mounting heater element driectly into brew kettle?

Would it be possible to install an electric hot water heating element through the side of my brew kettle? I have a slightly under-powered propane burner, but I'd like to avoid all the sealing issues associated with a heatstick. Could I install the element through the kettle wall, similar to the way it is installed in a water heater? Then the waterproof seal would be on the inner wall of the kettle, with the electrical connections on the outside. It would be nice to have a short pigtail electrical cord to plug/unplug so I can wash the kettle.

Yes it is possible. Lots of people use utility boxes on the outside to keep the electrical connections un-exposed.

Do a search for E-kettle or "element" and you will find many threads on this. Heres a good example: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/e-kettle-how-install-element-181266/

I see references to a pass-through fitting sold at BargianFittings.com, but I can't find anything for a heater element on their website. What connection do I need to seal through the wall of my kettle?

I would be very wary of doing it for use with a burner. Having the electric wire that far down on the pot is asking for melting.

also is there a cheap PID controller I can wire into this element to set a desired water temperature?

Jonnio said:

I would be very wary of doing it for use with a burner. Having the electric wire that far down on the pot is asking for melting.

Click to expand...

is there some fire-proof insulation I could use to keep heat in the kettle, as well as protecting the electrical wire? Kaowool is used in wood-fired ovens and kiln applications...

Here's how mine was done. I had a welder put a 1" half couple through the side of the kettle. I can then thread the element through that with a steel box around it. Very easy to take apart too if you ever need to replace it.

I'd normally say go for it, but it sounds like you still want to use the propane heater as well?

If so, I'd say just sell the propane heater on Craigslist and get yourself a better burner. You'd save yourself a lot of hassles of heat shielding and such.

^ that is a nice clean build. I'd prefer to not do any welding - is there a weldless bulkhead that I could screw the element into?

The propane burner I'm using is the side-burner of my grill, so I'm not getting rid of it. It gets a full 5-gallon batch to a boil, just takes too long to get there.

I'm wondering is an over-the-side bucket heater would be easier to protect:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BDB4UG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Would this work with a PID controller to set mash water temps?

I'm trying 2 do sumting similar to this exept I want to use an old pub beer legs with the top cut off
It's alluminum is there any reason this won't work either with a fixed eliment or over the side one

twd000 said:

^ that is a nice clean build. I'd prefer to not do any welding - is there a weldless bulkhead that I could screw the element into?

The propane burner I'm using is the side-burner of my grill, so I'm not getting rid of it. It gets a full 5-gallon batch to a boil, just takes too long to get there.

I'm wondering is an over-the-side bucket heater would be easier to protect:

Video Link: http://www.amazon.com/Marshalltown-742G-Bucket-Water-Heater/dp/B000BDB4UG

Would this work with a PID controller to set mash water temps?

Click to expand...

I use a homemade heatstick with my burner all the time. The electric cord is high enough that you just need to drape it out of the way. My burner doesn't need the help, but i get 6-7 10 gal brew sessions out of a tank with the additional heat stick and keeping the burner real low.

You can find a bunch of info on the electric brewing sub-forum on here. Also check out this thread for some ideas:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/show-us-your-element-housings-pots-how-did-you-do-212079/

twd000 said:

I see references to a pass-through fitting sold at BargianFittings.com, but I can't find anything for a heater element on their website. What connection do I need to seal through the wall of my kettle?

Click to expand...

This is what most people use
http://www.bargainfittings.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=44_35_46&product_id=95

twd000 said:

also is there a cheap PID controller I can wire into this element to set a desired water temperature?

Click to expand...

Do a search for Auberins http://auberins.com/ on here and you'll find plenty of info on PIDs and SSRs. Again, look through the build threads in the electric brewing sub-forum and you should have all the info you'd need.

Hatfieldenator - maybe I just can't tell from the picture but it looks like your utility box isn't electrically connected to the keggle. You've grounded the box, but it doesn't look like that ground would carry over to the keggle. Am I missing something?

hatfieldenator said:

Here's how mine was done. I had a welder put a 1" half couple through the side of the kettle. I can then thread the element through that with a steel box around it. Very easy to take apart too if you ever need to replace it.

Click to expand...

Hatfieldenator - how has your water heater installation held up? I'm looking at using a 1" half couple as well and wondered about ease of removal of the element over time. Is the element sturdy enough to remove if it's at all stuck? did you lube the threads with silicone or anything prior to assembly?

Thanks!

kwhizr - Athens GA

FWIW
Constructed mine weldless. It works great and is east to disable. Not as cool as a welded nipple into the keg though!

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Home Brew mobile app

Not for nothing, but there's a reason that things like ranges and heaters have expensive UL listings and funny-looking wires attached to them. You're attaching a heating element to the side of a kettle which will presumably approach 200F. NEC Table 310.15(B)(16) clearly shows that even THHN or XHHW wire insulation must be derated by Table 310.15(B)(2)(a) at a correction factor of .29, meaning the 12AWG cord & plug you probably got at Home Depot has at absolute BEST an allowable ampacity of 8.7 amperes. At the very least you'd need 6AWG which nobody's going to run for this, or you'd need type Z insulation per Table 310.15(B)(18) which you're DEFINITELY not going to run. And all that is to say nothing of the fact that the unit could foreseeably be used for more than 3 straight hours making it a continuous load. Oh, and the wet or damp location, combined with the cord & plug design. Oh oh! And the lack of ground fault protection! Hell, if you didn't know any of the other stuff you should probably throw in arc fault protection too, because there's a good chance your wiring/splicing methods leave something to be desired.
Long story short: spring for the extra couple bucks to buy one or give an electrician a case of beer to wire it, because saving a few dollars isn't worth killing your family, your neighbors, or your friendly neighborhood fireman.