Is this setup sane/safe?

Hi, I was brewing all grain for a while but I had an issue with the boil taking eons to come on my electric stove.

I ordered a 1800 watts heat stick for my rig, is it safe to use both the stove and the heat stick?

That would give me almost 4300 watts of heating power.

people have been using drop in heat sticks to boost stove top boils....nothing insane abotu iot. I dont know however if anyone permanently installed one in a kettle when combined with direct heating from below.

Very nice!

make sure you have a GFCI on the outlet you're plugging into the heat stick and that the circuit and wiring (including the cord you use for the heatstick) can handle 1800 watts @ 120v. other than that you're good to go.

i am in the process of adding a 1500W heating element to my HLT that i also heat with direct-fire propane.

slakwhere said:

i am in the process of adding a 1500W heating element to my HLT that i also heat with direct-fire propane.

Click to expand...

Drop in or thru the kettle wall?

kettle wall using a half coupling

slakwhere said:

make sure you have a GFCI on the outlet you're plugging into the heat stick and that the circuit and wiring (including the cord you use for the heatstick) can handle 1800 watts @ 120v. other than that you're good to go.

i am in the process of adding a 1500W heating element to my HLT that i also heat with direct-fire propane.

Click to expand...

Let us know how that works out.

I'd be concerned about the propane over heating the cord and terminal block on the heating element.

ed, i'll be doing some testing on a "spare" keg i have, but the plan is to make the cord removable (like a Computer power supply or monitor) so that the cord is not on the vessel while using gas. I will use gas OR electric but probably not both @ once. so the main concern will be heat on the terminal block, but i will be fabricating a heat shield to hopefully combat that.

Where is the best place to buy these heat sticks?

the elements themselves are available @ hardware stores, home depot, lowes, etc. to my knowledge nobody sells heat sticks pre-made but they're fairly simple to do at home:

http://www.cedarcreeknetworks.com/heatstick.htm

Thank you. Looks like a fun little project.

it is as long as you make sure it's grounded and you're using a GFCI