1650 Watts to bring 3.5 G to a boil in 30 minutes?

[kenc_zymurgy]

I'm planning an Electric Brewery. Here's my next question - from my reading so far, it sounds like a 1650 watt element should be able to bring 3.5 Gallons of wort from mash temperatures to a boil in 20~30 minutes. Does that sound right?

1650 means I can run from a 15 Amp 120V outlet (North America), while the next size up, 2000/2250 (which seem to be fewer offerings with a Tri-Clamp fitting) requires 20A/120V. I'll be moving probably in the next year, so I'd just like to be flexible, and 20A is less common than 15A.

From my calculations from some other posts, 2000/2250 might only knock 10 minutes off the time to get to a boil,
so for me, that's not worth being limited to a 20A outlet. Simple math says: 30 minutes * (1650 ∕ 2250) = 22
, so yes, just knocks off ~ 8 minutes?

For reference, I've copied the details below from my earlier post on a run dry prevention idea:

For years I've been doing 5.5 G batches on the kitchen gas stove, splitting an ~ 7 G boil across two 5 G brewpots and two burners, which has worked OK ( ~ 20~30 minutes to go from mash to a boil with ~3.5 G per pot). So my thoughts are to add a 1650 watt 120V element to each 5 gallon brewpot, with each on a separate 120V circuit (so that I'm not dependent on a 240V circuit).

 

[Bobby_M]

At 3 gallons, you can get 50F of rise in 14 minutes so 3.5 would be just under 17 minutes.

 

[sicktght311]

FYI, you can boil 7 total gallons on 1650 watts. Dont let anyone tell you that you cant. i've been doing it for 2 years now with not a single issue. Yes it takes a while to get there, but it does. I brew 5 gallon batches, and for something heavily dryhopped i typically boil 7 gallons with a boiloff of .75gal per hour, leaving behind about .25gallons of waste, giving me 6 gallons in my fermenter.

I leave the lid on between mash and boil while itsheating up, and remove the lid a couple degrees from boil. Its just rolling enough to work extremely well. Never had a single issue with DMS or off flavors, and i've brewed just about every style there is.

So i know the goal is to be faster, but remember that you can still do full 5 gallons in one single vessel

 

[bracconiere]

i can boil 6 or so gallons on my 1,500 watt hot plate...take a couple of hours to go from room temp to boil, but it does it, and i have to reduce power to simmer it, once it's there.

 

[kenc_zymurgy]

i can boil 6 or so gallons on my 1,500 watt hot plate...take a couple of hours to go from room temp to boil, but it does it, and i have to reduce power to simmer it, once it's there.

What kind of hot plate? Induction or plain old simple hot plate?

I kinda thought about doing my split boils (3.5 gallons each in two pots for 7 gallons preboil) with two cheap hot plates. I know those aren't as efficient at getting heat into the liquid as induction, so I wasn't sure that could work. But if the control is enough on it to adjust the boil w/o an external SSR, that sure would be simple.

I do all grain, so roughly figure half the volume you described (split boil), and only going from room to strike/sparge temps, and from mash to boil, so each of those steps might be ~ 30 minutes?

But I don't want to go induction, need new pots, and I'm not sure of the reliability of the cheaper ones (which aren't cheap!).

 

[bracconiere]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CADCO-KR-S...484a99e1a5995e379413|ampid:PL_CLK|clp:2334524
i took it apart and by passed the knob to be always on, and use a fan speed controller. this one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/For-Router...426798c9118f7104ba97|ampid:PL_CLK|clp:2334524

and i have it all plugged into a kill-a-watt meter at the wall, so i can see wattage in real time....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/P3-KILL-A-...632669?hash=item2633c9fc9d:g:1okAAOSwSYVfxpq2

(my hot plate actually says it's a KR-SW but same brand, and they look similar same wattage, mines ancient)


and according to the kill-a-watt meter when i reach a boil, i can maintain a simmer with about 500-600 watts

 

[Bobby_M]

FYI, you can boil 7 total gallons on 1650 watts. Dont let anyone tell you that you cant. i've been doing it for 2 years now with not a single issue. Yes it takes a while to get there, but it does. I brew 5 gallon batches, and for something heavily dryhopped i typically boil 7 gallons with a boiloff of .75gal per hour, leaving behind about .25gallons of waste, giving me 6 gallons in my fermenter.

I leave the lid on between mash and boil while itsheating up, and remove the lid a couple degrees from boil. Its just rolling enough to work extremely well. Never had a single issue with DMS or off flavors, and i've brewed just about every style there is.

So i know the goal is to be faster, but remember that you can still do full 5 gallons in one single vessel

I won't tell you that YOU can't but I can tell you that I couldn't. I also have at least a dozen customers that had me install a 2250w element for a 6 gallon boil and they returned to have a second port installed for another element. There are a lot of factors at work. Voltage drop is one... some people have 109 volts at the outlet. Another difference is opinions of what a boil is supposed to look like. 1650 for me, in a bucket of 5 gallons of water, looks like a simmer where you get some localized boil bubbles on the element itself. The water never gets above 209F where we boil at 211.5F here.

 

[bracconiere]

i can actually see inside while mines boiling, but i can say it's rocking back and forth when it is, and i have to lower the wattage.....