Anyone use a 240V 4500-5500W heatstick?

[magnj]

I'm designing an electric 10 Gallon brewery and I'm thinking of doing a 5500W 240V heatstick hooked to a PID or Brewtroller to heat the HLT and possibly boil. I'm looking at the Camco 02933 . Is this smart? Is this dumb? If I recirculate the HLT with a pump and if I recirculate the wort in the same way during the boil will I have any issues evenly heating and avoiding scorching? The rationale of the heatstick being I can either keep it in the HLT to heat up the mash water for a second batch and boil with propane or move it to the BK and boil with or without the RIMS tube...

 

[LakewoodBrew]

I use an element very similar to that to heat sparge and strike water as it flows in from the filtered source.

I would not use it for directly heating the wort since it is a high output, high density element and unless it's output is ramped way back or you have really high flowrates you are likely to caramelize a lot of your sugars.

I plan on using it in a HERMS setup since it will only need to directly contact water in this design i don't worry about scorching.

I should also add that I use propane for the boil, and don't plan to switch to all electric.

 

[magnj]

The unit I've linked to I think is rated at 50W/sq in which is ULD, will I still be at risk of scorching wort? Also my hope is that if I am boiling all electric, that once I ramp up to a boil I could keep it going with the RIMS tube alone?

 

[samc]

Don't see how you can keep a BK of wort boiling by recirculating through a small rims tube. Never tried it but it does not sound like it can work.

 

[nostalgia]

I'm using a 5500w heatstick in my boil kettle and could not love it more.

I'm using a low watt-density ripple element. There was a thread not too long ago experimenting with high watt-density elements and found scorching to be a non-issue, if I remember correctly.

I'm having some trouble finding the thread. Will post back when I do.

In the meantime, my heatstick:

-Joe

 

[nostalgia]

Found it - I finally remembered the word "myth" in the title and it came right up: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/f-bs-hd-5500-bk-element-myth-busting-155982/

-Joe

 

[airbalancer]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ultimate-heatstick-240-volt-116049/

Here's a link to mine, works fantastic

 

[magnj]

Thanks guys! Again I have no problem using a ULD element so I'm not concerned about scorching so much. That heatstick is just about what I was thinking, glad to see someone else is using a similar setup.

Any thoughts on my basic premise? I'll probably adjust the vertical location of the kettles, not sure if I'll use a CFC or a plate chiller but that's my plan more or less.

 

[Crabnut]

Don't be so quick to discount scorching if you use high density elements for your boil. I have and have had issues with scorching (light charcoal taste). If you are going to go full boil with your element, use a low density. Trust me. You won't like even a little charcoal in your beer.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I'm using a 5500w heatstick in my boil kettle and could not love it more.

I'm using a low watt-density ripple element. There was a thread not too long ago experimenting with high watt-density elements and found scorching to be a non-issue, if I remember correctly.

I'm having some trouble finding the thread. Will post back when I do.

In the meantime, my heatstick:

-Joe

So what kinda gasket did you change to? One of those tufsteel ones that doesn't warp?

 

[nostalgia]

So what kinda gasket did you change to? One of those tufsteel ones that doesn't warp?

You mean the gasket on the element? I found a hard silicone one at Home Depot that works great. I ordered some backup rubber ones from McMaster to try out if that fails.

-Joe

 

[magnj]

What if I built 2 RIMS tubes? Assuming the price is similar I feel like it would be cleaner... Anyone doing anything like that?

 

[thelorax121]

Nostalgia, I am actually getting ready to build a heat stick very similar to yours with an inline GFCI. I was wondering if you could give me a few details on the parts you used. I am assuming that is a 2" tri elbow with a female npt connecting to the copper, then a drilled out end cap that the element goes through. But how is the element sealed against that endcap? Is it tapped, or do you use something like a locknut with a silicon gasket like those sold on bargainfittings to seal an element in a vessel? Thanks for your help, glad to see someone else has though of a similar design!

 

[nostalgia]

Swagman welded a 1" NPT half-coupler into a 2" tri-clamp endcap for me. The element seals against the back of this with a regular, square-cut gasket. It's that really hard, orange rubber/silicone (not sure). Here's a better picture. Unfortunately, this is with the old leaky gasket. You can see it's squished and oozing out all over the place.

-Joe

 

[thelorax121]

Awesome, that's exactly what I needed to know, got some similar parts in the works through swagman. How did you go about grounding this bad boy?

 

[nostalgia]

It's grounded at the point the wires come into the box. I just realized that the teflon tape will insulate the grounded copper part from the stainless. I may have to come up with a jumper wire to fix that.

The bolt you see in the first photo connects to the copper tubing to ground it.

-Joe

 

[thelorax121]

Ah, I see. Would it work to maybe JB weld a screw to the inner wall of the elbow, then connect that to ground, or in your case to the jumper?

 

[nostalgia]

I would solder it, but yes that's what I had in mind.

Edit: Something like what I did for the HLT element here:

-Joe

 

[magnj]

Can anyone help me out here? What am I looking at with this outlet? The circuit breaker says 50 amps.

My best guess is L6-20p

 

[nostalgia]

It's hard to tell because the image is blurry, but it could also be a 50A twist-lock connector. Can you see how heavy the wire going to the breaker is?

-Joe

 

[nostalgia]

Ok using Photoshop to enhance it a bit, I see it can't be the 50A socket. The lower left slot seems to be shaped like an L. Let's see...

Looks like L5-15R to me. It's the only one I see with the leg of the L pointing towards the middle like yours.

-Joe

 

[nostalgia]

Also, the L6-20P is the male (Plug). So if you were looking at a picture of the L6-20P, it looks just like your socket. But because it's the male part, the picture is actually backwards from what you want. E.g. here is a NEMA L6-20P to NEMA L6-20R 250 Volt diagram:

-Joe

 

[Budzu]

Here's a pair of 5500's I built recently. 2" tri-clamp T's work really well. I made the bulkhead with a SS end cap, and drilled through it grudgingly with a 1 3/8" greenlee step bit. Locked it down with simply a 1" locknut with silicone coating the threads. Works great, but collects condensation if left in cooling water.

 

[airbalancer]

Those should get a boil going Nice.

 

[Joshua618]

What is that stainless piece that holds the heatstick in place on the pot? That looks really cool. I always have trouble keeping heatsticks in the same position.

Here's a pair of 5500's I built recently. 2" tri-clamp T's work really well. I made the bulkhead with a SS end cap, and drilled through it grudgingly with a 1 3/8" greenlee step bit. Locked it down with simply a 1" locknut with silicone coating the threads. Works great, but collects condensation if left in cooling water.

 

[Budzu]

What is that stainless piece that holds the heatstick in place on the pot? That looks really cool. I always have trouble keeping heatsticks in the same position.

That is just a stainless rod, bent with a torch, and two stainless shaft collars welded together. 5/8" ID collar for the 1/2" copper pipe, and I think the bar is 3/8". Fully adjustable.

The idea belongs to forum member "airbalancer" (oh he posted above cheers dude!). He had made some very similar sticks.

One cool thing on mine that you can't see, the bottom cap of the T is a clear polycarbonate cap. It is useful to visually check for leaks.