Your Hlt.

[DJR]

They cost around $70 from Tobins (www.tobins.com.au) but I know others have sourced them from other locations. Grain and Grape have them but they are $120, maybe Stokes would have them too.

Justin

Do you remember what the specific model no from Tobins was? There is the 4108 series which come in plated or hi nickel alloy versions ($95 or $75ea), then there is the 90377AG2 "4 bolt immersion element" for $70. They also sell a 3600w model for $105ea.

Definitely looking at getting a bigger HLT, a 30L pail fermenter and an immersion element looks the goods, plus i can use the immersion element to do step mashes. My brewdays are about 1/2 hour longer than they need to be at the moment while i'm waiting for the 2nd bunch of batch sparge water to heat up, because i only have a 11L stockpot as a HLT.

 

[Justin]

Yep, it's the same as the 4108's listed on their site. Mine is nickel plated copper I suspect (hi nicke?? no idea), I actually bought mine secondhand off ebay not Tobins but I knew that Tobins had them. They used to be ~$70.

You could try searching round a few other places as you "may" find one cheaper. Possibilities include Stokes, Hotco and no doubt there are a few others but I think that is around the standard price. Grain and Grape have them for $120 I think.

The 2400W with the hook (very handy by the way) should suit you, the 3600W you may have trouble running off a standard powerpoint but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Not sure of the difference between the hi nickel one and the normals one but it's $20 cheaper, I'm sure that one would be fine but I really can't draw a definite answer sorry. Maybe a phone call to them would reveal the answer.

Hopefully someone else will pipe in with a definite direct response.

Hope it helps somewhat.

Cheers, Justin

FWIW my HLT at the moment is a 15L plastic bucket with the immersion element in it. I just sit the element on a spoon so it doesn't touch the sides (not sure if it would melt through, but it may). I just use a jug to transfer sparge water the the MT. Works just fine.

 

[Steve]

I use a 19 litre stockpot with immersion heater for my HLT....works great. Gets up to strike and sparge temp in 5-10 mins....oh I also have it on the electric stove hotplate too. Definately worth thinking about DJR.
Cheers
steve

 

[DJR]

Cheers for the replies, the nickel alloy one is probably fine, for $75 i can't complain either. Could pick up a fridge temp controller if i go buy it from there too

so $75 for a element, $25 or so for a bucket fermenter, put some camping mat insulation on it so it holds heat, keep a veritical slit in the insulation so i can see the water level and mark some numbers on it, and i have a cheap and effective HLT that is bigger than what i have now, and frees up some other equipment, like my 3ring burner, which i could then use to heat up the wort as i'm sparging. Who knows, maybe i might even start fly sparging h34r:

As a bonus i can do step mashes without decoctions - so i can see if i can get results out of a bag of Powells using a multi step rest, or just use a step rest in general like the german breweries do, sure beats adding water to a very thick mash to get different temperatures...