Tankless water heater for fly sparging?

[MaxOut]

The capacity of a tankless heater that's significant is the temperature RISE: the amount it can raise the inlet water by the time it gets to the outlet, since the water just makes a pass through the heater, never sits in a tank. Ours is 95F, which is the best we've ever had (we've had 3 since 1977, one made in Britain one French, and this one's a Bosch Aquastar.....all propane. Since we're in the country, on well water that runs 55F year around, the math isn't difficult....but. The "but" is that these things are temperature limited. Given the performance of the heater, one would think it'd do 150F, but it's actually 140F. Why 140? Several reasons; first, that is the magic temperature at which hot water burns skin, second, the more you heat the less efficient things become, third, any and all household work can be done with water that hot, and these are designed as household heaters. You will not reach the magic sparge temp of 170F with any tankless heater I know of.

Your very wrong...with all due respect. Mine does it right out the box.

 

[barryfine]

Why do you not expect to directly fly sparge? You think you won't hit 170? If you add a ball valve to the output you should be able to adjust the flow rate to the proper rate no?

I'm worried that even with the over temp sensor it might cut off at 165. I'm also concerned that the flow might be too slow at that temp. I'm certainly hoping I can sparge directly from it, but I don't want to get my hopes up. I'll test it this weekend and report back my results.

edit: I just got the overtemp sensor and it's set to 85C, so it won't cut of until 185F!

 

[Monster Mash]

I have considered a tankless heater but I like to acidify my sparge water when doing pale beers, a tankless heater makes it almost impossible to make any adjustments to your water.

 

[humann_brewing]

I saw another thread about using a tankless to speed up the strike water heat time and could obviously be used for sparging too minus the 20 minute safety thing which wouldn't be too bad as long as it could be turned on again within a minute or so.

My only concern is that I adjust my water so I don't want it coming straight from the hose but I don't see why you couldn't build a reserve tank elevated above the tankless to give it a little pressure just not sure if it would be enough.

 

[humann_brewing]

I have considered a tankless heater but I like to acidify my sparge water when doing pale beers, a tankless heater makes it almost impossible to make any adjustments to your water.

I am wondering if there is a way around this, see reply above the only restriction is I think the heater would need more pressure on the inlet

 

[barryfine]

I have considered a tankless heater but I like to acidify my sparge water when doing pale beers, a tankless heater makes it almost impossible to make any adjustments to your water.

You could just fill your HLT with the hot water, acidify and then sparge. You would still save a ton of time waiting for your HLT to warm up.

 

[Monster Mash]

You could just fill your HLT with the hot water, acidify and then sparge. You would still save a ton of time waiting for your HLT to warm up.

I ended up automating my HLT so it starts heating 2hrs before I wake up. It was much cheaper then going tankless and allows for water adjustments while the water is cool.

 

[barryfine]

I ended up automating my HLT so it starts heating 2hrs before I wake up. It was much cheaper then going tankless and allows for water adjustments while the water is cool.

Nice! That's a good solution too.

 

[humann_brewing]

I ended up automating my HLT so it starts heating 2hrs before I wake up. It was much cheaper then going tankless and allows for water adjustments while the water is cool.

I am thinking of this method, how did you go about doing that?