Beating a dead horse... kinda

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TromboneGuy

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OK, so I searched but didn't quite find my question.

http://tinyurl.com/3n4gn7n

So with this turkey fryer, the Cajun Injector (or any of seven other brand names...) the heating element and thermostat control are one unit and removable. Since I'm planning to shift over to BIAB anyway, what if I popped the whole heating unit and thermostat into my kettle as a supplement to my stove?

I know people have mentioned before that most coil-element stoves don't have the horses to do a full boil, and neither does this fryer. I'm thinking if I use them together I should be able to get a great boil going without turning my stove above medium-high or so. (Thus avoiding damaging my stove.)

Sound like a decent plan? I'd build a heatstick, but I don't think the wiring in the house I'm in now could handle a 220V element.

Also, I'm thinking the built-in thermostat sounds great for precise mash temps. Anyone know how low you can set the thermostat on these things? Because if it doesn't go below, say, 200*F then I might as well just put in a GFI outlet and build a stick.
 
TromboneGuy said:
OK, so I searched but didn't quite find my question.

http://tinyurl.com/3n4gn7n

So with this turkey fryer, the Cajun Injector (or any of seven other brand names...) the heating element and thermostat control are one unit and removable. Since I'm planning to shift over to BIAB anyway, what if I popped the whole heating unit and thermostat into my kettle as a supplement to my stove?

I know people have mentioned before that most coil-element stoves don't have the horses to do a full boil, and neither does this fryer. I'm thinking if I use them together I should be able to get a great boil going without turning my stove above medium-high or so. (Thus avoiding damaging my stove.)

Sound like a decent plan? I'd build a heatstick, but I don't think the wiring in the house I'm in now could handle a 220V element.

Also, I'm thinking the built-in thermostat sounds great for precise mash temps. Anyone know how low you can set the thermostat on these things? Because if it doesn't go below, say, 200*F then I might as well just put in a GFI outlet and build a stick.
Click to expand...

I don't know the answer to your question, but you can build a 120v heatstick and use that in conjunction with your stove. That's what i did and have gotten full, rolling boils up to 8.5g so far. This is with a 2000w 120v heatstick and a half size apartment stove on med/high.
 
TromboneGuy said:
Also, I'm thinking the built-in thermostat sounds great for precise mash temps. Anyone know how low you can set the thermostat on these things? Because if it doesn't go below, say, 200*F then I might as well just put in a GFI outlet and build a stick.
Click to expand...

I don't know the range on it, but I'm betting it does not have the precision you need. For mash control, you need it pretty damn precise, and I'm betting this thing swings around at least 10*F.... maybe more.
 
I use one of these electric turkey heaters as a HLT. It workers pretty good. But Walker is right that the temperature control is crappy. Mine only allows you to adjust the set point in 25 degree increments. I usually just set the set point at 200 and monitor the temp with an separate thermometer. It should work fine to give you some supplemental heating with a stove top boil kettle.
 
I have one of those paid 1/2 price in spécial.
This might be good as hlt but thermostat is crap. It might be precise at +/- 20 deg.
I use mine as a boiler for 3 gals batches and works fine for that
I did not tested for full 5 gals batches but from my experience it would take really long time to start boiling. It takes round 15mins on a 3 gals batch.
M'y 2 cents
 
I had one for about a week and then returned.
1. Not enough head space for a 5 gallon batch
2. Couldn't keep a rolling boil when the cover was removed. (Cover needs to be off during boil for DMS reduction.)
3. Started rusting the holder for the heating element.

I only did water in it to test.

The laws of physics for effective boiling on 6+ gallons (I should have done the math before buying) say you need more BTUs than you can get from 110V, 15 Amp circuit, which is what these things are designed for. You really need 30,000 BTU minimum, IMHO, for your standard 5.5 gallon (post boil) batch. This thing is 5500 BTU or less. (1500 watts = 5118 BTU)

As someone else said, maybe 3 gallons boil(marginal) or HLT. You need 220V circuits to do electric effectively.

DON'T GET IT FOR BOILING!
 

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