Electric keggle

[thommo]

Afternoon everyone, I'm looking at building an electric heated kettle from a keg and was wondering if anyone could recommend some heating elements, I was thinking of using washing machine ones but read that they might not do the job. Also if anyone has a parts list for making one, tools, parts etc that would be amazing, cheers

 

[BitterSweetBrews]

Depending on the power available you have a couple choices. If you have 240v, most people seem to use Ultra Low Watt Density (ULWD) water heater elements. For a standard 1/2 barrel keg you can use one of these. You can buy 4400 watt and 5500 watt elements. The biggest difference between these is the time it takes to heat the wort. Camco puts out their "Lime Life" elements that go for $30-$40 and can survive an accidental dry fire. There are also Stainless Steel elements you can purchase from brewhardware.com along with everything you need, or check out e-bay. If you have 120v you will be hard pressed to find any element that can heat 10-15 gallons to boiling. There are 2250 watt 120v elements and you can use two if them to get close but you would have to run them on separate GFCI circuits. If you try to run the larger wattage 240v elements at 120v you will be getting effectively 1/4 the rated wattage in heat. Regardless of what you use make sure you are on a GFCI circuit or cord. There are a lot of YouTube videos about building keggles as well as some on brewhardware.com.

 

[IslandLizard]

I've moved your post to the Electric Brewing forum, where it belongs.

I would urge you to do some research in this forum first, to orient and educate yourself with possibilities. There are numerous threads on keggles and electric elements used in brew kettles. You'll find out soon that washing machine elements are not suitable for heating wort directly.

 

[thommo]

Sorry should have said, 240v on a 32amp breaker, the keg is 30L I think that's 8 gallons in old money