Kettle too big for electric stove. What can I use to help transfer the heat better?

I homebrew in my small apartment and unfortunately only have an electric stove. The 5gal kettle I have is a bit too large for the stove. As you can see here, the kettle extends a bit over the stovetop (there's an elevated border around the stove top which causes some space between the kettle and the stove).
My friend was telling me they sell these iron bar things that could be placed on the stove and have the kettle sit atop it to get better heat transfer.
What do you guys recommend?

Not that I think it's a good idea, but you could try getting a griddle to put across the 2 burners, I don't know if there's a better way of doing that but it's about the right size, probably not the right stability though.

My electric stovetop isn't smooth which is the big problem.

Theres a super slight elevated border around the entire stovetop, so when I place the kettle on top, it actually rests on top of the border. I'm doing a test now and so far it's taken 1 hour to get to 150 degrees F

Get a smaller kettle and do a smaller partial boil. Else, get a turkey fryer and work it somewhere outside.

whoaru99 said:

Get a smaller kettle and do a smaller partial boil. Else, get a turkey fryer and work it somewhere outside.

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This is what I was going to recommend. The cheaper method would be to get a smaller kettle . . . but if you're willing to spend $50, a turkey fryer will be a huge boost to your brewing capacity. Just remember, if you use the aluminum pot that comes with the turkey fryer, DO NOT use it for anything other than brewing.

Yea that's not really an option as I live in a small NYC apartment. I spread it across the burners and it seems like its heating up faster. All the ingredients I have are for a 5gal batch so getting a smaller kettle wouldn't be an option either. Some people say getting an electric heat stick could also help.

I'd be putting a 1500watt element into that pot.

cuserjuicer said:

Yea that's not really an option as I live in a small NYC apartment. I spread it across the burners and it seems like its heating up faster. All the ingredients I have are for a 5gal batch so getting a smaller kettle wouldn't be an option either. Some people say getting an electric heat stick could also help.

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You don't need to BOIL 5 gallons for a 5 gallon batch of beer. You can easily do the boil with 3 gallons, and add top water to your fermenter to get to the 5 gallon mark. Usually, I say you can just use tap water to make up the difference, but if is more than a gallon o so, I usually recommend either boiling 3 gallons the day before, and cooling it, or buying a few gallons of distiller water from the store.

Been doing some research - could I get a heat diffusor to place in between the stove and kettle?

Bobby_M said:

I'd be putting a 1500watt element into that pot.

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Where can I get a heat stick or something like it at retail stores? (i.e. home depot)