What Has More Grunt... 3-ring Burner Or 2400w Element?

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

T.D.

Hop Whore
Joined
28/4/05
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
1
Hi all,

I was wondering if I could call on the advice of some of the more technically-minded brewers out there... I know some of you have some pretty funky formulas etc for calculating the time it takes to heat certain volumes of water with certain burners and elements. I am tossing up whether its better to use a 2400w immersion element or a 3 ring burner (30Mj). Its gonna sound a bit crazy, but I will be heating around 100L of water from room temp to strike temp. How long will each of these devices take to do the job? As long as it takes less than an hour I am not too worried.

Thanks in advance :beer:

TD
 
2400w = 2.4kW.
Power output is measured as energy expended over time, so 1 hour at 2.4kW = 2.4kWh
30Mj = 8.3kWh.

So straight away the gas burner has far more capacity than a single 2400w element.
The part I can only guess at is efficiency in transfer of energy. Immersed you would imagine an electrical element would be rather efficient, whereas a gas burner loses plenty of heat to the surrounding air.
Even so, I'd put my money on the gas burner.
 
It's going to take a 2400W element about three weeks to heat 100litres of water to strike. :D

I used 2 x 2400Watt immersion heaters to bring about 65litres to strike temp yesterday and it took about three quarters of an hour.
 
If you've got both, why not use both? I have a three ring under my kettle and a 2400W immersion element in the HLT. Sometimes I chuck the element in the kettle to bring on the boil a little quicker. Of the two, I'd say the element is faster with my 25 litre boils, but I think the burner might be in the money now I have an adjustable medium pressure reg.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, exactly the info I was after. It may be an ambitious task either way by the looks! Unless, as PoMo said, I use both...

Cheers :beer:
 
Thanks for asking the question TD and thanks Pomo for your answer of using them both. After 20 odd AGs I cant believe I hadnt thought of that. After ive added the sparge water and all the wort in the kettle I neatly pack away my HLT and immersion element and then wait 30-40 mins for my 3 ring burner to bring it to the boil. Thank you very much.
Cheers
Steve
 
Thanks for asking the question TD and thanks Pomo for your answer of using them both. After 20 odd AGs I cant believe I hadnt thought of that. After ive added the sparge water and all the wort in the kettle I neatly pack away my HLT and immersion element and then wait 30-40 mins for my 3 ring burner to bring it to the boil. Thank you very much.
Cheers
Steve

:beer:
 
I use both.
I bought an electric kettle from the local (Blacktown) markets a few weeks ago for $3.00. Pulled it apart and installed the element into my brew kettle (piece of piss!)
I also use a 3 ring burner. I use the electric element combined with the burner to get it up to the boil, (takes about 5-10 mins, 27ltrs) then shut of the element once boiling and let the burner do the rest.
By the way I bought my 3 ring burner from BBQ's galore, Brand new for $39.95, Pretty good price I think.
My mash tun is a converted electric urn, (that I scored for free) so heating my mash water is no problem.
I also bought another kettle from the markets for $2.00 the other week and pulled the element out of this one and installed it into one of my fermenters. This is used to heat my sparge water. Can't do it any cheaper than that!
Just a couple of ideas to play with
 
I use both.
I bought an electric kettle from the local (Blacktown) markets a few weeks ago for $3.00. Pulled it apart and installed the element into my brew kettle (piece of piss!)
I also use a 3 ring burner. I use the electric element combined with the burner to get it up to the boil, (takes about 5-10 mins, 27ltrs) then shut of the element once boiling and let the burner do the rest.
By the way I bought my 3 ring burner from BBQ's galore, Brand new for $39.95, Pretty good price I think.
My mash tun is a converted electric urn, (that I scored for free) so heating my mash water is no problem.
I also bought another kettle from the markets for $2.00 the other week and pulled the element out of this one and installed it into one of my fermenters. This is used to heat my sparge water. Can't do it any cheaper than that!
Just a couple of ideas to play with

Grinder,

how about some pics, would like to see the converted fermenter.

Cheers
 
View attachment 14854View attachment 14852View attachment 14853View attachment 14851View attachment 14850[attachment=1484
:attachment]View attachment 14848View attachment 14839[attachmen
=14840:attachment]
Grinder,

how about some pics, would like to see the converted fermenter.

Cheers
No worries here are some pics.
The tight arse garage brewery

20 ltr Thermo controlled electric urn/Mash tun ( free from boss, Had a leak but sealed it and added a tap from bunnings $10.00) Will mash up to 7.5kg grain.
Covered Mash tun with $9.95 camping mat from "Camping world" for insulation
Converted one of my fermenters to a sparge water resivour with my $2.00 kettle heating element from local flea market. (will boil if neccessary)
My false bottom for my mash tun is made from a strainer and a baking tray from woolworths,door handles from bunnings and a few nuts and bots I found in my tool box. Total cost = $10.00
I bought my 75 ltr SS wort kettle from Flemmington markets (sydney) for $80 and added the $3.00 heating element to it for a quick boil.
My sparging hoses are cable tied to the lid of my mashtun/urn and I have cut some holes for the water to spray onto my mash for effective sparging (75% average efficiency. sparge time = 1.25 hour)
Cheap as shit but very effective.

By the way. That wort chiller I coiled myself from some 10mm anealed copper pipe I bought from Bunnings for $17.00 (approx 2mtrs) added a peice of nylon tube for the water outlet. Just attach my garden hose to it with a hose clamp for the inlet end. $20.00 max investment. Chills my wort to 26 deg in 10-15 mins.
I'm a tight arse and proud of it!
 
Im not being a picky *******, but id hate to hear about you being fried off of that uncovered kettle plug in the fermenter...

Its a bit dangerous to have it like that (anything could happen, say it tips over)...

Might be worth spending some $$ on personal saftey?

/end AHB saftey police...
 
No dramas. It's all hooked up to safety switches. Any short circuts and it switches off.
Thanks for the the concern
Grinder
 
I fill my HLT with hot water from the Domestic hot water system that supplies the house. That way, I'm only ever raising temps from about 50 degrees to strike temp. Saves loads of time and since it's gas, it's cheap!...

I can't imagine having to wait around for water to go from 15 to 75, even with two elements!
 
I fill my HLT with hot water from the Domestic hot water system that supplies the house. That way, I'm only ever raising temps from about 50 degrees to strike temp. Saves loads of time and since it's gas, it's cheap!...

I can't imagine having to wait around for water to go from 15 to 75, even with two elements!

I've thought about doing that, but all the water that makes my beer *must* (by decree of the head brewer) pass through a carbon filter to help remove chlorine and any solids that make their way through the plumbing system... I use a Hrundi V Bakshi Bucket Filter - a simplified version of a design posted here recently - to filter my water and I would expect the hot water to lose too much heat in the process.

Waiting for the water to filter used to worry me, but now it is the very first thing that happens on a brew day, while I dick around with ingredients and other kit.
 
I notice nobody has raised the issue of excessive wort caramelisation and beer stability that is mentioned in several brewing books about using electric immersion elements, such as the brueheat.

Any takers? :)
 
That's because it's an old argument on this site that most don't want to see rehashed.

Dig up and old thread, they mostly go like this

Poster1 "OMG you all electric guys must be burning the crap out of your wort, you guys are idiots"
Poster2 "actually, never had a problem with it"
Poster1 "but my book says that it is... waffle waffle on, and you'd realise if you were as smart as me"
Poster3 "nope never had a problem either",
Poster1 "but my book...."

Poster 1&3 think, lets leave this topic well enough alone, I know what works for me.

[Note: For the humour imared: smile :D. this post is a joke... mostly]
 
That's because it's an old argument on this site that most don't want to see rehashed.

Dig up and old thread, they mostly go like this

Poster1 "OMG you all electric guys must be burning the crap out of your wort, you guys are idiots"
Poster2 "actually, never had a problem with it"
Poster1 "but my book says that it is... waffle waffle on, and you'd realise if you were as smart as me"
Poster3 "nope never had a problem either",
Poster1 "but my book...."

Poster 1&3 think, lets leave this topic well enough alone, I know what works for me.

[Note: For the humour imared: smile :D. this post is a joke... mostly]

You get used to it after a while, Zizzle.

Take it from someone who brews in a bag with an electric element in an aluminium pot then no-chills... :D
 
I've thought about doing that, but all the water that makes my beer *must* (by decree of the head brewer) pass through a carbon filter to help remove chlorine and any solids that make their way through the plumbing system... I use a Hrundi V Bakshi Bucket Filter - a simplified version of a design posted here recently - to filter my water and I would expect the hot water to lose too much heat in the process.

Waiting for the water to filter used to worry me, but now it is the very first thing that happens on a brew day, while I dick around with ingredients and other kit.


We filter all the water coming into the house.
The initial cost was pretty steep but it costs us $174 / year (actually a bit less than a year) to
replace cartridges.
Why do we do that? Because we need the shower to be filtered as well as drinking/brewing water
and the cost of cartridges for an undersink filter and for a shower filter is about the same as
a whole house filter.
And the added bonus is hot filtered water comes out of the tap for brewing!
 
We filter all the water coming into the house.
The initial cost was pretty steep but it costs us $174 / year (actually a bit less than a year) to
replace cartridges.
Why do we do that? Because we need the shower to be filtered as well as drinking/brewing water
and the cost of cartridges for an undersink filter and for a shower filter is about the same as
a whole house filter.
And the added bonus is hot filtered water comes out of the tap for brewing!

OT - How did you go about doing this? I am looking into some sort of puratap system to filter water for drinking, particularly if i hook the rainwater up to the house.

On topic- i use an electric element to heat water and had contemplated using it as a mash tun instead which would give me the option of step mashing........ but should do a few more AGs before trying to complicate things.
 
I have to say the only rason I moved to gas was that I started using the immersion heater & thermostat to take my mash and sparge water quickly up to temperature. Once I've mashed how long it takes for the wort to boil is not so much an issue, but when you need your sparge water you need it now :)

MFS.
 
Back
Top