Heat gun/deep fryer sous vide.

Can someone tell me if I am oversimplifying this? I am not an electrical engineer, but I play one in my imagination. These are the assumptions I am making. A heat gun is a heating element with a blower attached correct? A fryer element is the same thing except the heating wire (element) is wrapped in a ceramic and metal coating? An 1800w heatgun should be able to power a 1500w element? I assume this could be done with many types of heating elements/setups and modified to make it more portable( ie., a heatgun heat stick with a trigger handle)? Once in a more insulating container, it should be able to maintain steady temps for long periods with very lil use of the element once the set temp is achieved.

It worked great straight wired and brought the water to a boil in 5 minutes or so. I then added the water heater element. I tested it out at the max temp on the thermostat (150F), the element turned off automatically maintaining a max temp of 155 and coming on when the thermostat registered a drop in temp. I tested this by adding Ice cold water in several intervals. It came back on each time, and never got above 155. I can adjust the temp to as low as 90F. The water heater thermostat is held against the bottom of the reservoir using a piece of foam insulation, which will eventually surround the whole water reservoir.

This whole setup cost me 35 bucks. Actually less because I had everything but the heatgun and thermostat already. The fryer can be found on Craigslist for 20-30 dollars or new, on amazon for 50 to 70 dollars depending on size. So really it only cost me 17$ my GF had a brand new deep fryer sitting in the kitchen for the past 3 years. I gutted it. I do plan to get the dual basket presto fryer in the future it has a much larger water resovoir.


Please let me know what you all think? I am open to any improvements or safety precautions that I need to implement, like do I need a transformer or a relay? Be kind though, it is my first post.



Full system at proof of concept stage.





Water heater lower thermostat 10$
125-150F



Harbor Freight heat gun13$ (8$ if you can find a coupon...I bought 3)
Dual power switch allows for always on and thermostat controlled heating




IKEA timer/thermometer 7$ (x2 if you want temp and countdown monitoring/ alerting)





IKEA milk frother 3$
I need to figure a good way to mount this. But it will eventually be replaced by a small air pump or actual circulating pump mounted on the element housing or the gun itself.

You have really turned a simple concept into something incredibly complicated. Not to mention, all those wires around water, dangerous.

I would get a kettle, ebay temp controller, and a 1500w heating element, SSR . Wire the controller to the SSR, drill hole in kettle, mount element. Plug element into controller, and voila, Sous Vide cooking without all the bare wires. Might want to make sure your plugged into a GFI outlet.

I use my HLT, it didn't cost me a dime and is a hell of a lot safer then that contraption.

You can get a temp controller on ebay for $12 and a heating element at Home Depot for $15. It would be safer and less complicated.

monster mash said:

i use my hlt, it didn't cost me a dime

Click to expand...

+1

Looks a little scary to me. We show some of our setups, here.

When I don't want to fill 3 gallons of hot water into my beer cooler sous-vide setup because I'm just cooking a single item, I've been hooking up my stc-1000 ebay temp controller that I use to run it to my crock pot. I just run the temp probe into it. I sometimes also stick one of my immersion heater coils from the sous-vide into it for added heat.

I also feed the aquarium bubbler stone in as well. Lately I've been toying with the idea of just going to salvation army and getting the largest crock pot I can find, and just using that as a dedicated sous-vide cooker. Drilling through the glass lid, or replacing it entirely so I can drop the bubbler, temp probe and a thermometer into the solution.

I don't understand why you removed the controls in the fryer in the first place? With a STC1000 temp controller and a SSR you could have made a control box to plug into and kept the fryer functional. Then you could also use the control box for any other temp control:

sous vide via slow cooker
kegerator
fermentation chamber
wine/beer cellar
heat stick for hot liquor tank

I also don't see ground wires anywhere, and that circuit should be on GFI if you value your life. Routing the wires over the water is a bad bad idea.

Hate to say it but you are one step away from the hair dryer in the bathtub.

Yowza. I think I got a little bit electrocuted just looking at this.

SpentGrains said:

I don't understand why you removed the controls in the fryer in the first place? With a STC1000 temp controller and a SSR you could have made a control box to plug into and kept the fryer functional. Then you could also use the control box for any other temp control:

sous vide via slow cooker
kegerator
fermentation chamber
wine/beer cellar
heat stick for hot liquor tank

I also don't see ground wires anywhere, and that circuit should be on GFI if you value your life. Routing the wires over the water is a bad bad idea.

Hate to say it but you are one step away from the hair dryer in the bathtub.

Click to expand...

The controls for the fryer are all computer controlled, so it would only allow you to set a temp and time, once the power is switched off would not come back on automatically. My original plan was to use the element for sous vide and a heat stick when I start brewing again. I will go on and use a water heater element to make the heat stick though. The Heat gun was used because the cord, wall plug and switch together would have cost much more than the 8$ I spent on it. I also needed the nichrome wire for another project I am working on.

As far as the wires are concerned, I just wanted to see if it would all work together before enclosing anything... Especially the water heater thermometer. And for the most part it did. The wires were never exposed to the water while it was plugged in, and it was all plugged into a 20Amp GFCI outlet.
I am hoping to get a temp controller or PID (STC1000 or Johnson Controls A419...or a sous vide magic) for Christmas, until then my steaks are staying in the skillet and on the grill.

I will come back when I am ready to wire it all up. Thanks for the comments.

Revvy said:

Looks a little scary to me. We show some of our setups, here.

When I don't want to fill 3 gallons of hot water into my beer cooler sous-vide setup because I'm just cooking a single item, I've been hooking up my stc-1000 ebay temp controller that I use to run it to my crock pot. I just run the temp probe into it. I sometimes also stick one of my immersion heater coils from the sous-vide into it for added heat.

I also feed the aquarium bubbler stone in as well. Lately I've been toying with the idea of just going to salvation army and getting the largest crock pot I can find, and just using that as a dedicated sous-vide cooker. Drilling through the glass lid, or replacing it entirely so I can drop the bubbler, temp probe and a thermometer into the solution.

Click to expand...

Good Ideas! I got a free turkey fryer on craigslist I plan to use once I get the basics down.