I LOVE waking up to hot strike water. Easy as 1-2-3.

A quick google search shows they are carried by True Value hardware stores, though you'd want to call ahead to make sure they have it in stock.

There are several stores around the Syracuse area and having made that trip many times myself, I would recommend you stop at one a little south of Syracuse for easy-on/easy-off the highway (I-81)

This store locater is cool in that it auto-updates when you drag the map:

http://www.truevalue.com/store_locator.jsp

They have free ship-to-store, so the best thing would likely be to pick a store, buy the heater online, ship to that store, pick up heater. Done.

 

I hope you guys are really careful with this. Generally, you should not run your dishwasher, clothes dryer, or stove while you're away or sleeping, because those are the most common appliances to start fires. Why? Because they use heaters.

Be careful with this unwatched heater idea folks. I wouldn't feel comfortable myself.

 

Nice thread

Cheers

 

That's great - emailed a few stores along the way asking about availability. Thank you!

 

My water heater heats a large volume of water all day long using fire. Same with my furnace, but it heats air (obviously).

When used properly, this should be no more dangerous than any of those. BUT - I still wouldn't leave it running while I'm not home.

 

That's a silly retort. If you think kluging together a heater and a timer and tossing it into a pot is as inherently safe as a water heater or furnace, then there's clearly no rational discussion possible here. The fact remains, even well-designed heating appliances start fires, hence the reason that dishwashers are the most common kitchen appliance to cause fires (according to Consumers Union). This is far from a well-designed heating appliance. It's a kluge.

 

What is the difference? If it is hooked up to something like a A419 to cut out at a certain temperature, then the only reason a fire could start would be from a faulty device - like a bad power cord or something.

Consider these are mainly used unattended in barns to keep livestock water from freezing - a farmer's barn and animals are worth a lot more than your house. If these guys trust them, then so would I.

Also: This is not a dishwasher.

 

I can see SpeedYellow's point, but only to a point. Using any electrical device carries some risk, and I would venture that there is probably less risk here with a properly grounded setup than with all of the burning propane we use.

To minimize any risk I incur with this setup, I put a new smoke detector right next to where this gets used and installed a new fire extinguisher next to it. Since this will only run while I'm at home, I am more than satisfied with this level of safety.

Safety can always be taken to extremes. To ensure absolute safety, you know we probably shouldn't brew at all, we should just leave it up to the pros.

 

Bumping this thread cause its a good idea, and this is an amazing deal

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FO8FY68/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

I still think of doing this, but my routine now I crush my grains as strike water heats and that has been timing well. However if I spread that out to let's say the night earlier, it would perhaps give me a even more relaxing brew day.

However- that little heater you just posted ain't gonna cut it for any measurable amount of water, I don't believe, although granted I couldn't find the watt spec for it


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It says 1350 watts.

 

I heat up strike water on my ghetto herms system that uses an 800 watt hotplate so a 1350 watt element will have way more then enough juice. Thats probably well over double the power of my setup.

 

Yup. I use the 1000W element originally cited in this thread. It will heat up plenty of water - just takes a bit. That's why the timer is so handy. For reference, I did a no sparge batch on Sunday and the 1000W element heated 8.5 gallons of water to strike temps just fine. It did take 2.5 hours to do so, but it did it. Just set the timer appropriately and it's all good.

 

The 1000W heater originally listed is much harder to find nowadays, and usually $70+.
the 1350W coil heater that someone just bumped the thread with was an incredible buy at $2.99 plus about $5 shipping. I had two in my cart before they "sold out". Now they are listed as $12.99 including shipping. So I bought 2 and checked out quicker. Still a great deal, but sucks they changed the price that quickly!!

 

Bummed that I missed out buying a couple of those 1350W that were posted. I wonder if, since they're listed as being heaters for soup/coffee, if a guy could heat wort with these. I bet you could boil enough volume for a 5-gallon batch with two of them going...

 

I'm still skeptical that it's enough power. I bought a 1350W induction cookplate with the hopes of using it to brew 5 gallon batches indoors. If I wait long enough, it will just barely boil 2 gallons, but there's no way it would boil the full 6.5 gallons needed for a 5 gallon batch. I see one poster above (NathPowe) says he heated 8.5 gallons up to strike temperature, but it took 2.5 hours. That's waaay too long, in my opinion. And no mention of whether it would ever be able to reach a boil (though admittedly, we're just talking about heating strike water here, and presumeably you'd use a bigger burner/element for the actual boil).

 

Yeah, just to clarify - not suggesting someone should try and boil enough volume for 5gal batches with 1000W or 1350W. I'm just saying that 1000W will get a fairly large volume of water to some pretty high temps given enough time. Certainly hot enough for mash water. And I agree that 2.5 hours is way too long if you're standing around waiting to brew. But I set it on a timer so that those 2.5 hours go by while I'm sawing logs. I wake up, check the temp, and am doughing in within a few minutes. As I posted above though, it would be interesting to see how two of the 1350W immersion heaters performed in terms of a boil (each on a different circuit). I'll bet it would work but would probably be a bit sluggish to get there. Also, I have no idea on the watt density of those things so it could end up being Scorch City. I'll never know though, cuz I didn't buy any before they sold out. Bummer.

 

The last time I did a 10 gal batch, it took almost 2 hours to get 14 gal of strike water to 170 with a propane burner. I know I can improve this with a few tweeks.
So I purchased one of these for $12.99, I figure I can place it in my pot a few hours before, and atleast have some pretty warm water to help out the propane burner when I get ready to brew. I don't expect it to boil the water, just speed up my heating the water.

 

I use a 800w hot plate not even on high setting to heat up my strike water, it probably takes like 5 hours but this thread is about heating while sleeping so I feel 5 hours is a totally reasonable time, and these are close to twice the power and way more efficient than a hot plate so i bet they could do it in 2 hrs or faster. I would never try to boil a batch with one of those, 2 might could work but it would be slow.
PS I use a cooler MLT and I heat my water in there so my heat loss is minimal compared to a steel keggle mlt.

 

To all those who have concerns about boiling power with these, I totally hear you... But as poptarts and NathPowe have already said, this is about saving propane and heating strike water while you're doing something else. 5 minutes of planning can save pounds and pounds of propane, and also a lot of time on brew day by having it ready to go when you want it to be.

I did do a little test with my new 1350W heater, and put it in 2.5 gallons of 61F water in a 5 gal plastic bucket and left it 1/2 hour. At 30 minutes, it was 144F. I have the thermal loss set at 1.3 in my spreadsheet, and damn it if it didn't predict 29 minutes for this temp rise! <evil scientist cackle>

 

To all those who have concerns about boiling power with these, I totally hear you... But as poptarts and NathPowe have already said, this is about saving propane and heating strike water while you're doing something else. 5 minutes of planning can save pounds and pounds of propane, and also a lot of time on brew day by having it ready to go when you want it to be.

I did do a little test with my new 1350W heater, and put it in 2.5 gallons of 61F water in a 5 gal plastic bucket and left it 1/2 hour. At 30 minutes, it was 144F. I have the thermal loss set at 1.3 in my spreadsheet, and damn it if it didn't predict 29 minutes for this temp rise! <evil scientist cackle>

 

Nice! I may need this setup. I usually need 16+ gallons of strike water, and would be very nice to save some propane. And timing isn't an issue, who cares if it takes 5 or even 8 hrs? thats the whole point!

 

found it on ebay for 4.99+4.99 shipping. ordered.

 

Got a link?

 

I'll have to get it tomorrow behind my PC, I just took the exact title of the amazon ad and searched eBay for it


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Just bought a couple from ebay. Don't know why I didn't think to try that. Probably going to try and boil a small volume of wort to see if they scorch it or not. Might be a fun experiment.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

I just did the same thing and picked up the last one :rockin: Less than $10 Shipped !

 

Similar @ 1500w for $8.99 shipped

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Travel-Coff...all_Kitchen_Appliances_US&hash=item5d43f5f41a

Buy 3, get one free! 6000 watts, 10 gallon batches $26.97 ...hahaha

 

Sounds great, just make sure your circuit can handle the amperage. At 110V, that'll draw 13.6A which is 90% of a 15A circuit. I think for continuous use you're supposed to keep it to 80% or less - though I'm not sure what counts as continuous.


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Just got mine in this morning. Excited to try it out. After moving to larger batches, propane has become a more cost concern than it used to be, needing to heat usually 16-25 gallons of water. If this saves any of that cost it will be nice. Even if I under shoot the temp with the element, I can bring it up the last bit on propane.

 

i use my sous vide cooker to do the same thing. i did two batches over the weekend and i use coolers as my MLT and HLT so as my first batch was boiling i used the sous vide to heat my strike water.

 

I just picked up this one last week from ebay. It's a 1350W element for less than $10 shipped. I did a trial run with 10 gallons in my 10 gallon Rubbermaid round cooler. It takes about 2 hours to get from room temp (68 ish) to 168. This will work great for weekday brews. I can set it on a timer to start a few hours before I get home from work and be ready to Mash in as soon as I get home :rockin:

Thanks for the tip !!!

 

Cool, thats the same exact one I bought. I'll be doing mine in my big stainless kettle, so just will have to dial in the heat loss to get it close. Normally I'm not that on schedule for brew days, so as long as its in the ballpark that will be great.

 

nestar: Cool, thats the same exact one I bought ... I'll be doing mine in my big stainless kettle ....

Killer,
I am curious if you have tried yours out yet in your kettle. I read on the package that the coil should not be used in a metal container. I wasn't sure why but when I was doing my "test run" I rotated my temp gauge to see it better and got a mild little "zap!" . I have a metal temp dial with a 12" stem that sticks through the cooler top and hangs down into the water. I won't be doing that again . However I do wonder if your kettle may have a nice "zap!" factor too.

 

And this was on a GFCI outlet?

 

Good question. I am pretty sure it wasn't a GFCI outlet but I know that room has a GFCI outlet in the circuit (there are 4 outlets in that room and one is a GFCI).

Although, the heater coil was plugged into a decent power strip and not directly into the outlet.

 

doesn't matter if GFCI is on the same breaker, you need to be using the GFCI outlet or it wont be doing a thing. and your power strip will do nothing for you either.

 

Literally just got mine in the mail this morning and haven't touched it yet. Its only two prong, so no ground, thus the admonition I'm assuming for no metal containers. Gotta be on a GFCI breaker, or more likely, straight into a GFCI plug.

Thought about suspending mine somehow in the middle of the kettle so it isn't leaning on it in any way.

 

I saw j1n's post about sous vide cooking, so I had to look it up. Check this out. It will heat up your water using a built-in digital temperature controller to any temperature you want to set, and it's connected to an app on your phone! You can start your mash water from work. Too bad it's $179 and won't ship until January 2015... I guess I could justify it by the fact it will save lots of propane and I can cook with it too.

http://anovaculinary.com/products/anova-precision-cooker

 

Thats nothing a 50$ HERMS system cant do. I do sous vide in my MLT.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/50-dedicated-herms-468563/