Indented bottom on brew pot - flat top stove

[Cincy_Ron]

Just getting back in to homebrewing after about a 8 year hiatus. My stainless steel brewpot has the bottom indented for some reason. Wasn't a problem in my old place because I had a gas stove but the new place has one of these flat glass type stovetops and the heating portion doesn't really make contact with the bottom of the pot. I can tell it's really affecting how long it takes me to get a boil going because of the air space between the surface of the stove and the bottom of the pot. Anyone else run in to this problem? Could I come up with a circular piece of copper or some other metal that would transfer the heat? Any other options?

Thanks!

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Can you pound it flat with a rubber mallet?

 

[RogerMcAllen]

What is the diameter of the pot, and what is the radius of curvature of the dent (or how wide is the pot, and how deep is the dent)?

I think the copper circle is a good idea. I would try getting a piece of 1/16" copper plate and cutting circles to make something to fill in the dent. Stack increasingly smaller circles to form a hemisphere. Something like:
...._______
..___________
_______________

 

[jkarp]

You can fold up some tinfoil to fill the gap, but ultimately, you're going to want to find a clad-bottom pot if you stick to the glass top for boiling.

 

[earlytimes]

I used to have this problem. I just took an old bath towel and wrapped it around the pot and duct-taped it in place. Make sure to center the pot over the burner so you don't singe the towel. then put the lid on until it gets to a boil. It's amazing what a little insulation and a lid can do to get things boiling. It probably cut off 20 minutes and I could actually get rolling boils. And boilovers? As long as it wasn't severe, the towel would catch anything that went over the side. Give it a try next time.

 

[Cincy_Ron]

I'll shoot a picture of the bottom of the pot and post it once I get the thing cleaned up. Just did a 5 gallon batch and was killing some time on here during the boil. Managed to find this thread with some creative searching. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/improved-boiling-stovetop-53683/
I had a roll of the insulation that FlyGuy mentions in that thread so I cut some up, wrapped the pot, and very noticeable improvement!
Thanks guys!

 

[nebben]

OK, sorry to be a buzzkill, but I gave up on my flat top stove for brewing anything more than 2 gallons. It is SO picky about the pot needing to touch the glass to heat it. One pot with flat bottom boils at 80% power, another with same quantity of liquid wont boil until much longer on 100% power, and even then it is a weak boil.

I'm convinced that an expensive pot with super-flat bottom could work, but even then..... SWMBO isn't quite into it. Boiling wort smell is one thing, but when a few drips of it hit a hot burner, which does happen, it will sizzle and smoke, causing the smoke detector to go off and if left to burn, causing pitting in the glass. These cooktops are much better to look at than to use for making much of anything, IMHO.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Turky fryer burner for you then.

 

[spitfire]

I have one with a bottom like that and have electric flat top stove. My first batch I was lucky to get 2 gallons to a mild boil.

My next brew I put the part of the pot that actually touches the stop top on the big burner and the other half on the small burner so I have 2 contact points. Worked great. I was able to get a hard rolling boil at 3.5 gallons and I'm sure I could go to 4 gallons no problems.

 

[zanemoseley]

Just buy the $45 5.5 gallon clad SS pot from WallyWorld, I can boil 5 gallons in it with foam control on my glass top stove no problem.