anyone use electric elements for their brewpots? am thinkin of switching from Lp, which I could go off-peak rates......how many elements....sizes(pot and elements).....cost...time to boil 5 gal?

I use a converted keg with 2, 3Kw, 240VAC elements. I turn on both to get it to boiling and turn one off to maintain the boil. Both on will easily boil over 12 gallons of wort. IMO, faster safer and much cheaper to operate than gas.

also thinkin of cutin a hot water tank top off for a ,say 40 gal pot? have access to alot of water heaters..

BB...just put a bel. dubbel from sec to keg....pri-7 days,sec 12 days,hit the keg with co2 before filling, then closed top and added 20 to seal...should I leave alone ,bleed off, whats your process if you dont mind me asking.

I leave my kegs connected to the CO2 set at 20 psi, in the fridge. They should be carbed in about a week.

I use Heat sticks for my brews. (http://alfter.us/heatstick/heatstick/) I have one 90* elbow one and one 180* straight one. the 180 I use for my big boils, and suspend it from the top of the bucket, since I use food grade hdpe buckets to boil in (mucho cheaper than buying a huge SS kettle). Since it's suspended, the element isn't touching any of the plastic, so I don't have to worry about any sort of melting of plastic (hdpe is good up to 120*C). I've been using a round laundry basket with the slots on the sides for my suspension/lid. I just cut a hole in the bottom of the basket drop my heat stick through the hole, and put a wooden dowel between two of the slots and rest my heat stick on top of it (I put a PVC U on the end of my heat stick so I could hang it on such a 'device') This way, the bottom of the basket acts as a lid and keeps the temperature of the boil up, since one heat stick could bring it to a boil, but it is not ideal. My 90 is for my decoctions or any boiling I've got to do in a smaller kettle (this one is enamel, not plastic). Same concept as before, but no need to hang it on something since my kettle is metal. The only catch is that during a decoction, it has a tendency to want to scorch the grains, and it will get a few, but once the temperature gets high enough, it won't do this so much. As long as you are stirring the heating element in the thick mash, I've had far fewer grain scorching, as well as no need for a big messy paddle. On the website that I listed up there, they used Alumalite, which is fine. However I couldn't obtain that where I live, and it was a bit pricey for my taste. So after perusing home depot for a long, long time, I came across this type of plumbers epoxy next to the jb welds and other epoxies. It was a little bar of epoxy that you have to take a cutting, mix it up with your fingers, then apply as needed. I checked the temperature limits before I bought it, and I believe it was good up to 120*C as well as the hdpe bucket. It took me about 2 minutes to seal the edges of my heat stick, 3 minutes for it to dry, and then I just popped it in water for awhile to see if it had any leaks. I had none. It was much faster and easier than using the Alumalite or JBweld, in my opinion.
The other catch is that you need to have a separate GFCI outlet for each of these, which can be a pain to wire, but it can be done by someone who is just taking an educated guess as to where stuff goes. (I managed to get it right the first time) I found this wonderful little GFCI outlet/switch at home depot that I suppose is supposed to be for a light and and outlet, too. Instead, I wired it so that the outlet is turned on or off by the switch, making my life easier when I want to turn my heat stick off.
I personally like my heat sticks, and it makes my brew day shorter than using a stovetop electric heating element. Just be smart, be knowledgeable, and don't get yourself hurt with them. I used thick electric-resistant gloves the first few times just to be safe that my wiring was correct. Other than having to be uber-cautious, these things are great.

2 old but valuable sites on electric brewing are below
...the real advantage is constant supply.I have an electric liquor heater using a 1500 KW 120 V heater element but not a boiler- takes a lot more energy to break to boil.Being flameless. a lot of insulation can be used giving good speed of heating and the silent temp rise is a different experience
...if I had to do it again, I would build heat sticks rather than the fixed element setup


http://home.chattanooga.net/~cdp/-entertaining
http://hbd.org/rlaborde/rig.htm-- a neighbor/good brewer

Both of those are dead links. I actually tried to put the heating element inside of a insulated cooler and use that as my hlt and boiler, but I could not get a good seal on the hole I drilled, it kept popping the gfci on me. That's what led me to the heat stick idea, plus it's easier to clean and maintain.

I just accessed them...I apologize for putting my comments next to the address and being confusing-

http://home.chattanooga.net/~cdp/

http://hbd.org/rlaborde/rig.htm

I have mine in a plastic 5 G extract bucket which allows a tight fit for both element and spigot and the whole setup is in a cut shorter 55 G drum and the empty space filled with insulation

Matovichi- I found that with the right gasket (washer) and slip joint nut there is no need to use any epoxy or sealant at all on a heatstick.

I found these at Lowes:

Slip joint nut model 916DK
Sink strainer washer model 8556OK

I use the same two sticks to heat the water plus I do a minimum of a two hour boil usually and I have had no leaks.

Plus, I like being able to disassemble a stick if needed. And- If it does leak the element can be washed and then dried in the oven, put back together in seconds and pressed back into action!

So, two 1500w sticks work well and should only cost around $40-50 for the pair. GFCI outlets are a little pricey- about $15 each.

I use insulating silver bubble wrap (four layers) wrapped around my aluminum 40qt kettle. I set the pot on a cooler lid and all of this keeps the heat in the pot more efficiently. My boils are quite vigorous and I'll usually boil off about three gallons in about 2 hours.

No comment about the water heater tank?...sounds like the elements are the way to go.

The other day I saw a water heater tank on the side of the street as someone's garbage. I wanted to stop and "borrow" it so bad, but I was in a hurry. Now I'm kicking myself for it, since it would have been such an awesome hlt. They probably left the heating element inside of it, too... damn.

"takes a lot more energy to break to boil"

I don't see that at all in my electric kettle, but I did see it when I used gas.

Value for dollar per KWH and a brew session costs less than a dollar for energy. Should be reason enough.

http://de.mc508.mail.yahoo.com/y5/s/viewphoto;_ylc=X3oDMTR1NjBkM2ZvBEFjdGlvbgNUaHVtYm5haWwgY2xpY2tlZARJbnRsA3VzBExua1R5cANSZWd1bGFyBFBhcnRUeXBlA1lhaG9vIQRSZXNQb3NBAzAEUmVzUG9zUgMEU3JjaEN1cnIDcGhvdG8EU3JjaERlc3QDcGhvdG8EX1F1ZXJ5SWQDMTEyNzY1NTYyNDQ4NWY1YTkxNTMxMGEEX1MDMTUwNTAwNzU2?show=largephoto&folderid=%40S%40Search&mid=1_22_2_4511_0_AIAwvs4AARedRRlAAAHfqCBSZPo&partid=2&name=37926.jpg&size=94208&search=1

http://de.mc508.mail.yahoo.com/y5/s/viewphoto;_ylc=X3oDMTR1NjBkM2ZvBEFjdGlvbgNUaHVtYm5haWwgY2xpY2tlZARJbnRsA3VzBExua1R5cANSZWd1bGFyBFBhcnRUeXBlA1lhaG9vIQRSZXNQb3NBAzAEUmVzUG9zUgMEU3JjaEN1cnIDcGhvdG8EU3JjaERlc3QDcGhvdG8EX1F1ZXJ5SWQDMTEyNzY1NTYyNDQ4NWY1YTkxNTMxMGEEX1MDMTUwNTAwNzU2?show=largephoto&folderid=%40S%40Search&mid=1_22_2_4511_0_AIAwvs4AARedRRlAAAHfqCBSZPo&partid=5&name=37937.jpg&size=74752&search=1

http://de.mc508.mail.yahoo.com/y5/s/viewphoto;_ylc=X3oDMTR1NjBkM2ZvBEFjdGlvbgNUaHVtYm5haWwgY2xpY2tlZARJbnRsA3VzBExua1R5cANSZWd1bGFyBFBhcnRUeXBlA1lhaG9vIQRSZXNQb3NBAzAEUmVzUG9zUgMEU3JjaEN1cnIDcGhvdG8EU3JjaERlc3QDcGhvdG8EX1F1ZXJ5SWQDMTEyNzY1NTYyNDQ4NWY1YTkxNTMxMGEEX1MDMTUwNTAwNzU2?show=largephoto&folderid=%40S%40Search&mid=1_22_2_4511_0_AIAwvs4AARedRRlAAAHfqCBSZPo&partid=3&name=37931.jpg&size=70656&search=1

Wow, Brew boy and I have the same exact set-up. Here are some pics of mine. 2 (3kw) elements installed in a keg. 2 to get it to a boil and then unplug one when it does. One thing that I must to though is transfer my wort to a plastic bucket to cool with me immersion chiller. This is not that bad because then I don't have to cool down the very hot stainless steel keg.

It's Sooooo nice not worrying about having to run out of gas or EVER having to pick up gas.

oh ya, mine also run on 220v.

Flip, I couldn't get those links to work.

How many times have you left both elements on and walked away, only to come back to a boil over? I've lost count myself.

how about making one of your elements controlled with a temp switch that cuts it out at 212...

I've thought about making a power proportioner to vary the voltage to the elements, but I've never gotten around to it.

sounds harder than just a swith, but I suppose a better control,would like to see your setup,BB...the comment on carbing my dubbel,I wasnt ready to carb yet, or do you carb to store,and how till you would drink the dubbel? whats the diff between dub and trippel?

Here's a couple of shots of the kettle.

http://tinyurl.com/65gcbq

BB,consider writing to Ron LaBorde, who I referenced, about getting electrical switching devices...he is always improving his system
...discarded electric heaters.Although I did harvest a 80 gas burner from a heater, I found the electric elements to be cheap but the natural gas burners aren't .Most water heaters are tossed for a leaky tank not a poor element or burner.I called a wholesale plumbing supply company,offered a 6 pack of homebrew and asked them to let me know the next time they sold a replacement 80 G (80K BTU gas burners) tank.2 days later I got it.
..."takes a lot more energy to break to boil" .Since I never heat more than 5Gs at a time and always boil >10Gs and did not have 220V available ...which is a major issue,I planned a 120V liquor tank heating system and a natural gas boiling system when my obsolete style propane tanks ran out.
I now have an electric heater and a 80K NG burner but still using up my store of obsolete propane tanks.Living in post Katrina flood N.O. I still find rusty but FULL propane tanks (19 so far) as the cleanup continues 34 months out so I'm good for a while

alright for someone with very little electrical experience (i can switch out a celing light)
how do you hook this up to electricity. I can figure how to mount it in my keggle. Do you just
splice the end of a dryier cable? That just seems too easy.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100288029&N=10000003+90093

or

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100129264&N=10000003+90093

Alright found a guy at my place of business that is a certified electrician thats going to help me out. He has a couple heating elements at home that he bought that were the wrong size and a switch that I can use to turn it on and off with. I'm stoked.

Yeah, it really is that easy. The tricky part is picking a heating element that will work with the outlet you plan to use. Dryer outlets tend to be of higher amperage like 20 amps, (someone confirm this, I'm going off of what I think I know) and regular outlets tend to be around 15-16 amps. The heating elements I picked were to be used with a regular outlet, so I just used a thick gauge extension cord to be the wiring, since it'll have a ground, too. The other tricky part is making sure it's waterproof, as radtek mentioned it can be done with a properly sized washer which I did use on my pvc-pipe connection, and used an epoxy rated for boiling temperatures or higher for my element sealant to the pipe. There are many ways to go about this, but the main idea is to be as safe as possible, you don't want to cut your life a wee bit short because you didn't ensure that you did everything perfectly.
To sum up:
1. Pick a heating element that will work with the amperage you plan to use
2. Get and wire a GFCI outlet for your own protection
3. Ensure that the ground wire is touching something metal that will be in the wort, again for your own protection
4. Waterproof and heatproof the hell out of your heating element
5. Wear thick gauge rubber gloves the first few times to be safe

All in all, I'm sure you'll do fine, and since you found a guy to do this all for you it'll be even easier. I would suggest watching him if you can in case something were to go awry, you'd understand what needed to be done to fix it.

Hank, if I build one it will be an open loop duty cycle controller driving a SSR. I'll probably control only one element, since I know that 1 3kw element won't cause a boil over. I just have too many projects, going on right now, that take precedence.

Dude- pasting in those three long links seriously screwed up the readability of this thread.

Yes it did.

Sorry for the links guys. I hate that when it happens to me and now I'm the culprit. I came here to delete the post but
I can't find any edit functions.

Hmmmm...looked at my electric panel and only have room for one 220 spot, maybe one heat stick and propane.
Use the propane to get the boil and the heat stick to maintain.

Have looked at a few cfc on the internet,looks possible to make...might try it..I suppose length and water
temp factors in discharge temp of wort.

If you're brewing 5 gallons batches. one 3000-4500 watt heat stick should do the trick. In fact, 3000 might be perfect.
You can get elements up to 6000 watts, but the problem becomes the large wire size that you have to use. A 3000 watt
element rated fr 240 VAC only consumes 12.5 amps. That's just a heavy duty extension cord.

The other thing you can do, and this is what I did, is put a 50 amp GFCI in your breaker box and run that to a sub-panel. At that point you break
it into 2, 20 amp circuits, using standard breakers. Now they are both protected and you had to only buy 1 GFCI breaker. Those things are expensive.

yes they are expensive....good idea BB,didnt think of that,should have,thats what my dad did to the garage....
hes the electrician..and Im really close to switching to 10 gal brew sessions.....looking for either kegs or that
idea of a hot water tank....man this is fun.

I defiantly want to get in on this conversation.

I've been thinking for a long time about going propane and was just getting ready to do just that.
Until I found out that a tank of propane is running $60!!!!

I have a 50QT aluminum pot.
What is my best options of going HLT?

I've got a Lowes real close!!! LOL

I'm still a proponent of the heat sticks. If you know your electricity well enough, they're relatively easy to put together. I can get my decoctions to go about 2F a minute or 1C a minute, and boils effortlessly. I can also bring my 6 gal HLT fully filled to 190F in about an hour from room temp. That usually works great to just plug in and walk away during the sac rest. Come back an hour later and voila, it's all good to go.

Well I'm sure I can get them to work good.

I want some good high power boils.
I've moved like 3 times and the stove thing isn't getting it anymore.
Now that I'm in a house I own, I'm ready to make it happen.

Two, 3kw elements will boil over 12 gallons of wort in a converted keg however, once you get to boiling, one of the elements will maintain a nice rolling boil.

Cool Brewboy

I will have to get a game plan together.

Once you go electric, you'll never go back to gas, except to fart.

LMAO Brewboy

I do enough of that, All the beer I drink buddy..LOL

I built some heat sticks. I haven't brewed with a converted keg or pot but one advantage I can see to the sticks is that if for some reason I miss my strike temp I can jam a heat stick in the mash tun and bring my mash up to temp and that is very useful. What can I say, I'm far from a perfect brewer.

Also, screw the GCFI outlets, you can get GCFI extension cords from Lowe's for $20 giving you more flexibility for where you can brew.