Pot choice for HLT/ Kettle?

[Tilt]

I've got a dilemma on my hands and am looking for opinions from those in the know.

I'm moving to the next upgrade on my 3V system and increasing brewery capacity so I can do either single (23L) or double batches.

The mashtun is sorted but I have 2 other vessels (HLT and kettle) which I need to make decisions about.

One is a good quality 70L, 4mm thick, heavy duty, sandwich construction based SS pot.
The other is a 63 L ~1mm thin, non heavy based cheapie SS pot.

Heating wise I'll use electricity for the HLT and gas plus an over the side heatstick for the kettle. At a later stage I want the option of adding a herms, but for now I'm happy with the straight 3V.

What I'm wondering is which pot to use for the HLT - and which to use for the kettle.

I had thought the heavy based pot was better for a gas fired kettle to prevent spot burning but a mate has sown the seeds of doubt with what I thought was a valid point.
He thought that spending the time effort and $$ only once on fitting elements, sightglass and temp probe/thermowell to a "HLT for life" would be a wiser choice. Doing this would leave the cheap tinny pot for the kettle

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

 

[pk.sax]

Drilling holes into the nice kettle is gonna hurt. The HLT, with all it's bling is still just a hot water container. It's going to need insulation and almost never require cleaning. The thin pot will do just fine.

The kettle on the other hand is going to be assaulted, scrubbed, cleaned, tilted etc. that heavy duty pot will go nicely, don't you think.

 

[MastersBrewery]

what he said

 

[Tilt]

Thanks fellas - yeah that's along the lines of my original thinking.
My kettle is definitely the workhorse of the brewery, while the HLT sits there doing its thing dependably up high in the corner.

And if I go this way (not that its a major barrier) the bonus'll be that the 5 holes (2 elements, tap, thermowell and sightglass) I'll need to drill for the HLT will be much easier in the light weight pot. The heavy duty kettle will only need 1 hole and I can borrow a chassis punch for that.

 

[Yob]

I added a little brown pump to the side of my HLT to constantly recirculate to avoid any hot/cold spots, Ive got one of those stick type immersion elements and without the pump, I was getting cold spots under it which was throwing out my temps a bit. It also allows me to add salts to my strike water without it settling out as the pickup for the pump is right to the bottom.



Im actually going to be selling this soon, I need to upgrade to a 70l pot, quite sad about it actually, one of my neater bits of build and has worked flawlessly for years now. Might actually sell it with the pump and fittings intact (except the barbs)

 

[Tilt]

Yob, that's a cracking idea. I've been using a 40L HDPE HLT with a kettle element plus the over the side jobbie for a couple of years.
A usual part of my brew day has been to stir the HLT with the heat stick element just prior to strike to prevent the cold spot/ low mash in drama.
I had ideas once of installing a windscreen wiper motor and paint stirrer to the lid to automate the stirring but never really saw the need.
Now that I'm moving to a more definitive set up and a Keg King order is on the cards - a little brown pump could be in the line-up....Cheers!