Estimating the amount of water in my pot?

[OzarkPA]

I am going to try a PM on my pliny clone recipe soon - maybe when it drops from 100' this week to 70' next

I have a couple of big pots to choose from - my big bottomed crawfish pot girl and a tall skinny 10 gallon pot - is it better to have small surface area or wider for the boil? Evaporation should be higher with the wide pot...

Anyways - is there an easy way to judge the water level by using a tube (and holding your thumb on top to read - like a straw) and calculation based on the diameter of the pot to judge the # of gallons in the pot? Something like in a 24" diameter pot, 12" high would be 2 gallons or therebouts?

 

[norwegiangeek]

So 6" is 1 gallon? I'd just use the rod to measure how deep the liquid is, then measure that. Every 6 inches is another gallon. Should be enough to estimate most quantities.

 

[michaeltrego]

You can calculate it like this:

gallons = (3.14159 x (radius of pot)^2 x height of liquid) / 231

or just make a measuring stick by placing marks on it while you fill it gallon by gallon...

 

[ayoungrad]

or just make a measuring stick by placing marks on it while you fill it gallon by gallon...

If you want to be accurate, this is the way to do it. Most pots vary in radius/diameter (at least somewhat) from bottom to top.

 

[paulster2626]

My pot works out to be 10mm/Litre. Lucky me!

 

[Spartan1979]

I used to use a SS ruler. I just added water a gallon at a time and measured the amount of water in inches and made notes. I've also used a stick and just marked it with each gallon.

 

[OzarkPA]

Good ideas - I'll just use my stir spoon and mark it off - thanks!