Is it hard to add Electric heater to HLT?

As I have less and less time to go crazy brewing I was thinking of something I am sure some of you already have that would be great.

I would love the ability to have Electric heater and timer on HLT. That way I can start my water heating when I am away to be almost ready to put into MT when I get home. I am not sure I would trust this 100% but, it would be nice.

I would love to have an all electric brew system that can be done indoors but, not sure that is in the cards. The room is not and issue but, not sure about what you have to do to exhaust everything from the room?

Any help would be appreciated to see if this is something I will actually do in the future. I do like the Brutus system a lot but, with a lack of knowledge in that I would most likely have to have someone do this for me.

You need some ventilation for steam. Brew near a window with a box fan inserted even. That's what I have to do right now.

Adding an element isn't hard. Get the locknut kit from bargain fittings, drill a 1 1/4" hole, cover with a PVC cap or an outlet box. Tons of threads here. I have done three and have another going in this week

I might stick to brewing in garage. How many heating elements would I need or how strong of one to heat water from say 50 to 160-180? I want to just use for my HLT

Go here this could help

http://manskirtbrewing.com/calcs.shtml#electrichdr

Sure it is pretty easy to do this, especially if you are talking 110v. You could even hook it up to a timer the night before so that it turns on when you need it. I would check out some of the threads in the Electric Brewing portion of this forum.

Heres a good one: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/e-kettle-how-install-element-181266/

I have been using a bucket heater...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/MARSHALLTO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

and a timer...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00002N5FO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

...to preheat my strike/HEX/sparge water for my past three beers, and it has cut over an hour off of my brewday, and has saved a ton of propane.

The night before I brew, I fill my kettle (kettle doubles as the holding tank for my HERMS coil during mash) with a full ten gallons of filtered water. I set the timer/bucket heater to turn on 3-4 hours before I plan to dough in. I find the bucket heater can increase 10 gallons of water by about 20 degrees an hour.

During the mash, I leave the bucket heater in the kettle with the HERMS coil to maintain a gentle heat, so the investment kind of serves double duty.

It might be the best $45 I have spent in a while.

I've seen that most are going with a 1 1/4 fitting. I was thinking of a 2" clover welded in to the kettle. I could then use a cap if heating with gas or add a fitting into a cap if going electric. Make sense?

GoodDogShelby said:

I've seen that most are going with a 1 1/4 fitting. I was thinking of a 2" clover welded in to the kettle. I could then use a cap if heating with gas or add a fitting into a cap if going electric. Make sense?

Click to expand...

Yep. Don't want element in while heating with gas . Could melt something

tre9er said:

Yep. Don't want element in while heating with gas . Could melt something

Click to expand...

I was thinking about making a hybrid system like this. An element for either a timed heating I the HLT or for maintaining the temp once there. Since I'd stay with 120, a burner would give a faster ramp if I needed it. I was thinking about adding a heat shield around the element to keep the heat away. Anyone else do a system like this?