Kettle HLT

[Ben Davies]

Gday all looking to build a mini HLT out of an old 19lt keg to sparge my BIAB bag with using a cheapo kettle element from big W $9.

I got the inspiration off Gash Slugs You tube video on using them for a 50lt keg. Anyone had a crack at something similar to this? If it goes to plan as just a big water heater for my sparge water ill slap two of them in my 50lt keggle. How did youse find tge boil went with these cheep kettle elements? Pros and cons? Also i measured the silicon gasket hole as 38mm but saw 40mm commented any info on this? Cheers in advance for any help.

 

[jimmysuperlative]

I've used a 20L handy pail with 2 kettle elements for about 10 years. Works great for heating sparge water. You may need to run separate elements from different outlets to avoid tripping fuse box or use a 15/20amp outlet (air con, stove etc). Do a search for "bucket of death" on here... plenty of people have tried it in spite of the name ;-)

 

[Ben Davies]

Cheers Jimmy will do. Ill ve heating up 10lt of sparge water max so one 2400watt element should cut it.

 

[Wobbly74]

I use these in both my keggle as well as my little 19L big w micro kettle:

Work well, I run them on 2 different GPOs on the same 20-something amp circuit. I use them in a single vessel system so use one element for the mash + an adjustable voltage regulator and the other for the boil.

I'm terms of install, 2 things to look out for. One is that the gasket is quite loose on a thin stainless body so use of some silicon in the valley in the gasket may be required. And this is because of point 2, which is that the little arms you screw into on the element can break pretty easy if you over torque them.

I also don't completely gut them like gash does - I simply remove the spring inside and the little blue plastic shaft so I can connect them using standard iec power cords.

 

[Wobbly74]

Here's what I mean about the iec power connector - just use a standard kettle plug.

 

[Ben Davies]

Dam it ive gutted the element fittings.
So you get a rolling boil out of two elements it looks. Whay size holes did you bore off the top of your head ?

Cheers for the heads up.

 

[Wobbly74]

No drama, I did it that way to begin with as well. I used a 40mm holesaw from memory. If in doubt try a bit of thin mdf first to check fit.

 

[Wobbly74]

And I get an ok boil with only 1 element. Very vigorous with 2. Both in a 29 litre boil. Probably need both elements for a double batch.

 

[Ben Davies]

And I get an ok boil with only 1 element. Very vigorous with 2. Both in a 29 litre boil. Probably need both elements for a double batch.

How long do you find these elements last wobbly?

I was thinking down the track controlling mash temp with one element run off stc and using one of them voltage regulators to control boil...

 

[Wobbly74]

If you dry fire them to clean them they don’t last very long But used normally and cleaned by hand they should last a long time. Just mount them so you can clean under them easily.

I have both hooked up to a flashed stc-1000+ running the ovbs firmware which can control 2 elements for mash and boil. Smart pid sounds like another option. For boiling you don’t need a voltage reg for a single element if you’re doing full volume boils. But they’re also cheap so...

 

[Ben Davies]

If you dry fire them to clean them they don’t last very long But used normally and cleaned by hand they should last a long time. Just mount them so you can clean under them easily.

I have both hooked up to a flashed stc-1000+ running the ovbs firmware which can control 2 elements for mash and boil. Smart pid sounds like another option. For boiling you don’t need a voltage reg for a single element if you’re doing full volume boils. But they’re also cheap so...

Hey Wobbly see you mentioned smart pid ive been looking into them looks like a quality piece of equipment designed for the hombrewer. You got one of these? The website im looking at displays price in pounds round 100 pound.

 

[Denobrew]

I use 2 in a 70 liter boil kettle. Takes a while to get to a boil, but more than enough when it gets there. Still going after 4 years and no problems. One thing I did was made a cover from an aluminum project box from Jaycar to cover the exposed wires. Originally I had plastic electrical boxes, but after a few brews they distorted with the heat. Better to measure the element size before buying a bit.

 

[Denobrew]

After a caustic wash

 

[Ben Davies]

After a caustic washView attachment 112854

Shiney new i ised citric acid on kettle on weekend but i recon caustic is one step further but probably more dangerous...

 

[Denobrew]

Absolutely! Don't mess with caustic before doing some research on handling, dosage rates and temperatures. It does do an amazing job though.

 

[Wobbly74]

Hey Wobbly see you mentioned smart pid ive been looking into them looks like a quality piece of equipment designed for the hombrewer. You got one of these? The website im looking at displays price in pounds round 100 pound.

I don't have one myself but have been eyeing them off. But I still have an old firmware stc-1000 that could be reflashed with the one vessel brew system firmware which does a good job. But you can't seem to find those old stc's any more.

 

[Ben Davies]

Well there we go the 38mm hole bore arrived this arvo so i put it to work. I cut a bit of ply out first to make sure the silicon o ring sat snug. I just timed it heating 5lt to mash out temp 75c in 7 minutes sweet. This is what i made it for heating sparge water for Biab. Opted not to use keg as this 10lt extract pot is what i currently use for sparging. Im a happy chappy. Now to get it happening in the Keggle!