Electric 2 element boil kettle control.

[Flathill]

When a kettle is fitted with 2 or more electric elements are they usually controlled with one or two or more controllers ? I'm familiar with pid and power regulators. Just thinking about adding another 5500 watt element heater to a 30 gal kettle.

 

[doug293cz]

Some people with two elements just connect the PID controller to one of the elements, and have just an on/off switch/contactor for the second element. If you want less than 50% power, you shut off the second element. You can obviously control both elements with a single PID.

Brew on

 

[Flathill]

I assume using 1 pid controller the two wires from the PID would go to a SSR and then just wire in paralle another SSR And connect 2 contractors with on/off switches. Then either or both SSR's feeding the kettle heating elements could be used using one PID.
My old electric brew panel is using a 2352 PID from Auber Instruments. I'm thinking of using the DSPR310 controller in the new panel. Would this be a better option ? Also the new panel will be a 50 amp rims system with 3 heating elements. One for the rims tube and two for the boil kettle.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

When a kettle is fitted with 2 or more electric elements are they usually controlled with one or two or more controllers ? I'm familiar with pid and power regulators. Just thinking about adding another 5500 watt element heater to a 30 gal kettle.

I have two 5500 watt elements in my BK and control them with one ezboil. I set it so that the second element shuts off just as the wort reaches 210 degrees. I use 27 gal pots and this allows me to reach a rolling boil within 20 minutes after sparging. With the ezboil I can also lower the power level to maintain a nice boil with no boil overs. The second element is connected to on of the alarm points and set to open at the setpoint of 210 degrees F. I also operate the 40 amp SSRs through contactors to avoid leakage current via the ezboils.

 

[Flathill]

I like the idea of using the easy boil controller with the alarm set point turning off the second electric heat element. I will study the easy boil 320 manual I have from Auber Instruments and see how it needs to be programed.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

I like the idea of using the easy boil controller with the alarm set point turning off the second electric heat element. I will study the easy boil 320 manual I have from Auber Instruments and see how it needs to be programed.

The Auber ezboil will perform many more functions than you need. Once you learn to use only what you need it can be setup in a minute or two and most settings won't need changing just stepping through. The 320 will also give you alarms to add hops, whirlflock, etc. in the boil. I love mine. I have one just for the boil and one for the HLT and the RIMS/mash

 

[Bobby_M]

There is no reason to disable the second element. If you're using 11,000 watts, I would rather PWM at 50% running both elements than to leave one elements on at 100%. People are rightly concerned about maintaining the lowest watt density they can get away with and that's exactly how you'd achieve it.

Two ways to get there. Use a single 60amp SSR and break it down to two outlets afterward. Break your 50amp feed down to two 10 gauge wires and run them through 25 or 40amp SSRs, both triggered by the same PID (or EZboil which I much prefer).

 

[Brewbuzzard]

There is no reason to disable the second element. If you're using 11,000 watts, I would rather PWM at 50% running both elements than to leave one elements on at 100%. People are rightly concerned about maintaining the lowest watt density they can get away with and that's exactly how you'd achieve it.

Two ways to get there. Use a single 60amp SSR and break it down to two outlets afterward. Break your 50amp feed down to two 10 gauge wires and run them through 25 or 40amp SSRs, both triggered by the same PID (or EZboil which I much prefer).

I have to interect here, if you use the steam Slayer you can maintain a nice rolling boil with one 5500 watt element operating at about 55 to 58 percent duty cycle. I never have any scorching. I have 27 gal pots and use the two 5500 elements just to reach a boil quickly. After reaching the boil I can then use another element in the HLT to heat water for cleaning or the next batch.

 

[Bobby_M]

Agree that you don't NEED a second element to be running once you reach a boil but unless you need to re-allocate the power to another element as in your example, I'd still rather have both elements firing even at some ridiculously low cycle. I suspect in a 30g kettle, preboil may be as high as 27 gallons or so and that's actually borderline for a single 5500 watt element to maintain an open boil. With two elements, it may be something like 60% output.