Urn/kettle/boiler

[talltwits]

Hey guys,

Hope you are all well! So currently I'm using a 20 stick pot and my gas job to do small BIAB's. This is destroying my counter in the kitchen due to the length of time it sits on the hob and the gas is burning. Anyway, the good lady isn't best please however this is a great opportunity to upgrade my gear.

I'm looking for a water boiler, urn or whatever you call it so I can move my brewing to garage. Something like this http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Stainless-Steel-56-Ltr-Electric-Boiler.html

I am looking of ran electric one, and preferably to make large batches. This is the only one I can seem to find and what appears to be a very good price. I've seen the thread about the Ace, boilers but £1000 is too pricey!

Can any of you guys point me in the right direction or recommend a brand/location to check out. I know from the Coopers forum, they use the Crown Urns, and to be honest look like they'd do the job. It just means buying from Australia!

Can anyone help?

Cheers guys, happy brewing!

 

[Doglaner]

Hello, and I'm very well, thank you.

I moved up to a garage based AG set up in March this year. I got a Cygnet 30 l tea urn for Christmas from the very generous in-laws, however this is much smaller than you are looking to get.

I would say two things, though.

1) it is great and I can happily do 23/4 l into the FV.

2) When I was researching kit (exhaustively) before writing my Christmas list, I saw posts here and elsewhere about urns being priced ridiculously high when out of stock, and then much more sensibly when the next container load arrived and was ready to sell. Your £1,000 may be one of these.

When I decide to go bigger, or when the urn gives up, I will look at a propane ring and huge stockpot set up, putting in my own taps and pipe work, dial thermometers and sight tubes, etc. This will be something to aim for.

Good hunting and keep us informed.

Dog.

 

[Budgie]

I'll be getting one day f those ME are les from the homebrew shop soon to use as a HLT. I've looked at all sorts of options and I think they're pretty good value.

Another alternative is to buy a stockpot and fit an element, tap ect yourself. However this doesn't really save much money in my experience, and drilling so stainless steel can be a right pain in the balls.

In short, I'd go with the 56 litre kettle from the homebrew shop.

 

[talltwits]

Thanks guys, appreciate it! I think I'll ask Santa for the 56 litre boiler!

Although in the short term I think I'll price up an element for the stock pot I already have.

I'm no electrician so hopefully it's easy done, plus also the 56 litre boiler requires a bit of building. Hopefully not too technical for me though!

 

[nigelnorris]

The ACE boiler is £100 give or take a fiver depending on model. They're out of stock currently so they put a £1000 placeholder on there so no one tries to buy one, but saving them having to delete the ad then remake it when stock comes back.

The new stock is rumoured to have a proper digital temp controller on it so for a lot of people it's worth the wait. Doesn't get hot underneath either so you don't have to worry about kitchen tops. Probably not for you though since it's only a 30L boiler anyway.

 

[talltwits]

Hey! To be honest a 30 litre will do me just fine. I had a bit of a brain fart when I was going on about getting the larger one!

So these Ace ones are tried and tested by you guys yeah? I hunt had the time to work all through the many pages on the topic but so far it seems positive. And thankfully the £1000 isn't the actual price. Is the best place to buy these eBay?

I'm still swithering between a gas burner and boiler. But to be honest I'm edging towards a boiler!

 

[gerbs]

I bought the ace boiler a few months back the new insulated one, it came with a false bottom and a grain bag and is reasonable quality, holds a decent boil the thermostat is about 10 degrees out, i mash in it as well as boil so I made a temp controller using an stc1000, but you cannot boil 30 litres you are pushing it at 25 and you have to be careful it doesn't boil over but I would recommend it

 

[Covrich]

Whats with all the Ace boilers on Ebay being 1100 pounds all of a sudden:lol:

 

[Smileyr8]

There's a discussion here http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=58412 for what its worth I have the Burco Cygnet 30l (think I paid £65ish) and I am very happy with it.

 

[cheapbrew]

Whats with all the Ace boilers on Ebay being 1100 pounds all of a sudden:lol:

see post 5 above for the explanation

 

[nigelnorris]

Is the best place to buy these eBay?

The eBay guy appears to be the actual importer and seems to have a say in design and feature changes, plus he can supply spares such as theremostats etc. I think the others you'll find dotted about are resellers and tend to have older stock without any advantage in price.

For that reason and the fact that the eBay seller is very good in terms of contact and after sales service leads me to recommend dealing with him first.

 

[talltwits]

Thanks for all he info guys! Would you hate me if I said I actually went and bought a gas burner. Was £30 and I already had the gas in the garage anyway. So I'll give this go, and see how it goes. Something that puts me off the electric boilers is that I'm
Led to believe they require a bit of tinkering with the thermostat to get a roiling boil...I'm no electrician but I can connect a burner to a gas bottle!