single point water heater

has anyone tried connecting their brewstand to a water heater or possibly buying a dedicated single point tankless water heater to get the water up to a higher temperature and then let the burners take it the rest of the way? should reduce time on brew day... thoughts??

Tankless heaters are popular in the nano scene for having ready-to-go strike water, but they're usually higher flow, higher max temp. I'd really want to go one or the other (tankless or just a regular burner/HLT) just for simplicity.

I have a gas water heater cranked up and then run through my rims tube and dump in to mash at 162 with no prob. 6,000 watt element on 120v so about 2,000 out put. I have no HTL and it saves a bunch of time.

I'll have to look into this a little more, but I typically use my hose water to fill my HLT and then start heating it with my propane burner. (some people may be groaning at my hose water, )

but if i could somehow tee off of my houses hot water heater (the copper tubes that supply my house) then I could pull hotter water into my tank and use less propane to heat the water. It would save time and my hot water heater has already used electricity to heat the water anyways.

maybe the single point hot water heater woudl be a little much but most people have either a tank or a tankless hot water heater they could pull from.

sccrgolee said:

but if i could somehow tee off of my houses hot water heater (the copper tubes that supply my house) then I could pull hotter water into my tank and use less propane to heat the water. It would save time and my hot water heater has already used electricity to heat the water anyways.

Click to expand...

There are a lot of people who think it's not a good idea to pull from a tank water heater because of potential mineral (and other junk) buildup in the tanks. I haven't seen any data on this but will actually be sending out some water- cold and from a tanked water heater- to Ward Labs for analysis to see how true that is.

awesome...i'd be interested to see what you come up with.

btw, i was on kickstarter a few months ago just looking around and i saw your brewing co. glad to see you guys made it! good luck! (and you should start a thread on your experience with starting a brewery!)

I'm considering a tankless water heater also. We are going to T into our hot and cold water lines to get some plumbing into the garage. I'd like to be able to avoid heating water in kettles and rather be able to run the water directly into my mash tuns from the copper pipe... and I'd also like to be able to run my sparge water directly from the pipe into my mash tuns also. Have any of you guys found a tankless water heater with a digital temperature adjustment that is affordable? I was hoping to find something in the $200-$300 range.
Thanks for bringing up the topic.

When you look at something like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/203210...ct-2-_-203316215-_-203210878-_-N#.UTZbDKL1Tls

It appears you can only heat the water up to "as high as 140 deg"... that wouldn't be enough obviously and that temp also depends on the incoming temp of the water.

Sorry... I have a bad habit of speaking before I have all the facts. I found a tankless heater that will get to the temps brewers need, but it is $1595 and (no doubt) requires professional installation. I found it here: http://www.prowaterheatersupply.com...ropane-whole-house-tankless-water-heater.html

That price is out of my budget unfortunately. If anyone finds one at a reasonable price... please post a link.

Sorry... I have a bad habit of speaking before I have all the facts. I found a tankless heater that will get to the temps brewers need, but it is $1595 and (no doubt) requires professional installation. I found it here: http://www.prowaterheatersupply.com...ropane-whole-house-tankless-water-heater.html

That price is out of my budget unfortunately. If anyone finds one at a reasonable price... please post a link.