Thermowell vs chiller

[JustinHoMi]

Hey guys, noob here.

I’m adding a heating element to my kettle, so need a temperature sensor as well. I’d like to use a thermowell but am concerned with the weight of the immersion chiller sitting on it.

How do you guys deal with this? Or am I thinking too hard?

Justin

 

[SonomaBrewer]

No way to know until you actually try and fit the thermowell and the immersion chiller together in your kettle.

If they don't play nice together, there are several potential solutions. In my electric setup, the thermowell is close to the bottom of the kettle. So I use one of the fantastic false bottoms that Jaybird at Norcal Brewing Solutions makes (https://www.norcalbrewingsolutions).
This creates a landing pad for my immersion coil and simultaneously serves as filter for trub and hop debris from
the boil.

If you just need a platform for the coil to rest on, you could also just use a cheap round cooking rack from Amazon.

 

[RufusBrewer]

Brewhardware has a solution for you. At s reasonable price.

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/biabbottom155.htm
He has several sizes. The stand offs are stainless steel metric bolts, so you can change it per your particular requirements.

Before I saw this, I was going to make an IM stand using an elaborate combination of stainless steel NPT nipples, couplers and tees. It would be about 3 or 4 times as expensive.