placement of two elements

I'm going to get rid of my electric keggle, and move all the parts to a standard kettle. I use two 1500w elements, and wondering if anyone has opinions on the placement of two elements. In the keggle I had them a few inches from each other. I've seen others put the elements on opposite ends. Is there any advantage at all?

http://www.cedarcreeknetworks.com/heatstick.htm said:

Heating elements generate an invisible, high-density plasma stream from their tips. It is best if you try not to allow the plasma streams to cross. Actually, the streams should NEVER cross. In fact, ALWAYS keep the tip's pointed in separate directions within the brew kettle or a thermal electric plasma reaction will occur resulting in the instant vaporization of your hard-earned, precious, sweet wort! (Just making sure you're still paying attention!) Seriously folks, while a heatstick works great - if built and used correctly for heating water, step mashing and boiling wort - like any power tool, please respect it as the potentially dangerous device it is and everyone will be able to relax, not worry, and brew MORE homebrew!

Click to expand...

This may help.

But, wouldn't any two elements mounted in the same pot actually cross? I think the only way to prevent that would be to have one mounted higher than the other.

That Cedar Creek site was incredible useful for me in my first foray into electric brewing, which was building a heatstick to augment my stovetop mashing and turkey fryer boiling processes.

But keep in mind that the entire first half of the statement pasted above is a joke, not just the sentence before the parentheses. There are no plasma streams, these are simple resistors, not jet engines, neon signs, or stars.

The design of my kettle lead me to (somewhat arbitrarily) position my two 1500 watt elements about 90 degrees from each other, opposite the dip tube. I'm sure most arrangements will work well. I'd focus mostly on how you want the outside of the kettle to work for you, where you want wires running, where you want your valves to be, your comfort and ease of use.

You will have some people tell you about having your heat source slightly off-center (typically referring to more traditional heat sources) to help "turnover" of the wort or something. I suppose my way accomplishes that, but again I'm really not sure that matters too much.

Enjoy the new build.