Heatsick ....WoW

I built a couple 110V 2000W few days ago , about $20 for the pair . I tried one out today on a 10 gal BIAB ale. Wow , I used my gas burner and dangled a heatstick in for getting to mash temp and got there real quick .When getting to a full boil it came on real quick too and I was able to cut gas way back and maintain a supper boil !

Those things work really good !

Can you share the details of the build? I would love to build a couple of these for only $20.

Two 110V 2000W water heater elements $8 ea , four 1-1/4" pvc pipe caps $.50 ea , piece of 1-1/4" x 2' pvc pipe remnant $1 , cord and plugs ( I had ).

I bored two caps and tapped for 1" NPT , bored two caps 3/8" for cords . Cut pipe in half , slipped cord thru pipe and 3/8" cap , screwed element into 1" NPT threaded cap after connecting wires to element , glued element cap to pipe and just shoved cord end cap on without glue. Then put plug on cord . Took about 1/2 hour to make them up. I only made the cords 6' long on mine for easier storage.

You may want to change that up a little bit. PVC will get soft and flexible when it gets hot since it isn't rated for hot liquids. It could even be possible if you boil the glue joints they could separate, not to mention all the chemicals that can leach out since pvc isn't designed to come in contact with hot liquids. You might want to figure out a way to make it out of stainless steel or copper.

PVC is just fine for this build. There have been many documentation a of this build and not one story of a failure you're describing (ie deforming or joints coming unglued). The only thing I wonder about your build is if your cord is of sufficient gauge and if your connections are water tight at your element.

The elements come with a rubber gasket and they are tightened in good. The cord is a 16ga . According to chart at store is good for 18 amps and element draws 16 amps , borderline but it worked and cord didnt get overly warm . I could feel it was warm but not hot . I would have used 14ga if I had a piece of it
I fired the element up in a pan of water to check for leakage before use and none leaked into pipe , believe me I was aprehensive about electricity and water !!

dlaramie08 said:

PVC is just fine for this build. There have been many documentation a of this build and not one story of a failure you're describing (ie deforming or joints coming unglued).

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I have never seen a stick built entirely w/ PVC, typically the portion submerged in the boiling wort is a chrome metal drain pipe, with a pvc extension / handle.

I had the the stick set with about 1/2 cap in the boil and it splashed up ever so often while boiling . When I shut all off I smelled the pipe and it smell like beer and not chemical .

So here's a dumb question (but consider the source). Why is it necessary to modify the heat stick at all?

take some pvc and glued joint and boil it in water, then once it cools drink said water and tell me how it tastes

-=Jason=-

wilserbrewer said:

I have never seen a stick built entirely w/ PVC, typically the portion submerged in the boiling wort is a chrome metal drain pipe, with a pvc extension / handle.

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I dont know about a heat stick, but my hops spider deformed the first use. i changed it to stainless and have never looked back!

Not to start plastic wars 2.0 (another bucket thread!) but...

PVC contains phthalates. Phthalates are bad. I wouldn't put that in my beer, and I wouldn't drink anybody's beer made with it. I've had too many family members die of cancer - young, too - to mess with this kind of stuff. For goodness sakes, even if it costs you $100 to upgrade to a food-safe material, it's not that much money in the long run. It really isn't.

never mind ....

Why is it necessary to modify the heat stick at all?

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upon further study I realized how truly dumb my question was ... carry on .. that is all

Boy !! What did I do ? Smack a hornets nest with a stick ??

I doubt the small area of the tip of cap with infrequent contact while boiling caused any harm. It dangled in this fashion as to keep element immursed .

Hayseed said:

Boy !! What did I do ? Smack a hornets nest with a stick ??

I doubt the small area of the tip of cap with infrequent contact while boiling caused any harm. It dangled in this fashion as to keep element immursed .

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Please try this and report back to this thread...
Pvc cap glued to a small piece of Pvc pipe submerged in boiling water for one hour. After this hour cool and drink the water and report back.

Sent from my HTC One using Home Brew mobile app

Uhhmmm.... I didnt submerge the pvc and let it boil in the wort. I had it set to just keep element submerged . If you look at pic you will see that the turbulance of the boil splashes up on cap .

I don't know if I can make out what your describing in that pic you posted. To me all I can see is a piece of pvc sticking out of the middle of your boil. Could you post a pic of it not in the pot so people can see the entire thing?

At top of pvc where cord goes in you will notice a step about 1-14" down the pvc pipe. On the bottem there is another cap like one on top and element tip is about 8" below surfce. In pic it looks to be fully in wort but that is because of the roll of boil . Only time any of pvc cap is in boil is when turbulance of boil rolls and splashes on cap . The cap isnt immersed and subjected to full force of boil nor is the glue . When pvc gets too hot it emits an acetone odor and I never smelled anything like that after the boil or in my OG sample and tasting it before pitching yeast.

Time will tell when I pull a sample in a couple weeks. IF its nasty Ill go plan 'B' , tap a couple holes in bottem sides for 1" pipe and put elements in solid in my keggle project .

Oops! Double tap !

Just finished taking my first FG reading of 1.010 and drank the the sample .
No chemical or off tastes of any sort . Was a little sweet caramel flavored as expected from the carapils , but that will fall off after bottle conditioning.

But as far as using the PVC , it didnt harm anything , being I didnt boil it in the wort,but suspended it to where the cap danced in boil off and on .

I used it a few days ago making up a 1 gal test batch on the kitchen range to assist the range burner in hurrying things along and boy did it !! I slowly stirred with it bringing mash water up to temp and again to bring wort to a boil.

It really speeds things along !

But , I wont be cooking the handle in my brew !

beernardo said:

Not to start plastic wars 2.0 (another bucket thread!) but...

PVC contains phthalates. Phthalates are bad. I wouldn't put that in my beer, and I wouldn't drink anybody's beer made with it. I've had too many family members die of cancer - young, too - to mess with this kind of stuff. For goodness sakes, even if it costs you $100 to upgrade to a food-safe material, it's not that much money in the long run. It really isn't.

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This is why they make CVPC. Although, not in this type of tubing for drains, but for supply. It's food safe PVC, FYI. Mine has a PVC elbow that hangs over the kettle, but is a couple inches above the water.

Regardless, according the cdc, what exposure to phthalates causes is unknown. Furthermore, when you consider the crap the FDA allows to be put in our food, drinks, and medicines... idk.. if you're talking about phthalates, you'd better be eating and drinking organically...

Oh, and a ton of people use brass fittings for their systems that come into contact with wort. I'm not talking about the new lead free ones either. I'd be more concerned about the lead in brass than PVC, especially with the low ph of wort, but that's just me. What's really juxstapositional, are those who complain about PVC or plastic, and have brass fittings on their homemade cooler Mash Tuns.

With that being said, I do use CPVC in all things that touch drinkable fluids