New brew rig planning

I’m in the process of planning a new brew rig and I have a few electrical questions. I’m not sure if they’ve been asked before but I did do a search.

I want to be able to plug a power cord into the rig and then distribute the power to 3 items.
1. 2000w water heater element for a 10g cooler HLT
2. wort pump
3. water pump (for chiller)

I’d like to have each one on a switch and I would manually operate each item.

Do I need to have all those fancy switches, SSR, heatsinks, ect? Or could I get away with household outlets (GFI) and indoor switches in a plastic junction box?

Theoretically, you could set up an all manual system of switches, but you would most likely drive your self crazy trying to keep all your temperatures in check. I couldn't imagine having to flip switches all day, I don't think I'd have time to brew.

How do you plan to mash? Is your MLT just going to be a direct gas fired kettle that you stir manually? If so, I'm not sure I would worry about an element in your HLT since it's a plastic cooler. People sometimes struggle keeping the element from leaking in a plastic cooler. When I had a plastic HLT, it would keep my sparge water at the correct temperature without needing to be heated. Of course I was careful not to add the water too soon, and I calculated a few extra degrees to compensate for the HLT not being pre-heated.

Thank Keith.

I'm going to mash in a 10g cooler and once the HLT reaches the desired temp I'll hit the switch and turn off the element and the temp should stay constant for a time since it's in a cooler so I will not have to flip switches all day.

The only thing I could think of is if you wanted to put some kind of PWM or PID controller on the element so that you had a bit more control over the amount of energy going into the HLT. In that case you'd want the controller + SSR, etc.

But with a cooler I don't think it's strictly necessary. I basically do the same thing manually with my BK (with propane) now and don't have too many problems with hitting strike temps and whatnot.

Plain old switches (rated for 20A) work fine:





I put water resistant outdoor cover plates on everything.