Electric Brew Heater

[Joshua618]

Does anyone have any experience with the Brewer's Best Electric Brew Heater?

http://www.southernhomebrew.com/brbeelbrhe.html

Yes, I know I can build a much cheaper heatstick. I have built many of them in the past and am currently using a DIY heatstick to brew with. I am using a heatstick to supplement my gas stove to do a full wort boil. And no, I do not want to use propane outside.

Please do not go on and on and tell me how much cheaper a DIY heatstick is, I want to avoid the JB weld and other materials in the DIY heatsticks. This looks nice because it is stainless steel and has a built in switch and temperature control.

If you have any experience with these heatsticks, I would be very interested to hear about it. Thank you.

 

[P-J]

So sorry... I do not have any experience with that unit.

But - With your disclaimer, I also cannot give you some neat alternative suggestions or solutions for going electric.

Just saying...

 

[Wabrewer]

P-J, I'd be interested in hearing your "alternative suggestions" for going electric.

 

[DeafSmith]

Well, if you want something really "alternative", here's what I did:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/lives-stovezilla-born-177317/

This was quite a bit of work, but I'm very happy with the results. Even though I didn't get the coils quite as close together as I'd like, it works very well - I can easily get 7 or 8 gallons to a vigorous boil. Other advantages are infinite adjustment to the heat output, no JB weld, no electric elements in the kettle to interfere with stirring, cleaning, or the use of an immersion chiller. The main disadvantage is that when the coils are unused for a period of weeks, they get moisture inside and have to be baked for 10-15 minutes at the beginning of the brew day so they will not trip my GFCI. To do this, I have mounted a normal 30 amp breaker in my spa panel in parallel with the GFI breaker. To bake the coils, I turn off the GFI breaker and turn on the the standard breaker, then after baking, I turn off the standard breaker, then turn on the GFI breaker and proceed with my brew day. I suppose there is some element of danger in this if you forget that you are running on the standard breaker and go through the brew day, but I'm not worried about it (but then I never drink while brewing, until after I pitch the yeast). The other disadvantage is that even with my 10 gallon MegaPot, there is still some coil area around the edges which is not covered by the pot, so some heat is wasted (I need to build some heat deflectors to direct this heat up along the sides of the pot.

If you want to do this, I'd recommend finding a stove with high watt elements and a stiff stainless steel top like I did. The elements on the stove I modified are rated for 2600 watts (large elements) and 1500 watts (small elements) as compared to the ones on the range top in my house which are only 2500 watts and 1400 watts (and the top on that is a flimsier steel with baked enamel finish).

 

[Joshua618]

I don't have personal experience with them, but I have seen great reviews on them.
The only problem I see with them is the price.
I wouldn't pay anything over $40 for a heater.

Can you please post a link to the reviews? Thanks.

 

[bmurrs]

I have one and it works great along with a stove top. They hang nicely from the side of a pot. It has no problem keeping 5 gallons of wort boiling but I always use it along with a stovetop to get the wort to boil. I have not used a heatstick but I suspect the main difference is the temp control