weirdboy

Recipes 

Regardless of how well you insulate, unless you are constantly recirculating, you are going to get a temperature gradient from the bottom to the top because heat rises. But it's not a big deal. Just use your mash paddle/spoon/whatever to stir the water up when you are ready to dough in, and it should be pretty close to your intended strike temp.

wilserbrewer

Vendor Ads 

Recipes 

I believe most have found that in order to automate an HLT, some form of agitiation is required, with either a mechanical stirrer, a recirculating pump, or even a small air pump bubbler will move the water around for even heat. Unfoutunately it is not as easy as an element and temp control, unless you stir occasionally.

iamjonsharp

Recipes 

@Eyedoctodd: Thanks for posting this!

I purchased one of the Marshalltown 742g heaters a few weeks ago and had time today to play around with it prior to brew day. I plan on using it with a timer and temp controller to heat mash water to appropriate temp the morning before brew day. It looks like it should be able to heat water to the appropriate mash temp for for a 10 gallon batch well.

Here are the results:
Heated 8 gallons of 45F water in coleman cooler to 170F under 3 hours, about 3 degrees every 4 minutes.

Hit 170F around 2 hours 45 minutes (started timer at 5 hours counting down)

The cooler was slightly ajar due to the power cord. The cooler I have is the 62 qt coleman xtreme.

Was able to have the heater submerged on its side with the top/cord out of the water. Thermometer is on the right side of cooler.

Thanks again!

I'll let you know how it goes on brew day!

__________________
Primary - Cherry Chocolate Bock
Secondary - Stupid Berliner Weiss that won't sour...

ilikeguns

Recipes 

@iamjonsharp did you measure the temps around your cooler to see if they were inline? I'm curious to see how the temps vary in a flatter cooler (yours) compared to my converted keg. I got a huge difference in temps depending on where my probe was.

__________________
Next up.. Firestone Walker Double Jack Clone


guns before beer and you're in the clear...

iamjonsharp

Recipes 

I did not, as I was mainly interested in getting up to high enough temps to add grain to get to mash temp, and I put my temp probe as far away from the heater as possible. For what it's worth, it has prob been about an hour since I finished the test and the water in the cooler is reading 162F after stirring the water. The lid on the cooler has been closed.

__________________
Primary - Cherry Chocolate Bock
Secondary - Stupid Berliner Weiss that won't sour...

iamjonsharp

Recipes 

I forgot to mention, that my test results comported very well with Todd's spreadsheet (within 10 minutes assuming a Thermal Loss of 1.05).
-Jon

__________________
Primary - Cherry Chocolate Bock
Secondary - Stupid Berliner Weiss that won't sour...

ilikeguns

Recipes 

Anyone ever use this timer with the bucket heater? I'm thinking of wiring it into my project box with my STC 1000

http://1000bulbs.com/product/63761/ELEC-ST01.html?utm_source=SmartFeedAmazonProductAds&utm _medium=Shopping&utm_term=ELECST01&utm_content=Ele ctricalInWallTimersDigitalAstronomic&utm_campaign= SmartFeedAmazonProductAds&thissku=ELEC777dash777ST 01&site=www.amazonproductads.com

__________________
Next up.. Firestone Walker Double Jack Clone


guns before beer and you're in the clear...

bja

Recipes 

What's the advantage over any other timer, except that it costs 5 times as much?

__________________
____________________________________________

Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid.

ilikeguns

Recipes 

I saw it for 20 bucks and i want an outlet style timer so it fits flush into my project box next to my stc-1000.

EDIT: The ratings had me a little confused.. is this rated for 8 amps? or 15? The bucket heater draws 8 and from my limited understanding of electricity, I'd rather not run full capacity. Correct?

Ratings:
Resistive: 15 A, 120-277 VAC
Tungsten: 15 A, 120 VAC, 6 A, 208-277 VAC
Ballast: 8 A, 120 VAC, 4 A, 208-277 VAC
Motor: 1 HP, 120 VAC, 2 HP, 240 VAC
DC Loads: 4 A, 12 VDS, 2 A, 28 VDS

__________________
Next up.. Firestone Walker Double Jack Clone


guns before beer and you're in the clear...

eyedoctodd

Recipes 

Close. The bucket heater draws 8.333A, so just in case you were thinking of feeding it with 8A, don't! I am thinking of adding a second one because I have a 20A circuit available right where I brew in the garage, so I could do some faster heating (like sparge water during the mash), but I might build a heat stick that will go higher than 2kW instead. Obviously going with 2 of these will heat twice as fast but I don't know if that will be fast enough for my sparge water during mash. (Although it would still help reduce propane usage and replace it with cheaper electrical power.)

__________________
----------------------------------------------
Eleventy-Three Brewing Co.

Kegged: Maori Grundle Pale Ale (all NZ hops), Trestle Bridge Pils, Diminished Fifth Porter, Oh Helles Yeah Maibock

Primary: Milltown Copper Ale (Based on Mill Street Tankhouse Ale)
Secondary: Who does that??