20 gallon megapot on a stovetop?? Am I out of my mind?

Has anyone ever attempted to boil using a 20 gallon kettle on their stovetop? The 20gal megapot measures 21" in diameter and 17" tall so it would fit nicely over two burners, but I'm still wondering if that's going to be enough to get ~15gal of wort to a nice rolling boil. Another consideration would be the weight I suppose. A full kettle would weigh around 130lbs or so. Might be a concern on a standard stovetop... Would be nice to be able to do 10gal batches in my small nyc apartment if this is a possibility. Thoughts, anyone?

Weight is an issue, but burner strength is probably the bigger one. A bigger pot means faster heat loss, and thus higher BTU requirements to get a boil going. I've got a 10gal mega pot that I use on the stove for 5gal batches. I get a reasonable but light boil. I know I wouldn't get double that volume of water anywhere near boiling.

You = crazy.

I boil up MAYBE full 5 gallon batches on our Dacor 36" LPG semi-pro stove top.

Don't waste your time if your stove is not a semi-pro or pro gas model, in fact, don't even waste your time...since most have more BTU than even semi-pro stoves, spend the $50 on a propane burner and avoid some serious grief.

My humble $0.02.

Gas stovetop = remote painful possibility. Electric = no chance.

If you have a gas stove, you almost may be able to pull it off with two burners. BUT I tend to agree with the above two posters. Even if you were able to coax a small boil (emphasis is huge on IF), it wouldn't be close to efficient. AND the likelihood of 15 gallons worth of wort (8.3 lb/gal * 15 gal = 121lbs... BEFORE we add in the sugars and the weight of the pot itself) crushing your stovetop are pretty high.

Sorry to be a downer, but I think you may want to go in a different direction.

Some modern electrics will do it. I have a GE ceramic top infrared electric with a 12" diameter element. It will boil 8 gallons of wort without too much trouble. Never tried 10, but since I've got the dial on 8 to maintain a boil, I'm betting it would work.

Gas is probably a "no way Jose" situation.

I have issues with a full 6 gallon boil on my stovetop. It will do it, but my burners have bent, the top starts sagging and the clean up for any drips/boil overs is a lot of work.

I wanted to see how quick my stove could bring 10g to a boil, so I filled my 15g pot up with ~10g and threw it on my cheap stove top over 2 of the burners. Within 15 minutes the top was sagging and was scorched with black soot from the heat reflecting off the bottom of the pan. The burners sounded like they were in pain as they heated up. I'm going to say that if you don't have a heavy duty range, than I'd steer clear of putting that much weight on it.

I have a small, old (50s?) 4 burner gas range. I put my 25G hlt on it last brew (long story). The sheet metal sagged a bit. Heated water to 175 faster than I needed it to. One burner on low was enough to keep it at temp.

Using 2 burners on high I can get my gas stove to boil 7-8 gallons... but it takes forever.

Seems the general consensus is this isn't going to work for me and not worth investing in a spendy kettle to even try. Dammit. Thanks for all of the input!

Just FYI: I posed the same question to Northern Brewer's customer service at the same time I started this thread. NB's response:
"It's certainly possible, but it will really depend on your stove. I know some people who are able to do something like that, and some who's stove isn't powerful enough to boil that much liquid. It may be helpful to figure out how much water each burner is capable of boiling before you order a big kettle like that."

I don't think it's possible. I do 5.5G batches on a high-output single burner (~15k BTU), so I usually start with around 7G pre-boil. Even then, it takes forever to get to a boil.

Even with 2 burners, I think 5G or 5.5G batches are the limit for a stovetop unless you're adding a heatstick or two.

I am in a 1200 sq ft condo and do 10 gallon batches in a 15 gallon pot. I use the propane tank off my BBQ and a banjo. I would never think of using our stove.

~Diz

Maybe there's a way to use the your dryer connector to go electric?

Isn't that the kind of pot they use on ships in the Navy to make soup for the whole crew?

I have a 60qt megapot and I can fit it on my stove over two burners and get a boil (without a lid on it). When the volume is much above 5 gallons the boil is pretty timid. But at 5 gallons it is more than acceptable to brew beer.

5 gallons = decent boil
7 gallons = wimpy, but doable boil. So I use my sp10 burner outside.

I have a standard cheap plain Jane propane gas stove (hotpoint I think) that came with our house.

I have done 5G on the gas stove, but only with the help of 2 electric bucket heaters.