240v or 120v for Rims Tube

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Diggy

Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2015
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
I am trying to plan a new electric system and have seen a lot of people post that they are using 240v elements and running them as 120v in their rims tubes to make them extra ultra low watt density elements. However when I do the math, it seems like it would take forever to raise a step mash or do a mash out.

1 gallon of water weights 8.34 lbs so by definition it takes 8.34 BTU to raise one gallon of water 1 degree F
A 5500 Watt 240v element will be about 1375 Watts at 120v and will dump 4691 BTU / hour, or 78 BTU / minute into your RIMS tube
assuming 75% of the energy goes into your wort (due to temp losses to environment) and a 10 gallon batch going from 152 deg F to 168 deg F will take 23 minutes:

[78 btu min]*.75 = 58.5 effective btu
58.5/10 gallons = 5.85
5.85/8.34 = 0.7 degrees / minute
(168-152)/0.7=23 Min

That seems like an extremely long time, and most of your enzymes would be denatured by that point. If my math is wrong, and that efficiency is just a guess, just let me know.

If you are using 120v in your RIMs tube, are you just using it to stabilize a singe mash temperature? Or doing step mashes and raising to mash out? If so how long does it take you?

If you are using 240v in your RIMs tube, what element are you using and have you had any scorching issues?
 
I am running 240v and this is the element I'm using with a brewhardware.com 18" rims tube. If I run into flow issues I'll find some blackened residue on the inside of my rims tube right where the element is. I've never had it cause an issue with the taste of my beer, at least that I have been able to notice.

http://bostonheatingsupply.com/SP10869FH.aspx

There does not really appear to be many 240v ultra low watt stainless steel options out there. If anyone knows of any I'd be interested.
 
I am running 240v and this is the element I'm using with a brewhardware.com 18" rims tube. If I run into flow issues I'll find some blackened residue on the inside of my rims tube right where the element is. I've never had it cause an issue with the taste of my beer, at least that I have been able to notice.

http://bostonheatingsupply.com/SP10869FH.aspx

There does not really appear to be many 240v ultra low watt stainless steel options out there. If anyone knows of any I'd be interested.

That blackened residue is scorched wort and I had to dump 10 gallons of beer from it myself with my first rims design. im really shocked you cant taste it... that element is not ULWD and I would guess to say that would be why your getting scorching.there are many ULWD 240v elements if you look at the huge selection of cartridge heaters.
 
I'd say you get better then 75% efficiency. Being submerged in the liquid your heating, I think I read you get about 90-95%. That's one of the reasons electric brewing really took off.

As mentioned by berrywise, flow is another factor that you have to think about. Slow flow is more prone to scorching then faster flow. So, mileage is going to vary from system to system, and mash to mash. I'd also think the temp controllers ability to hold more tight temp ranges will matter too.
 
I'd say you get better then 75% efficiency. Being submerged in the liquid your heating, I think I read you get about 90-95%. That's one of the reasons electric brewing really took off.
I was using that 75% as the efficiency of the entire system and not just the element. From an element to a moving liquid that 90-95% is likely a better number (maybe even higher) but the choice of 75% had more to do with the other thermal losses in the entire system to the environment (eg: hoses, pump, kettle, tube, blackbody radiation). Essentially I was assuming 25% of its power consumption was dealing with those other system losses that needed to be overcome to raise the temperature. It was a dart throw guess but until I build and test I have no idea and it will be very system (and element) dependent.

I am running 240v and this is the element I'm using with a brewhardware.com 18" rims tube. If I run into flow issues I'll find some blackened residue on the inside of my rims tube right where the element is. I've never had it cause an issue with the taste of my beer, at least that I have been able to notice.

http://bostonheatingsupply.com/SP10869FH.aspx

There does not really appear to be many 240v ultra low watt stainless steel options out there. If anyone knows of any I'd be interested.
Glad to know someone else is using 240v. I agree I have not found a great 240v ultra low watt stainless steel elment option.

I use a 240v 1800w 36" long ULWD cartridge heating element for this reason :D It raises 5 gallons of liquid just over 2 degrees per minute at a flow rate of 2 gallons per minute.

I used this element. I just drilled out a 5/8 compression fitting and installed the element in that for mounting.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FAST-HEAT-C...852374?hash=item5b090cb7d6:g:2GgAAMXQRPRTG57U
That is an interesting element I had not seen before. That might be an option.
 
I am using an element similar to berrywise in a brewers hardware RIMS tube. It is 240v/1500w but it is LDW.

http://bostonheatingsupply.com/SP10552FL.aspx

I am really surprised that one of the home brew shops which sell stainless elements do not stock a 240v/1500w version. I only have access to 30 amps so I use both a 240v/4500w and 240v/1500w element so I can have both of them on at the same time.
 
I am using an element similar to berrywise in a brewers hardware RIMS tube. It is 240v/1500w but it is LDW.

http://bostonheatingsupply.com/SP10552FL.aspx

I am really surprised that one of the home brew shops which sell stainless elements do not stock a 240v/1500w version. I only have access to 30 amps so I use both a 240v/4500w and 240v/1500w element so I can have both of them on at the same time.

im actually suprized that with the 40" or so in element length if you bent it straight that it would still only be consided lwd...

I do the same with my 30a service... one 4500w and one 1800w element at the same time..
 
I use 120VAC on mine , works perfectly fine for what a RIMS tube is designed for (maintaining temp), and I've never seen a lick of black residue indicating scorching.
 
Back
Top