Nichrome Wire For Kettle Element?

[Filby]

Hi

Ive got a length of nichrome wire (might be kanthal..cant remember). Anyway its rolled into a coil that was designed to run in a small electric furnace at 1800*C at 16amps on 230v. I was thinking if there was a way of using it on the bottom of the kettle so I can avoid an element in the kettle itself which will help tremendously with whirlpooling. Obviously it needs to be thermally insulated from atmosphere and also electrically insulated from the stainless kettle..probably something along the lines of a grooved furnace brick that the coil sits in that is then matched up to the bottom of the kettle. Any thoughts?


Fil

 

[sp0rk]

The grooved furnace brick would be a good idea, but i'd pack the wire in with fine sand
I did a 1 year heating element design traineeship with a company here in Coffs Harbour, and i was told they used to use sand as an insulator, before moving to Magnesium Oxide

 

[Maheel]

i used to use one of these type boilers years ago when i worked as a butcher, we would boil up fat to make lard in one that was about 100L SS boiler
the boiler would boil the fat (lard) for about 2 hours or so, dial turned to 100% so it was not cycling on and off

the elements were in something that most likely was furnace bricks with groves cut into them and the element would run back and forth.

it was a bit of a PITA as the element would break and you would loose half of the power it was done so there were 2 sections to the element
the sparky would come with another bit of wire and put it in fairly often.... i reckon it just got to hot from being ON 100% and would burn out the wires.

IMO for the drama a spiral / rambo burner or "normal" elements would simplify your build