You can bend it, as long as you don't kink the outer tube.
A heating element is a metal tube (normally a seamless SS tube), with a resistor wire running down the center, full of borosilicate sand and sealed at the ends.
When manufacturing them, the wire (normally NiChrome, sometimes manganin) is held taut inside the straight tube, while the sand is packed around it. Then the ends are sealed, and finally the thing is bent to shape.
Just use a good quality bender, and be careful. And, afterwards, use a multimeter to make sure the wire is not touching the tube.
I thought that the element was solid. Bending it sounds much less appealing now. I can go with a 12" 4500 UL watt element and not have to risk the bending process. Being as I only do 5 gallon batches the 4500 watt element should give acceptable heating performance. But I liked the ULW feature of the 5500 watt, hopefully that's not going to be an issue.
I thought that the element was solid. Bending it sounds much less appealing now. I can go with a 12" 4500 UL watt element and not have to risk the bending process. Being as I only do 5 gallon batches the 4500 watt element should give acceptable heating performance. But I liked the ULW feature of the 5500 watt, hopefully that's not going to be an issue.
And, afterwards, use a multimeter to make sure the wire is not touching the tube.
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