Whirlpooling separate from the BK????

I have a doubled and wavy 5500 watt horizontal element in the 15 gallon BK, and whirlpooling just isn't working out. A 4 inch "Tea Ball" doesn't hold in the disintegrated pellets, and they're clogging the plate chiller. Anyone else dealing with this? I thought about buying a 10 gallon AL pot and making it into a "pre-cool" whirlpool tank, then could set it in the place occupied by the MLT after sparging. It seems like it would work... Comments???

 

That's strange, because I was convinced that when I installed my ripple element that I wouldn't be able whirlpool. When I tried it have don't have any issues. I just get a good whirlpool going with a spoon and let it settle for about 15 mins. There is a very large trub cone in the middle.

How far up the kettle is your element, and how is it oriented?

 

The element is centered about 2.5 inches up the side and is flat, i. e. the wave is most obvious from above. I haven't been using a spoon because I've been afraid of "beating up" the element. Instead, I use the big pump to shoot a jet of wort out just below the surface of the wort.

Hmmm. The Loc-Line bringing the wort back into the kettle is kinda short, so with the 5 gallon batches it's pointed down as much as sideways. Maybe I'm getting side currents? I'll try again with a ten gallon batch - perhaps the solution is to just add an extra bit of length. It's sometimes amazing what an extra 6 inches can do.......

 

might be able to experiment with just water and some fine particulate that wont dissolve (initially i thought sand but you don't want that running through the pump!), then you can see the bottom of the kettle and determine if the element is actually preventing particles from gathering at the center.