2000 Watt Pot with lo/med/hi
 

I have been looking for a while and don't see this option. I see PID controls which I think offer some setablity with temp feedback. And of course you can use a switch to turn an element on/off.

But how about low/med/hi or maybe intermediate settings. I don't see anybody doing this but it maybe the best choice.

With this I could heat and boil water very much like I do on my stove.

With only 2000w, I see no real need to control it. You will need all 2000 to reach a boil. Unless you want to heat sparge water slowly?

Just a heating element and a switch
 

Why not. I was think that to maintain a temperature you might want an in between setting. But for the most part on/off might be just the thing.

Is this popular?

thanks, Mike

To give you the kind of control you are talking about here, you will need to look into a pulse width modulator (PWM).

You can build a PWM controller for a kettle for under $40 and it will let you dial up and down the power.

I think that if I could find a used variac it might be an easy way to make a simple heat element adjustable. There are also light dimmer circuits but I don't know if any of these could handle 20 amps!

There is no dimmer out there that will do what you need.

Well... there might be one... but it'll be prohibitively expensive.

same with the variac... it'll probably cost you several hundred dollars.

just real fast I did an ebay search.

$90 (+ mystery shipping) for a 120VAC input, 0-130VAC/20A max output variac:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Variable-AC-Output-Transformer-MAX-20A-Metered-Variac-/120726860159?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c1be1 b17f

Not as expensive as I was originally thinking, but still more than an SSR and PWM.

interesting thought for sure. wonder how much of a bargain you can find with more digging.

how much is a 20 AMP SSR?

25A is more commonly available, but you can get them on ebay for like $10 or $11 (with a heatsink and free shipping).

$12 is hard to beat. I think something like this may drive the input and then have continous control for $30. I think the speed control output is an open drain from the mosfet. It would be very happy sinking low current through the ssr diode in with a duty cycle set with the pot.

http://cgi.ebay.com/DC-Motor-Speed-Control-HHO-PWM-12V-2A-20W-/140535132501?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20b88b f155

thanks, Mike