Water heat up times

[Piperbrew]

Been busy in the workshop again today making a copper wort cooler so have that lovely taste of copper on my hands which is a sod to remove )).

Anyway, I also made a water heater for my 3 tier system like the one Dutto kindly showed me as in his set up. How long does it normally take to heat up the water as mine was on for about an hour (around 25 litres I think) and it got to 88c.....would that be normal? I am thinking of putting a second element into the tub as it would probably make more sense. I will also though heat up the water via a propane burner to at least get it hand warm when I actually come to use the system as cheaper than electric.

 

[Piperbrew]

Found the answer to this.....the seller on Ebay is selling the elements as for catering kettle / Swan catering kettle....They are not for those kettles as only a miserly 1.5 KW as opposed to 2.2 KW which the correct element is.

 

[Piperbrew]

Finally got a 2.75 KW element and what a difference it has made. :)

 

[Fil]

If you have a combi boiler which heats up hot water on demand, you can run the hot tap into the hlt to give your brewday a headstart without any worries. systems that retain a hot water tank may not be so suitable however what with drawing off half the tank etc..

 

[photek1000]

You can also speed up the process of heating less water, I would normally heat my mash water and once that's on heat my sparge, both in the same HLT.

That way I'm heating between 10 & 18 litres at a time depending on the brew requirements, it all helps.

I can also use my Inkbird to control the heating and trust it enough to be left whilst I do other stuff.

 

[Gunge]

I had cause to buy another element a coupla weeks back... cheapest I could find on the net was about £12! Nipped to asda in the hope that they were still flogging those el cheapo kettles which used the type of element I needed. Yup... just under six quid!