Thermowell in Electric HLT

[nickmastr]

Hey Guys,

I'm building an Electric HLT from a 60qt kettle. Heating element will be installed in the bottom, but I am having problems deciding where to place the thermowell, since there will be a significant amount of water above the heating element. I'm afraid the element will skew the temperature reading from the thermowell.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[MalFet]

If you search for "HLT stratification" on this site you'll get a wide range of opinions on the matter. In short, you'll get some extent of temperature difference at various spots in your HLT, but not a ton. If you're looking for best practices in precise measurement, you can get a cheap aquarium air pump and run bubbles through the liquor to mix things up.

If you don't want to do that, the question then becomes what you're trying to measure. If you're looking for the temperature of the water that will come out of the spigot when you open it initially, stick the thermowell near there on the bottom. If you're looking for the average temperature of the whole volume, you'll have to do some experimenting.