stoutaholic

Recipes 

Has anyone ever tried one of these industrial strength hot plates

Wenesco industrial hot plates for drums & stock pots

as a heat source for their brew-pots? I want to build an all-electric brewery and don't like the idea of sticking a heating element directly in my brew-pot. It would be so much easier if there was a canning element or hot plate that could generate enough heat for a 10 or 15 gallon boil. I don't know what the cost of these Wenesco plates would be, but it has got to be less than the cost of installing a 1500 CFM ventilation system in my garage.

Also, does anyone know what the limitations of a 2600 Watt canning element? Would this be sufficient to boil 10 - 15 gallons in a reasonable period of time?

wilserbrewer

Recipes 

I would imagine the Wenesco Industrial hot plates in a size big enough to boil 10 -15 gallons would be big dough $$$.

A 2600 Watt canning element for 10 -15 gallons IMO would be like waiting for grass to start growing. Most likely it would never boil IMO.

Why such adversity to direct heating w/ an element??

stoutaholic

Recipes 

In case anyone is interested, I got a quote from Wenesco on this model. Here it is:

Wenesco round hot plate model HP18S16: Plate includes an 18” inch round steel plate, able to support up to 1000 lbs. Temperature controlled with an analog high thermostat (AH) accuracy: 3% of set point. Operates on 240 Volts. Power: 6300 Watts. (1PH or 3Ph).
Price: $1685.00 USD

As you guys suspected, the price is pretty ridiculouse, but this would be an awesome heat source. No fumes, no messing around with installing an element in the kettles. 6300 Watts would heat 10 gallons to boiling in about 36 minutes.