Spike Kettle

[LostinNY]

Anyone drilled a spike kettle and fitted a Blichmann BoilCoil or is the TC option better?

 

[Beer4All]

I haven't drilled a Spike kettle but have drilled other kettles & a keggle to add electric heating elements. You have a lot of options with heating elements. Best can depend on cost, type of chiller to be used, planned control, etc.

I personally bought some 5500W 240V elements and used the hotpods from Bobby at Brew Hardware..link below. I used a greenlee knock-out to make the hole (1-1/4" I believe)

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/hotpod-ewl.htm
I used the threaded option (No leak issues) but they are available in TC if you already have an existing port. Are you starting from a standard Spike kettle you have and are looking to go electric? What are you planning to use for a chiller? What are you planning to use for control?

 

[LostinNY]

Thanks for the reply. I haven't bought a kettle yet looking for a 30 gallon but already have the boil coil and the Spike seems to get best reviews from people. Using a plate chiller so that's not an issue. Yeah that Tc option is looking good maybe I should sell the BoilCoil.
Also have the Blichmann control which I like.

 

[Beer4All]

If you already have the boil coil and brew commander then there’s no reason to go away from either. The boil coil can handle 20ish gallon batches? They are both good products.

not sure if you can with spike but you could probably order a custom Blichmann kettle with the boil coil holes already drilled.

 

[bagbrewer]

Realize this is a few months old but I drilled my 10 gallon Spike kettle to use a BoilCoil. A carbide tipped hole saw made easy work of it. Spike won't drill the 5/8" holes for you, I asked. I'm using the NPT fittings and haven't had any issues.

 

[user 298779]

Thanks for the reply. I haven't bought a kettle yet looking for a 30 gallon but already have the boil coil and the Spike seems to get best reviews from people. Using a plate chiller so that's not an issue. Yeah that Tc option is looking good maybe I should sell the BoilCoil.
Also have the Blichmann control which I like.

FWIW, I’ve drilled into quite a few stainless kettles over the years, and as far as kettles designed for Homebrewing the Spike was the nicest to drill. Due to thicker wall the holes were very clean and circular, no flex or distortion compared to cheap thin wall kettles (which are still good for brewing if need be).

I won’t say Spike kettles are the best out there but they are my personal favorite. Spend a little more and have them weld a TC fitting for your heating element (s).

I’ve been using the 5500W TC elements from Brew Hardware and couldn’t be happier. You can always cap the TC fitting and use the boil coil, then you can go either way in future. There are excellent “Dang It” plugs you can use for BC holes later.

Cheers