Help me pick an element (or two)

I'm in the process of building my electric brewery and one thing I can't decide on is which elements to use. I will be needing:

1) One element for my 7.5 gallon aluminum HLT that will only be heating strike and sparge water.

2) One element for my 10 gallon aluminum BK.

I do 6 gallon batches only (starting with about 8 gallons pre-boil). My elec circuit is 240V 30 amp and I will only ever be running one element at a time.

I don't quite fully understand whether to use HWD, LWD, or ULWD. I see there might be some issues with scorching? And also I see cleaning the BK element is important so are some easier to clean than others?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!!

a 5500 w element pulls 23 amp you can use that for your BK. If you intend to run only one at a time.

Any ole element will do. Many like the ulwd. I've used a few different kinds from old ones out of scrap pile water heaters to $8 el cheapo thrift store to brand new ulwd camco. I don't seem to notice much difference (on a herms system) They all get rusty around the base and will accumulate some type of layer of crust over time. The biggest thing is to never ever leave liquids stand in your kettle when you're not using it. Thats whats seems to do the most damadge to mine. I get lazy (drunk) after a brew day and leave my kettles dirty for another day.

I would use ULWD for both, but thats just me. If for some reason you have a problem, you can use the other kettle to finish up. Me? I have one kettle that is my HLT, then use my cooler MT, then I sparge into pails and pour them into the empty HLT and call it a boil kettle.

Thanks for the input.

Looking at the Camco 5500W ULWD Ripple style, the specs say minimum tank dia 15", can someone confirm that for me??? My BK is right around 15".

Thanks

-TH- said:

Thanks for the input.

Looking at the Camco 5500W ULWD Ripple style, the specs say minimum tank dia 15", can someone confirm that for me??? My BK is right around 15".

Thanks

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well Kal's site says minimum is 13.5 so I ordered one for my BK. I ordered a shorter 5500W HWD for the HLT because my HLT is only 13" dia and it will only be heating water so the HWD should be fine. Just can't run it dry from what I understand.

-TH- said:

Thanks for the input.

Looking at the Camco 5500W ULWD Ripple style, the specs say minimum tank dia 15", can someone confirm that for me??? My BK is right around 15".

Thanks

Click to expand...

I have a 10 gallon blich. The id of the kettle is 13 5/8". Have the Camco 5500 watt element ripple installed with 1/8" clearance. Just my 2 cents but if it was me I would stay away from any element that is zinc plated. BTW love your spreadsheet.

CBK said:

I have a 10 gallon blich. The id of the kettle is 13 5/8". Have the Camco 5500 watt element ripple installed with 1/8" clearance. Just my 2 cents but if it was me I would stay away from any element that is zinc plated. BTW love your spreadsheet.

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Just curious why do you say to avoid the zinc plated elements? I just bought this one yesterday for the HLT (water only). It doesn't say but it looks zinc plated.

you can get the zinc plating off pretty easily. I cut a 1.25 hole in the lid of a homer buck then filled the bucket with starsan. Let the element dangle in there for a day and the zinc just wiped right off.

I am looking to go all electric on my next HLT which will be 55 gallon SS. Does anyone have an formula for calculating the watts needed to heat this volume of water? I will not be boiling just heating to mash and sparge temp. Based on what I have read on the forum, it looks as though I will need 2-5500 watt Camco Low density elements but this may make the automation of the system more difficult? Any ideas?

OP - check at Home Depot. Our local store had Camco ULWD incoloy elements in the 4500 and 5500 watt sizes for less than $20 each (note, the shelf tag will say LWD, but if you look at the back of the package it says ULWD). You want ULWD in your boil kettle, it doesn't matter as much in the HLT since you're not worrying about scorching water. I've been running the 5500 watt in my boil kettle for 40+ batches now, even a couple of lite lagers where scorching would be obvious but the beers came out clean as a baby's bottom.
Lowes didn't have good a selection here for elements.

bigljd said:

OP - check at Home Depot. Our local store had Camco ULWD incoloy elements in the 4500 and 5500 watt sizes for less than $20 each (note, the shelf tag will say LWD, but if you look at the back of the package it says ULWD). You want ULWD in your boil kettle, it doesn't matter as much in the HLT since you're not worrying about scorching water. I've been running the 5500 watt in my boil kettle for 40+ batches now, even a couple of lite lagers where scorching would be obvious but the beers came out clean as a baby's bottom.
Lowes didn't have good a selection here for elements.

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Ok great thanks!

ULWD element offer a bit more safety for the element themselves. If you power them dry they might leave you enough time to turn them off before popin'. I read that you almost insta fry the HWD.