Boil coil on/of switch?

Hello All,

I have recently purchased a 240v 10 gallon boil coil as I live in a Condo and do not have the room/ability to brew on a propane burner. I have been brewing all grain 3 gallon biab batches on my stove but want to move up to 5 gallon batches (and not completely wreck my stove). I will be using a cooler for full volume mashes and will only be using the boil coil to bring the water up to mash temperature and to boil the wort.

My question is: given that I will in essence only be using the boil coil to boil and heat water do I need to have a temperature control unit? The diy units I've seen here seem to far surpass my needs as does the tower of power supplied by blichmann. I do not think that I need more than an on/off switch, as I will monitoring the temperature to mash and after that I will be keeping it at a boil.

I will be plugging the boil coil into an extension cord run to the stove plug. Does anyone know of a readily available switch, preferably plug and play? Or something that I could easily make (including easy to follow instructions)? I stress the word "easily" as my electrical know how goes only as far as installing simple light fixtures and changing out electrical outlets/switches in my home.

Thanks for any and all assistance.

Cheers

 

The problem with an on/off switch is that full power might give you too vigorous of a boil, but you could try it.

To keep it simple, I'd put one of these digital power regulators ina project box. Turning it to zero is off. Just be sure what your plugging into is on a gfi.

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_30&products_id=444

 

Thanks for the reply! This looks great, but I worry about the kind of plug it uses. The boilcoil uses a twist lock plug (http://www.lockingpowercords.com/products/79-20a125v-locking-power-cords.aspx). Have you used this with a boilcoil before?

 

How were you planning to plug in the boil coil? Dryer outlet? Spa panel?

This thing doesn't have a plug. You'll need some wiring experience to rig up this in a project box, and a female twist lock plug to output to the boilcoil, then an input side based on how you plan to get power to it.

 

Yes, true, I forgot, thanks.

 

I use one of THESE for simple boil control. Works great. I can run it at about 75% and get about 1GPH boil off.