my take on covering the heating element connections

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Broncobum

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as I was roaming around the depot with element in hand trying pvc parts and whatnot, I came upon this guy:
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It is slip fit 1" on one side, and threaded 1/2" on the other. the slip fit is snug around the back of the element, and I threaded a 1/2" electrical compression fitting into the other.
b5036251-e885-4d99-a6f6-ef16938b0d9d_300.jpg

I drilled a hole on the inside crook of the elbow to let the ground wire out. A little silicone to keep everything sealed and in place and it is done.

01f5bb73.jpg
 
How did you ground this element, and how much did that wire thing cost/where was it in the store?
 
How did you ground this element, and how much did that wire thing cost/where was it in the store?

I grounded it by soldering that copper ground lug (you can see it in the last pic) right to the keg when i soldered on the locknut that holds the element. I ended up using a brass locknut i had left over from a recent sink faucet install instead of the $8.00 bargain fittings one.
The compression fitting for the wire is in the electrical/conduit fittings area. It has a piece of rubber that gets compressed as you tighten down the nut, making it watertight. It is the same thread pitch as the PVC piece but not tapered, so a little heat applied to the pvc allowed it to screw right in tightly. I can't believe the connection is not also watertight. The connectors come in a 2 pack for a couple of bucks.

Tiber_Brew said:
Did you pot it with epoxy inside the PVC? Or are you relying on the silicone alone? Have you boiled with it yet? Looks like a creative solution!

TB

I did not pot the connections. I used a bead of silicone between the element and the pvc to seal it and also hold the pvc in place. a little dab of silicone also went where the ground wire exits the underside of the elbow, although that probably wasn't necessary due to the tight fit and location of the hole.
This is on my HLT, so technically i haven't boiled with it, but i did use it up to 170 deg with absolutely no problem.
 
This seems like a great idea, I think that I'm going to use this this weekend when I mount my elements in my kettle!
 
Looks like its insulated, but is it strain relieved? In other words, if you pull the cord will the PVC stay in place?
 
Looks like its insulated, but is it strain relieved? In other words, if you pull the cord will the PVC stay in place?
well, I pulled the cable taught before I tightened the comp. fitting, so if you pulled on the cable hard enough you would have to break the silicone seal (tenacious stuff) and then rip the wires from behind the screws, then pull the ground wire out of the lug. If after all that you were still pulling, then yes you would trip the GFCI or breaker because of the wires shorting out. Personally I am still doing a 3 tier gravity setup, so 7 gallons of hot water would pour down on me before it got to that point.
I am not saying this is the greatest/safest way to do things, It just works for me, and I think is as safe as i need to be when mixing water and electricity.
I do have to give props to the outdoor electrical box over the connections setup. I was thinking about going that way until I came upon this elbow piece for 97 cents.
:mug:

edit- i actually just realized there is a safety factor built in, because the hot and neutral would pull away before the ground would, keeping the kettle grounded... like most electrical plugs where the ground is longer that the hot and neutral for the same reasons.
 
I wasn't trying to be nit-picky... Looks like a nice solution for insulating the connections. I was just wondering if you had found a way to build a strain relief into it that I wasn't seeing.
 
I wasn't trying to be nit-picky... Looks like a nice solution for insulating the connections. I was just wondering if you had found a way to build a strain relief into it that I wasn't seeing.

Sorry, I realized after re-reading my post it came back pretty defensive.
The strain relief pretty much comes from the silicone and the cable connections being pulled at the same time because I pulled all the cable slack out of the elbow before tightening up the comp. fitting. I have already yanked the cable, and bashed the pvc just in handling/moving from the basement to the yard to brew, and it seems pretty stout.
Tiber_Brew said:
Do you think that if you exerted enough lateral force on the PVC elbow, you could shear the silicone connection?
You probably could, but because the plastic part of the element extends into the elbow 1/2-3/4 of an inch, there isn't much lateral play.
 
Couldn't you just tie a knot into the cord inside the elbow?
Everything fits so well, there probably isn't enough room to do that, the compression fitting fits so tight it pretty much does the same thing. the weak point would be the pvc meeting the element, which is upstream of what a knot would accomplish anyway.
 
Well, you could use JB weld instead of silicone to bond everything. Probably a bit stronger.....but if you got some cheap epoxy (cheaper than JB Weld) you could probably fill the whole damn thing!
 
Sorry, I realized after re-reading my post it came back pretty defensive.
The strain relief pretty much comes from the silicone and the cable connections being pulled at the same time because I pulled all the cable slack out of the elbow before tightening up the comp. fitting. I have already yanked the cable, and bashed the pvc just in handling/moving from the basement to the yard to brew, and it seems pretty stout.

You probably could, but because the plastic part of the element extends into the elbow 1/2-3/4 of an inch, there isn't much lateral play.

Again, not trying to be picky... in an ideal situation, the strain relief should put any force of pulling the cord on the jacket of the cord and not the electrical connections... the idea is to protect the connections. With that in mind you might actually be a bit better off with some slack in the wire inside the elbow so the silicone takes the brunt of someone tripping over the cord before the connection get involved. (I know you have the cords up out of the way so they're not gonna be tripped over, I was just using that as an example)

I'm not trying to pick at your design, just saying, if you can work out the strain relief, I think you have a big time winner... cheap and easy.

Ed
 
Again, not trying to be picky... in an ideal situation, the strain relief should put any force of pulling the cord on the jacket of the cord and not the electrical connections... the idea is to protect the connections. With that in mind you might actually be a bit better off with some slack in the wire inside the elbow so the silicone takes the brunt of someone tripping over the cord before the connection get involved. (I know you have the cords up out of the way so they're not gonna be tripped over, I was just using that as an example)

I'm not trying to pick at your design, just saying, if you can work out the strain relief, I think you have a big time winner... cheap and easy.

Ed

I hear what you are are saying, but I brew alone, the cable ends were tinned to make a solid connection, and I truly believe it would up-end the whole keg before any pulling apart of the connection would occur. I am just putting something out there that works for me that is cheap and easy.

As an aside, I also found a piece that that plugs into a normal grounded outlet that is an inline GFCI outlet that home depot doesn't have on their site but carries in my store. It costs about the same as a bare gfci outlet, but it plugs inline... easy-peasy.
 
as I was roaming around the depot with element in hand trying pvc parts and whatnot, I came upon this guy:

I love this. You've solved this issue for me! I wanted to avoid the electrical box on the keg, and I want to weld the locknut as well. I think I'll probably JB weld the crap out of the connections instead of the silicone. And I'll also sand the elbow smooth and spray it with some of that sweet hammered metal paint before final assembly.

PROST!
 
Why's that?

Purely aesthetic. I like round and symmetrical and smooth. The electrical box is a much better solution if you have to replace the element, and it's probably just as good when it comes to safety as far and water tightness goes.

I just got back from the Depot, and I found a slightly different solution using similar parts. It takes a little more fab work but it solves the problem of being able to rip the PVC away from the element. I'll post a thread with pictures as soon as I can.
 
Purely aesthetic. I like round and symmetrical and smooth. The electrical box is a much better solution if you have to replace the element, and it's probably just as good when it comes to safety as far and water tightness goes.

I just got back from the Depot, and I found a slightly different solution using similar parts. It takes a little more fab work but it solves the problem of being able to rip the PVC away from the element. I'll post a thread with pictures as soon as I can.

Sounds good, I'm halfway decided in either using the junction box or pemanent PVC solution...perhaps this is the in-between solution. Looking forward to seeing this solution.
 
This is pretty much the same thing I have, except that I used a straight piece of PVC instead of an elbow. I didn't pot the connections inside with epoxy, but I sealed the outside well.

It's pretty solid. I can tug the keg around by the cable and things stay in place perfectly.

Edit: I tried first sealing with silicon, but the connection wasn't stable. It broke free and was a hazard. I re-did the sealing with JB Weld and it's like a rock now.
 
I love this. You've solved this issue for me! I wanted to avoid the electrical box on the keg, and I want to weld the locknut as well. I think I'll probably JB weld the crap out of the connections instead of the silicone. And I'll also sand the elbow smooth and spray it with some of that sweet hammered metal paint before final assembly.

PROST!

I also wanted to avoid the electrical box on the keg, but it was because the rubber coated keg made it much more difficult to mount the box than a standard keg.
Even if you pot the connections, the pvc elbow was so cheap, you can replace it at will much cheaper than the box setup.
During my last visit to lowes, I saw something that might be useful. A baseboard electric heat thermostat. It says no limits on temp, and it will easily switch my 1500 watt 120v element. I will have to lay down the cash to see if it will work, but it might be a low cost solution to heat control with the electric elements.
 
This is pretty much the same thing I have, except that I used a straight piece of PVC instead of an elbow. I didn't pot the connections inside with epoxy, but I sealed the outside well.

It's pretty solid. I can tug the keg around by the cable and things stay in place perfectly.

Edit: I tried first sealing with silicon, but the connection wasn't stable. It broke free and was a hazard. I re-did the sealing with JB Weld and it's like a rock now.

Sweet. glad to see this idea is working for different people in different ways.

built not bought ftw!
 
...Even if you pot the connections, the pvc elbow was so cheap, you can replace it at will much cheaper than the box setup.

I guess that depends on how many times you anticipate replacing your elements. I paid $11/each for my waterproof boxes, and they don't need to be replaced if you have to replace the element. If you have to spend more than $5 to replace the elbow, buy new epoxy/JB weld, and new wire, then it might be more cost effective to go with the boxes (if you have to replace the elements 2 or more times in the lifetime of your rig). Otherwise, yeah, it's cheaper to go with the PVC and epoxy route.

TB
 
I guess that depends on how many times you anticipate replacing your elements. I paid $11/each for my waterproof boxes, and they don't need to be replaced if you have to replace the element. If you have to spend more than $5 to replace the elbow, buy new epoxy/JB weld, and new wire, then it might be more cost effective to go with the boxes (if you have to replace the elements 2 or more times in the lifetime of your rig). Otherwise, yeah, it's cheaper to go with the PVC and epoxy route.

TB
I see what you are saying. The box is a good system, but for me I always seem to have sealant around (own a house), made my cord plenty long to cut off and start again, the elbow is 97¢, and this is in my hlt so I am thinking it will last awhile. Just tryin to get what worked for me out there.
I only used a small bead of silicone around the element base, so most of it could be re-used. for those that pot the whole thing in epoxy/jbweld it might be that the replace the whole setup when they replace the element.

to each their own. that is the beauty of this hobby. Ingenuity!
 
I see what you are saying. The box is a good system, but for me I always seem to have sealant around (own a house), made my cord plenty long to cut off and start again, the elbow is 97¢, and this is in my hlt so I am thinking it will last awhile. Just tryin to get what worked for me out there.
I only used a small bead of silicone around the element base, so most of it could be re-used. for those that pot the whole thing in epoxy/jbweld it might be that the replace the whole setup when they replace the element.

to each their own. that is the beauty of this hobby. Ingenuity!

Well, right, but my comment was directed towards your words that I quoted above, not which method is better. I agree that different methods and desings will work for different people, and that is indeed one great thing about this hobby. Just keep in mind I wasn't criticizing your method/design, I was questioning the financial reasoning in the quoted text. You've got a method that should work well, with a reasonable initial investment, good job my friend! :mug:

TB

EDIT: note that I'm not trying to discourage you, or anyone thinking of using this method.
 
Well, right, but my comment was directed towards your words that I quoted above, not which method is better. I agree that different methods and designs will work for different people, and that is indeed one great thing about this hobby. Just keep in mind I wasn't criticizing your method/design, I was questioning the financial reasoning in the quoted text. You've got a method that should work well, with a reasonable initial investment, good job my friend! :mug:

TB

EDIT: note that I'm not trying to discourage you, or anyone thinking of using this method.

Got it. too many homebrews last night...:drunk:
:mug:
 

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