DIY Kettle Heat Blankets?

[Fid]

So I bought a SS brew pot that has way too large of a circumference for the heat element on my electric coil stovetop. I can vigorously boil 4 gallons pretty easily when I have a lid on the pot but the second the lid comes off my boil dies off. I've tried strattling the pot across multiple burners, making a heat sleeve out of aluminum foil, adjusting boil volumes ect and still cant keep a rolling boil going when uncovered. Im seriously struggling to keep a 1.5 gallon uncovered boil going. I've seen some forum posts with people seeming to have some success with creating a sort of heat blanket with shiny insulation materials wrapped around their brew pot. Just curious if this fix seems to be consistently effective before I go out and purchase the materials for it. Let me know your success/failure stories with this method. Thanks!

 

[BrewMoreBeers]

I have a similar issue... I use a heat-stick to supplement my stove burner and it works great.

 

[Fid]

I've considered a heat stick... are they difficult to make? Or is there somewhere I can buy one? What's the approximate cost of making or buying one of these?

 

[ultravista]

What is a heat stick? Got pictures?

 

[Flomaster]

heating element that plugs into your outlet, its made of pvc fittings and a heatiing element all bought at Lowes , Home Depot.

I just used the search on here and came up with lots of links here are a couple.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/heat-stick-diy-38489/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/finished-heatstick-99750/


-=Jason=-

 

[BrewMoreBeers]

I bought mine at Midwest because i wanted SS... I could have made one for about one third the cost I paid from water heater and plumbing supplies from any hardware store. Search heat stick online and you will find good instructions.