water heater tank boil kettle mash tun?

What does anybody think about using a water heater tank for a boil kettle or a mlt?

Never seen the inside of a water heater tank. What is the material? Is there a coating that can potentially chip off?

From what I've read, the inside is usually mild steel. That's why they have a sacrificial anode inside water heater tanks. The mild steel will corrode and you'd have to worry about rust in your wort. It would probably be more effort than it's worth to scrupulously clean it prior to use each time. Just my $.02.

the inside of a water tank is coated with an enamel coating much like enamel coated cookware. The anode is to help with excessive buildup that will possibly degrade that material and the plumbing. I figure that since with a boil kettle it will be open and only in use for couple hours at a time then cleaned out. I actually cut the top off a water heater tank to inspect though the tank i did this to was used and the material inside had degraded somewhat and began rusting in spots.... it also was 20 years old... i have just come across another but have yet to remove the top.. much newer.. only seven years old.

thirdeye13 said:

the inside of a water tank is coated with an enamel coating much like enamel coated cookware. The anode is to help with excessive buildup that will possibly degrade that material and the plumbing. I figure that since with a boil kettle it will be open and only in use for couple hours at a time then cleaned out. I actually cut the top off a water heater tank to inspect though the tank i did this to was used and the material inside had degraded somewhat and began rusting in spots.... it also was 20 years old... i have just come across another but have yet to remove the top.. much newer.. only seven years old.

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I've thought about something similar, but I think the problem you may run into is with the geometry. I'm assuming you want to use it for something more than just a 10 gallon batch. So with it being so tall and skinny you will have several issues to contend with:

insufficient surface area to remove all light organic material through the boil.
Large temperature delta between hottest and coldest points in the fluid column.
Aggressive boil will result in Malt Volcano eruptions which will shoot hot wort all over the place (caused by several factors originating from the geometry)
Tendency to scorch wort due to relatively small heat application area compared with total volume.

But those are just my concerns, I'd say give it a shot if you have the hardware and let us know how it works.

What would it hurt if you took the top off ?

MLT would be no good IMO. But boil kettle possibly. With proper temp control.

I should have asked gas or elec ? Gas would be ok for mlt not elec.