Cable Lengths

For all of the people who are using electric water heater elements on their kettles, what is the length of the cable you used? I was originally thinking 6 feet, however I think that this maybe too short. I am mounting the heating elements directly to the kegs and do not want to make them too short.

Thanks,
Dennis

 

You need a cable long enough to reach the power supply. Since each rig is placed differently in relation to the power source, there is no single answer to your question.

The longer the cable, the thicker the wire needs to be. This link has some good, basic information: http://home.mchsi.com/~gweidner/extension-cords.pdf

 

Depends on your brew rig. On mine, 6' was plenty to reach my control panel... where is your control panel?

 

I just have short 12" pigtails coming off each one of my elements. It makes it easy to deal with when I take it off the brewstand for cleaning etc. Then whatever appropriately sized extension cords work. Just one more method, not necessarily the best.

 

Are these pigtails waterproof?

 

When starting from scratch make them longer than you need to allow moving the brewery without the cord becoming a jump rope. Not long like a 100' run as VD will become a problem and wire gage increase must be added to this length. VD as in voltage drop not the drip drip burn burn type.
I have 3 lengths 250' each of #2 three conductor with a #4 ground on down to #12/3 all SOOW cord off a temp power job as free. State CalTrans highway job removed on night shift with many 3,942' runs out of two tunnels to the scrap yard.
Like new just dusty, time was money.
Best part loaded the 5 ton flatbed on company time and drove it home per shop owners instructions all free with many 50 amp cord caps plus a 100 amp pin socket and plug by Kilark for my Tig welder. It draws 103 amps it I put my foot into it on 1/2" aluminum plate.

 

6' cords on mine, plenty of room to get to my control panel.

 

my controller will only be near my kegs so I am thinking that 6 ft will be enough at first but when I finally attached the cord to the element it just seemed so short that I was a little concerned. I will make the other one 8 feet just to make sure that it will fit. I just wanted to see what length people had used.

 

Got a tape measure?

 

Pol, you make a good point. I was just seeing if people had any suggestions before I went through the trouble of making the cables.

 

The pigtails are not waterproofed in any manner aside from being "outdoor" extension cords. I have my rig set up such that a drip loop is formed so if any water runs down the HLT it does not have the ability to drip into the connection to the extension cord.

 

For my heatstick, I put a 6 foot cord on the stick, and made a 10 foot extension cord, with switched GFCI outlet. Later, I doubled the length of the extension cord.

For my upcoming 240V setup, I will have to make a 50 foot extension cord. I am going to put the 240V outlet in the garage, right under the breaker box for ease of installation. That will be a long cord when brewing in the garage, but I will need the length when brewing on the patio.