1800w Burton Induction Hot Plate

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wobdee

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I just bought one of these of Amazon for $75. I brew 2.5 gl batches of extract but think I may convert back to AG like I use to brew in 5gl batches but try this new BIAB thingy.

Anyone use one of these hot plates? How much can you boil and how long does it take to come up to temp?

I think I should be fine boiling 3.5gl of extract or I could even cut it down to a couple gallons and top off fermenter with cool water. What do you think?
 
It will be nice to get away from propane burner in my basement. Even with windows open I occassionally had co2 alarms going off. I don't need to kill anymore bain cells!
 
I used one of these for my first few extract brews. My only suggestions are to KEEP THE LID ON! If you dont, you will find that it will not hold a boil. I did 3gallon boils, and it struggled at times. I'd say it took about an hour or so to hit rolling boil, and if you dont keep the lid on it wouldnt really boil.

Let me know how BIAB works on it, i never tried it with mine. I've since switched to a keggle a coworker gave me with a 1500w and 2000w element in it. Works MUCH better IME but the induction hotplate works well for smaller batches. I'm keeping it around for small 1g for sure!

Nice find for 70 bucks btw!
 
I used one of these for my first few extract brews. My only suggestions are to KEEP THE LID ON! If you dont, you will find that it will not hold a boil. I did 3gallon boils, and it struggled at times. I'd say it took about an hour or so to hit rolling boil, and if you dont keep the lid on it wouldnt really boil.

Let me know how BIAB works on it, i never tried it with mine. I've since switched to a keggle a coworker gave me with a 1500w and 2000w element in it. Works MUCH better IME but the induction hotplate works well for smaller batches. I'm keeping it around for small 1g for sure!

Nice find for 70 bucks btw!

Was it the same one at 1800w? It should be here next week and I'll report back on how much it can boil and how long it takes. Hoping it can handle about 4 gl. I also have seen some other Induction plates with a little more juice that run on 220/240V and I think are 3500w but they cost much more.
 
Yes i have the 1800w pro version, the same one you linked in Amazon. I think it could do 4gallons, but keep the top on your kettle or you wont get there..
 
I personally consider 2000w the minimum threshold for boiling 3+ gallons. Of course, with insulation, lid on until boil, you can get better. But it will be a challenge
 
I've seen some people use that foil water heater type insulation wrapped around their kettles. I'll have to see how it goes but if I stick with extract I'll only be boiling 3-3.5gl for my 2.5gl batches. If I decide to go BIAB I figure I'll need to handle 4+ gl.

If I were still doing 5gl batches I'd be looking into a more powerfull 220v 3500w induction plate.
 
Yeah. You could also consider making a cheap heat stick. Probably would only cost you about 40 bucks with all the parts and you could probably get it for 30 or so if you look hard enough. Just something small, 1000-1500 watts would kick the induction up enough to very easily do 4+ boils.
 
I think I'm screwed? My basement breaker is 15 amp and I think 1800w may be too much for it with everything else that's running off it? I may have to look into a seperate 20a breaker for it?
 
the burton should pull about 15a, A = W/V so A = 1800w/120v so just make sure you have nothing else pulling from that circuit and you may be fine.. :cross:

Edit: Oh and it doesnt always pull 1800w, you can increase/decrease the wattage by the temp you set it on. If you dont put it on max, 10, you should be ok.
 
If you'd like i could go throw 4 gallons on mine and see if it will boil it..
 
Just put it on, water from tap comes out pretty hot (140) so we'll see. My kettle is not insulated, top is on.
 
Well its "Boiling" now, not very strong boil though.. i would be sure to insulate your kettle.
 
Wow! That's a pretty long time. I have a few batches of extract to go through before I convert to BIAB so I'll only be boiling 3 gl for those, hopefully it will come up quicker.

Insulating the kettle sounds like a must if you want to boil higher volumes. I'm also going to run it's own seperate circuit so it can be run on full power. Thanks for the help.
 
I did 3g boils in mine and it took between 30-45 mins to hit boil. I'm using 3500 in a keggle now with 2 heating elements and my boil time is about 30 minutes for 7.5 gallons. I'd look into a heat stick if you want to do biab with the burton. Maintain mash temps with the burton, get to boil with the heatstick, remove once hits boil and the burton should be able to do the rest.
 
I received my 1800w induction burner and after a few tests this is what I got. I'm using an 8gl mega pot from Morebeer which may be a little to wide for this burner, I'd recommend a smaller diameter pot since the heating element seems to be around 6" diameter.

First test was 6gl of 110 degree tap water and it took 1 hour 15 minutes to a boil. As soon as you take off the lid it settles down to a strong simmer. It does hold a good boil with the lid on.

Second test was 4 gl and it took 50 minutes to boil and it also needed the lid to keep a good rolling boil.

Third test was 3 gl extract brew. I disolved the DME in 3gl hot tap water, turned on the burner and it took about 45 min to reach boil. I kept the top about 3/4 covered with the lid to keep a good rolling boil for 30 min. It boiled down to just over 2.5gl in 30 min.

I think this will work fine for what I want to do. In the near future I'm switching to 2.5gl all grain and figure doing the BIAB method and I'll be using around 4gl of water. Reaching a 160 mash in temp with 4gl took about 25 min and I'm figuring about another 25 min to bring her up to boil. The burner also has a 1-10 heat control so it should be easy to hold mash temp.

These times could probably be cut down some with some kind of insulation wrap but I'm holding off on that for now. If someone was planning to brew 5 gal batches this burner would work good for partial boils but full boils may take awhile.
 
How wide would a pot have to be to have it straddle two burners?
 
How wide would a pot have to be to have it straddle two burners?

My burner is 12.5" wide so if you put two together the width between the outer edge of the two elements would be about 21". It would take a pretty wide pot to fit but I guess it could be done.
 
So I am one of "those guys" who is looking at posts trying to figure out what works for home brewing and what doesn't based on others' feedback. So, I finally wanted to contribute... And in case you were wondering, I wanted to step up (and am in the process of stepping up) my batches from 10 gallon to 20 - 1BBL.

And more than that, if you're like me, I wanted an alternative to propane and induction seemed like the way to go...here's my experiment...

I finally went for it and bought a couple 25 gallon Northern Brewer kettles and a 15 gallon one, too (that one is mainly for a rigged HERMS system I am going to set up).

Also, I bought two Duxtop 1800 watt induction cookers (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0045QEPYM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20) from amazon.

I wanted to put it to the test so here is what I had:

*For this TEST, my 25 gallon kettle is on a rigged rail system (if I can upload a photo I will, otherwise I'll attach a link) whereby I put the edges of the kettle on two 2x4's and used cardboard as wedges to fit everything to height and induction plates right underneath the kettle...here's what I got:

**My actual system will not be using 2x4's!!! I only did this as a test to see how fast and and what temperatures I can get my 25 gallon kettle of WATER to certain temperatures**

ADDITIONAL INFO: Water was about 65 degrees fahrenheit , outside temperature roughly 70 degrees fahrenheit, in an open garage, little wind. During the course of the experiment, outside temp decreased to 67. Also, the induction plate on the backside of the garage didn't have the best fan/air circulation so I kept it at a heating # of 8/10 (the max) while the other was at 9/10 (max). I did end up increasing the back induction plate to 9/10 roughly halfway through.

65 degrees: 3:55 PM
78 degrees: 4:05
88 degrees: 4:15
95 degrees: 4:25
104 degrees: 4:35
114 degrees: 4:45
paused and checked 20 minutes later
135 degrees: 5:05
145 degrees: 5:15

and so on...

Essentially, I was getting about 1-1.2 degrees a minute increase with my setup.

But there was a few things to keep in mind. I have the sides of my kettle wrapped in Reflectix (double) but the top was only covered by kettle top not reflectix, which to me meant some heat loss as opposed to being covered by insulation (since we know heat rises). Additionally, and possibly more important, I don't have my kettles drilled for ball valve drains, glass sights, or temp probes, so I had to manually open the top (heat loss) and measure for 45+ seconds the temperature. Last, with ideal conditions, the induction plates would be at 10/10 the entire time.

Keeping that in mind, like I wrote, I was getting about 1-1.2 degree increase per minute. When I get probes inserted/cover the top in insulation/etc. I hope to have a steady/increase that rate (although increasing won't be dramatic/too much).

So that's it. Just my own home experiment.

If anyone wants to know, I am planning on upgrading to 3500 W induction plates in the next 8-10 months. I just don't have the ability to run $$$ 220V extension cords to my appliance outlet. Later I will, but not now. Also, I will be using my 15 gallon kettle (on induction plates) with an added copper coil to act as a HERMS system to recirculate wort to my mash. After I sparge, I plan on using induction to heat to boil.

That's my experiment.

IMG_20130906_182106.jpg
 
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I ended up going back to my propane burner and BIAB. The Burton plate just takes too long to bring up 4+ gal of wort to a boil and you need the lid 3/4 on or it will just simmer. I still use it to heat up a small amount of sparge water for bigger brews.
 
I recall an episode on Mythbusters where they made their own induction heater to heat a large sheet of steel for some reason I can't remember. I've always wondered what it would take to custom make my own. They don't seem that complicated, kind like an electromagnet.


OK, just did a quick google search and there are all kinds of DIY induction heaters, and they look pretty simple, except most seemed designed to heat thing placed in the center of the coil, not on top of it
 
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