Electric system works! Few questions....

It's alive!!! However, when I go to do an auto tune, i should have my water and set value at mash temp before running it?

The pid probe is in the tee of my sight glass of my hlt (which is getting a herms coil) and water will be circulated around the kettle and coil constantly during the mash.

Also, I have a 5500 watt element in my keggle, and it seemed that only the water right above the element was boiling, it sits about four inches deep with five gallons in the keg. The rest didn't seem to be boiling. Normal?


Edit to anyone that saw the big paragraph earlier: with at set to 1, you still toggle between manual and automatic mode with a single press of the a/m button. Hold that button for three seconds to enter auto tune. The manual only said press it. Dur.

Is the boiling just over the element normal for an electric system?

My element is mounted an inch off the bottom. When boiling, on top looks like an outline of the element. So I guess that answers your question?

Is the boil rigorous right above the element, or are you just getting tiny/small bubbles off of the element itself?

If it's rigorous right above the element, that's normal. It's just like boiling on a stovetop. If you have one half of the pot heated by the stove, the "boil" will happen there. There should be enough convection to move the wort around, especialy if you're recirculating.

If the bubbles are tiny/small and there doesn't seem to be a full boil, then there must be something wrong with the element/wiring/controller/programming. That element is very much large enough to boil that qty of water.

It was rigorous right on top of the element. Thank you Wagon 6, that answers my question. I guess I was just used to boiling with my burner and the whole pot of wort boiling away. And my probe is a bit below the element so that proves the water is moving around. My pid read 212 once boil was achieved. I didnt know if it would affect hop utilization or anything like that. Thanks for the help guys!

I am using a keg for my setup, and I had to mount the element a little higher to prevent the element from sticking up at an angle from the rounded bottom corner of the keg. It covers the element at right about three gallons of liquid.

Yea the boil isn't going to be as rigorous when using propane/ng. It took some getting use to for me as well. And like sicklesr said, there's enough convection in there to keep it all moving.

Awesome. Now to build a brew stand!