: Richard Kaszeta
Subject: Re: Screw-in immersion heater
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John 'Shaggy' Kolesar <spam@shagg.net > writes:
> There's another thread along these lines as well, regarding a black spot
> on the bottom of the kettle. IMO, making sure you really stir the extract
> well when adding it is very important. It takes a lot more stirring than
> you might think in order to prevent it from settling out and sitting on
> the bottom of the pot. As I mentioned in the other thread, personally
> I use an electric hand blender, which I believe makes a big difference.
Someone suggested a hand blender in 2005, and for me that was the most
useful advice I had gotten in a long time. Seriously beats brisk
stirring for several minutes, although my forearms seem to be losing
their bulk now...
--
Richard W Kaszeta
rich@kaszeta.org
http://www.kaszeta.org/rich
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Date: 12 Jul 2006 05:50:02
From: trequites
Subject: Re: Screw-in immersion heater
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In the UK most people use a boiler with an electric heating element at
the bottom. These are usually about 2.4 or 3 kW so I'd think you'd
probably need two elements as near to the bottom as you can get them.
I use a 30 litre (about 7.9 US gallons) commercial water boiler from
Burco (see
http://www.burcodean.com/_media/documents/pdf/spec-sheets/electric-water-boiler10-20-30-36.pdf
)
which has a flat 3kW element right at the bottom and I've never had any
problem with burning the mash.
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