BruT54
Member
I do partial boils on a weak electric stove; it used to take hours (literally) to get 2 1/2 gals to a boil. I bought a 'bucket heater' - basically a heat stick, but it was pretty weak & still took forever to get a good boil going.
So I built a heat stick using a 1500 watt water heater element.
It works great, gets 3+ gallons to a boil very fast, but...
When the wort gets boiling, it gets to such a vigorous boil that it 'spits' out of the kettle - all over the stove & floor. Even if I put the lid on the kettle it spits out the gaps caused by the heat stick protruding from the kettle.
If I unplug the heat stick the stove can't maintain a boil.
So - was wondering if there was some way to modify the heat stick & put in some kind of controller to dial the temp back a bit - ?? I'd like to maintain a boil but not so vigorous. I guess I could try building another heat stick with a lower wattage element as a last resort...
I appreciate any thoughts or ideas -
thanks
BT
So I built a heat stick using a 1500 watt water heater element.
It works great, gets 3+ gallons to a boil very fast, but...
When the wort gets boiling, it gets to such a vigorous boil that it 'spits' out of the kettle - all over the stove & floor. Even if I put the lid on the kettle it spits out the gaps caused by the heat stick protruding from the kettle.
If I unplug the heat stick the stove can't maintain a boil.
So - was wondering if there was some way to modify the heat stick & put in some kind of controller to dial the temp back a bit - ?? I'd like to maintain a boil but not so vigorous. I guess I could try building another heat stick with a lower wattage element as a last resort...
I appreciate any thoughts or ideas -
thanks
BT