Immersion heaters as boilers?

[Beardy]

I was discussing my home brewing the other day with a friend and saying how I'd like to move to all grain, but the equipment requirements were high. I was explaining what I'd seen on various how-to posts on here, and he asked why couldn't I use an immersion heater in a hot water tank as a boiler, after all they are made of copper and that's what was traditionally used for beer making. I couldn't answer that, so I thought I'd ask here :)
Ta

 

[Sean_Mc]

You can, well I use mine HERE

 

[Springer]

Thats what I use. I was a bit bothered about draining down and the element was in the top, so I turned it upside down to solve both problem and use it as a bucket boiler, after fitting an extra element. The only thing is I need to use 40 litres of water minimum and can't reheat without topping up to 40 litres.
Hold on a minute a picture is worth a thousand words

my build

 

[timbim]

How do you get around the problem that the thermostats don't go above ~70-80 degrees?

 

[Aleman]

Take the thermostat out

 

[Springer]

Take the thermostat out

:)
Presumably you have never seen inside an immersion cover Tim ? A stat is a "switch" It can be unwired and simply slid from its tube.
In this state if the boiler is left unattended it could boil and evaporate water away to expose the elements, not sure what would happen then, not good though. :? :cry:
Best not to tamper with potentially lethal 240v if you don't know exactly what you are doing.

 

[darrenwest1]

just link out the stat where the wire goes in and out of the stat just join the wires together
job done

 

[timbim]

Should have seen that!

Not even that expensive, certainly cheaper than a 3kw element. Not as compact though I suppose.

 

[darrenwest1]

i am a sparks so if you have a prob pm me and i will help ya