hybrid HLT idea

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I had no luck searching it. I am strugling with maintaining temps during the mash, and feel recirculating is the way to go via HERMS. My thought is this - Keep my HLT propane fired to get it up to temp, then switch to electric to maintain once there. Seems like it could stay at a small 120V element and forgo the SSR/PID combo, using a RANCO instead to maintain temps. Wort would flow through the copper coil in the HLT as any other HERMS.

Thoughts?

That would work. I am not an e hlt expert by any means. But a couple things that come to my mind would be heat wash from the burner on the outside of the HLT melting the wire insulation or epoxy and pvc on the cap. and would there be a stirrer of some kind to avoid stratification above the element.

Ditto to the burner heat melting element wires.
If you want hybrid, I'd go burner with a heatstick instead. Same thing, just a portable element vs mounted to the keg.

so a 120V , 1500 watt heatstick looks to be under 16 A. That being the case, the Ranco should work just fine, right? (not an electrical wizard by a stretch...)

HERMS can definitely help with your mash temps staying more consistent. What are you presently using for a mash ton? While you design and perfect a HERMS sytem which can take a bit of time and money, here are some suggestions to help maintain your current temps assuming you are using a cooler.

Cut a piece of styrofoam board to the internal diameter of your mash ton. Poke two small holes in the top and run a plastic tie wrap through them to use as a handle. Place this over the top of the grain bed after you have stirred setting it down on top of the grain, then put your lid on. This greatly reduces loss to the dead head space and through the lid. In a cooler a big source of heat loss is through the lid that is ofter under insulated, or not insulated at all.

Pre-heat your mash ton. You can do this by putting in heated water a few degres higher than your projected mash in temp about 5 minutes before you put the grain in, or I sometimes just use hot tap water to at least get it up to 130 or so then drain the tap water before putting my strike water in.

Wrap a small towel around the drain valve. The valve is an excellent conductor of temperature and acts like a heat sink drawing heat out of your ton and radiating it to the outside air. A small towel will help insulate it.

Do not set the ton on a cold surface. Wrap a towel or blanket around the mash ton, paying attention to the top and bottom.

Good luck with your HERMS plans.

Instead of pre-heating my MLT I often heat it using the heat exchanger in the HLT. I just start the circulation and fire up the heating elements in the HLT at the same time.
So by the time I have crushed my grains and done other preparation it's pretty much good to go.

Now since I am using insulated plastic MLT, it might be that this holds the heat much better than a stainless steel one.

use steam?

I think the heatstick idea might be the easiest to start, and I think a 1500 watt element would do to maintain temps. Anyone know what a march pump pulls? I'd have them both on the same circuit

your heat stick will pull 12.5 when running max, a March 809 pulls .5Amps at 44watts. A March 809HS pulls 1.4A. That puts you over the recommended 80% load on a 15A circuit by 1-2 amps. If you're using a 20A circuit, no worries.

I don't remember if most here use teh 809 or the 809HS. I'd have to look at mine at home.
Here's there website. It has all the datasheets.

I think you could easily build around the problem instead of using a portable heat stick. You can protect the wiring with a short length of silicone tubing. You'd then need a cobbled heat shield for the connection area. You could wrap some aluminum flashing around the large element nut and "pot" the connection with some 100% silicone caulk (maybe?).

You could even install a 4500watt, 240v element and run it on 120v for now. It will run at about 1175 watts.

A simple way around this is just to use the heat stick directly in your mash to maintain temp. You stir the whole time while using your heatstick so you don't scortch the mash. I did this on Sunday, hit 150 because it was cold out and in about a minute I had it up to 154 for a maltier single infusion mash. My heat stick is a 2000 watt one, but it would work almost as quickly with a 1500 watt. The key is only turn on the element once fully submerged, and keep it moving. When you are done and hit your temp, kill the power and keep stirring for about 10-15 seconds and it should be safe to pull out.

I have considered building a RIMS or HERMS system, but I just don't see the point right now because this heatstick works so well.

Let me know if you have any questions.