Electric Brew Kettle on a Budget

I decided to build an electric brew kettle that I can also heat my mash water in to a set temperature. Not as cool as a lot of them on here but everything I need for now. I was going to mount it on a swivel tv stand but to save money I just made my PID so it will be remote. I also put a 120 volt outlet on the bottom wired to one of the SSR's so I can connect the probe wire to a fridge and control its temperature. (If I ever decide to brew a lager) Got a great deal on the GFI with plug and 16' cord for 40.00 shipped thanks to another poster's tip.

Very nice budget setup. I noticed that your SSR heat syncs are inside the enclosure. Any issues with heat dissipation?

wubears71 said:

Very nice budget setup. I noticed that your SSR heat syncs are inside the enclosure. Any issues with heat dissipation?

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I haven't fired it up yet so I don't know. The box is mounted to a cement wall so I was hoping that would help with heat dissapation as well. If there is a problem I will probably add a PC fan powered with an old phone charger.

Beerfly said:

I haven't fired it up yet so I don't know. The box is mounted to a cement wall so I was hoping that would help with heat dissapation as well. If there is a problem I will probably add a PC fan powered with an old phone charger.

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That should help out for sure.

There are minimum spacing requirements in electrical equipment to prevent arcing phase to phase. (Read possible really big explosion)

You should really find a piece of plastic or rubber to put between the bolts that you have run into the panel buss for those lugs before you heat this thing up. You could probably get away with just taping the bolts up but you should use rubber splicing tape not just cheap electrical tape.

yjfun said:

There are minimum spacing requirements in electrical equipment to prevent arcing phase to phase. (Read possible really big explosion)

You should really find a piece of plastic or rubber to put between the bolts that you have run into the panel buss for those lugs before you heat this thing up. You could probably get away with just taping the bolts up but you should use rubber splicing tape not just cheap electrical tape.

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Good tip, I'll do it!

yjfun said:

There are minimum spacing requirements in electrical equipment to prevent arcing phase to phase. (Read possible really big explosion)

You should really find a piece of plastic or rubber to put between the bolts that you have run into the panel buss for those lugs before you heat this thing up. You could probably get away with just taping the bolts up but you should use rubber splicing tape not just cheap electrical tape.

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Normally the gap between phases (up to 600v) would be minimum 1" in NEC. Though, The actual air-gap with a 250v potential is really only around 0.1mm.... so is it safe? Not by the NEC. Is it going to be a real problem? Doubtful. I would space them out or wrap them. Better yet - install a breaker there instead of tying directly onto the bus bars and be done with it.

I'm thinking about the budget route too and just doing a brew kettle for now. Could you give some info on your kettle? Is it a Blichman spec'd out like a Kal BK?