Electric mash tun

I am a little new to this and am considering trying my luck at all grain. I picked up a 10 gallon igloo cooler that I would like to go electric. I already have all the materials but had a question about sparging. I know I can bring my temp up slowly with the 110 volt heating element, but when I want to sparge at lets say 180, do I need to have my propane burner bring a kettle of sparge water up to 180 and go from there, or is there an easy way that Im just not understanding? I've been doing a lot of reading, and somebody mentioned bringing the sparge water up to 180 in the electric mash tun and batch sparge, but It seems like that would be a lot of time for the water to reach 180. Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

You don't need to heat anything in your cooler. You are using that for your mashtun, right? And you are using the boil pot to prepare your mash-in water, sparge water, then to boil your wort... right?

Just add enough water, at the right temp, to the grains in your cooler to get the resulting mash to about 155. Use software (Brewsmith) to figure that out. The water will be about 170 degrees, and you will have already heated it on your burner.

Before it's time to sparge, get your sparge water ready on your burner. When it is the right temp, and just when you are ready to sparge, transfer this water to a couple of large buckets. This frees up your burner pot.

Actually I am trying to avoid the propane. I installed a water heater element in my mashtun as described on wortomatic. I know I can bring my water to around 170 inside the cooler, and have been told I can use the electric heater in the tun for heating my sparge also. I just dont know if slowly heating my sparge water in the grains will cause problems, and if so what the correct way to use the electric tun.

instead of having an electric MLT you should have an electric HLT. I think any contact with grains against a heating element like that would scorch the grains

You cannot use an electric element in the MLT to heat the mash...

probably cannot even use it to heat the strike water in the MLT, since the volume required may not be enough to cover the element.

You want the element in the HLT, where you will heat the strike and sparge water.

I have a little experience in building electric rigs. Really there is no correct way to use an electic mash tun... liquor tun, yes.

FWIW, I can operate a completely electric HERMS with only 1500W of heating power in my HLT/HERMS HEX. I heat the strike there, I use it as my HEX for the recirc., use it to heat my mash to mashout temp. and then sparge with that water. It works very effectively and efficiently.

Thanks for all the replys. Have any of you seen the electric mash tun on wortomatic? I guess it must have just been some guys project that in the real world does not work like he had hoped? Either way I have not drilled the hole in my tun yet, so I guess I'll just drill into the bottom of my Keggle instead and go that route. Thanks again.

Can you post a link to it? I only see the electric HLT project.

Thanks Bobby,

That would be my mistake, I automaticall assumed it was a mash tun because it was in a cooler. So this is basically a more efficient way of making an electric hlt with 110v?

I did a electric HLT project here! Works great for heating my dough-in and mash-out additions, as well as my sparges for batch sparging.

You could certainly stick an element in the mash tun for heating the strike water, once the grain is in though, be very careful firing the element (not advisable) unless you have a thin mash and stir like crazy. IMO you would also need an electric HLT for the sparge water.

Well I know its been a while, but have been using the electric HLT for a couple brews now and LOVE IT! Back on my previous idea that got kicked down about using the heating element in my mash tun, I build a heat stick with a 240 ULWD element powered so far by 120. I guess that would make it UULWD element. I'm assuming when submerged in water this wouldnt apply much heat for its surface area and might be able to be used to stir the mash without scortching it. I havn't tried it and my mash tun keeps heat well enough that I shouldnt have to unless I make a mistake somewhere, but what are your thoughts on the idea. BTW, since I'm sure POL will bring up the length of the element and risk of dry fire, I bent the hell out of it so that it takes about the same water to submerge as a 1500.

Really the Pol doenst care much.

95747brewer said:

Well I know its been a while, but have been using the electric HLT for a couple brews now and LOVE IT! Back on my previous idea that got kicked down about using the heating element in my mash tun, I build a heat stick with a 240 ULWD element powered so far by 120. I guess that would make it UULWD element. I'm assuming when submerged in water this wouldnt apply much heat for its surface area and might be able to be used to stir the mash without scortching it. I havn't tried it and my mash tun keeps heat well enough that I shouldnt have to unless I make a mistake somewhere, but what are your thoughts on the idea. BTW, since I'm sure POL will bring up the length of the element and risk of dry fire, I bent the hell out of it so that it takes about the same water to submerge as a 1500.

Click to expand...

Please describe how you bent it. I was wondering how much bending these elements could take. A picture would be marvelous.

Sorry the Pol if I sounded condescending, just saw you had mentioned the lenght of the element in low level of water needed for mash.
As for how to bend it, it's really as simple as it sounds. I pressed it over whaterver curved item I had near me (my knee in this case, but since I was concerned about breakage resulting in a cut I did look around for something else first.)
As for pics, I dont know if my membership level allows. I could check or you could tell me if you know. Either way I could get a picture to you if you would like one way or the other.

BTW, I got a full 90deg bend with maybe a 2" radius. Or whatever the radius of my knee is.

95747brewer said:

BTW, I got a full 90deg bend with maybe a 2" radius. Or whatever the radius of my knee is.

Click to expand...

That is amazing.

People, who have probably never tried it, claim that bending will ruin the elements.

Nice.

WOW! I guess I am not worried about the small amount of manipulation that I am using to get (2) 4500W elements into a RIMS tube!

Oh my gosh! Thats not what I expected at all. This definately helps with my RIMS build.

holy sh1toly.

I had no idea.

Thanks for posting the pic. It is a great service to this forum.

So as it turns out, these elements are bullet proof. I decided I didnt like not being able to stir it in a cooler so I went ape sh.. on the bending. keep in mind I was not being careful or even using any fancy methods of bending. I didnt even heat it up first. Now that I know how nicely they work even when completely abused I may end up making some perty bends in my next one. This is a pic of me testing it in my kids sand castle bucket. The element was only a few degrees hotter than the water the whole time, tested with a thermometer.

Heres another.

I am having all sorts of DIY ideas, now.

This post seems to indicate that they are not all as resilient.

Would you please post the model number or source for your element? thanks.

passedpawn said:

I am having all sorts of DIY ideas, now.

This post seems to indicate that they are not all as resilient.

Would you please post the model number or source for your element? thanks.

Click to expand...

I bought mine from Lowes. I dont remember if it is a 4500 or 5500 watt element, and if there are any identifying marks on it they are probably below the epoxy.

That is great. Would you mind posting what brand you guys are using. Not sure if the pol was refering to me and my claims. But I have in fact tried bending a 3000w element and I got maybe 15 degrees of bend and it snapped. Mine was filled with ceramic. It instantly collapsed. I wish I remembered what brand it was.

After it snapped I tried bend it from another side to see if maybe my technique was the problem. It too snapped being "careful". There was barely any bending it just snapped like a dry twig.

It gives me hope that some of these can be bent. I would love to put a 3000w element into my vessel but without bending it will not fit. So maybe if I try another brand element I will have better luck. Thanks again for posting that it can be done and the pics.

Edit: Oh yeah. I forgot to mention mine was non bent element. What I mean is that it did not bend back on itself. It was a standard high density element that was straight. After ripping it apart I found that the bend at the end. The return bend. Was a fitting that was connected to the straight pieces. So mine was not even bent from the factory. It was actually three seperate tubes under the chroming.

Nope... The Pol was referring to comments in various places on the interweb (this is a popular idea) where the bending question was asked and people said it wouldnt work. I looked this up over a year ago when I was looking for elements for my old BK in Dec.'08 and my HLT which was the real issue back in August of '08. I think it may very well depend on the make up of the element...

I have the CAMCO 02583 and have bent them SOME to get them to fit into my RIMS tube. I will know when I fire them if Ihave damaged them.

That is fantastic. I am going to try the camco's next time. I would love to bend an element for my project. I just got scared after destroying one and assumed that it would happen to all of them.

Well you know what happens when you assume. Makes and a*s out of you and me. This is great.

The one I have you can actually see the discoloration where it was probably heated and bent from the factory. Sorry I cant give you a brand name.