Grounding element vs groundinv kettle?

Which is better?

I'm putting my element together. I was originally planning to drill a hole next to the hot lugs, and solder the ground wire into it. I would then pot the whole thin into a pvc coupler with JBWeld.

However, this doesn't seem nearly as easy as potting just the hot wires, keeping the ground wire separate, and connecting the ground wire to a welded ground lug on the kettle.

Is there a difference (electrically)?

I put my ground on the bottom of the keg. I debated if I could or should put it on the element itself but there just wasn't much room to make this work. In the end I drilled a hole just large enough for my ground wire to pass through the PVC coupler. I then pulled it through and potted all the wires into coupler with JB weld. After it cured I then attached the ground to the kettle. It seems to be neat and has good continuity.

what is the best way in the case of a rubbermaid cooler ? I have seer the copper ring solution, and also someone sugested grounding to the outlet of the ball valve.

In any case, the thing has to be grounded.

Well, thanks for the input.

Kind of a moot point though... As I just bit the bullet and did this:

Edit: Pics now a more manageable size. Sorry!

Hmmm... I see. So you soldered it on there. What was your technique. It seems to have worked well.

I drilled the hole with a #10 drill bit until it just broke through the other side. The flange isn't as big on the thread side, so I ended up with half a hole, which was fine (as I only needed to fill solder from that side). I used a small needle file to deburr the hole.

Then I stripped the wire, and tinned it. Then, using a big ass soldering iron (seriously... The thing is like a foot long, and the tip is easily 1/2" diameter) I heated the wire & element flange from the back side, until it was hot enough to fill with solder.

It took a while to heat up. I was originally using a regular sized soldering iron, which would've taken all night. So I grabbed the big one, which took 5 minutes. I kinda blobbed too much solder on, so I had to use a heated solder sucker to clean it up some(An advantage of being an airline mechanic is the access to all kinds of useful tools).

After it had cooled, I cleaned up the gasket flange the rest of the way with a file. Now I just have to pot the PVC coupling with JBweld.

Much easier than I thought it would be.