kettle element heat control

[gifford69]

Hi everyone Im making home brew i know i can look on home brew forums but ive less chance getting it wrong on here!!

I intend on buying a kettle and inserting the element into a plastic bucket, sealed and safe to boil about 30ltrs of water. what i want is for when the water reaches boiling point for the element to reduce the heat it produces, not turn off completely.

This is so i can have a steady rolling slight boil for approx 1 hour and not an overflowing bucket which the element tripping out or risking my household electrics.

I understand the safety of water around electricity so will have an RCD attached and nothing else will be running off the plug i am using.

I am not going to use a dimmer switch on a kettle but that is the idea of what i want i.e. control of the temperature. I hope this makes sense.

Dont be concerned about giving ideas i am not capable of if im not sure i will not try it. I appreciate all opinions as to what i can do. I might be missing a simple solution!!

 

[Jackrae]

Buy yourself an old (or new) large tea urn, then you have a ready built large "kettle" with inbuilt thermostatic control designed to keep things just OFF or just ON the boil.

 

[securespark]

Plastic bucket?

Kettle element?

Just buy a second hand urn, man and have done with it!!

EDIT: 2 SLO AGIN!

 

[gifford69]

appreciate the reply maybe i should have spent more time on posting the origianl question noones a mind reader so sorry.

i want to make something myself - i enjoy it and its part of what im intending to do as a project.

if i buy an urn and dont like the process ill have a useless urn with a tap i changed and will have wasted money.

the plastic will withstand the heat of the water i know that for sure

 

[gifford69]

or to simplify my question

how can i get the element from the kettle to perform the same properties of an urn

 

[jj4091]

I think what you are being told is that you cannot safely do what you would like to

 

[OwainDIYer]

You need a simmerstat

Something similar to this
http://www.ascateringsupplies.com/part.aspx?pCode=ASC12001
but I am NOT saying that particular model is suitable to your application.

You should also have a secondary overheating cutout.

 

[IJWS15]

Kettle elements are on or off.

You could fit a thermostat which would turn it off when a certain temperature is reached - but what do you do if it fails ON . . . . . . . And how do you wire this safely for 240V!

PLASTIC bucket full of BOILING water does not bear thinking about. Peoplesometimes die when their hot water thermostat fails and boils the water in the header tank.

What temerature will the bucket stand before it goes all floppy?

When I used to brew I used to heat the hops/Barley in my mums cast iron jam pan and pour it into a large bucket after it had been boiled long enough. After that it didn't need to be too hot, infact too much heat kills the yeast.

As suggested get an urn if you insist on doing it that way but the coolest setting on the urn may be too hot for the yeast.

 

[bernardgreen]

how can i get the element from the kettle to perform the same properties of an urn

The urn has an element and a thermostat. The thermostat controls the power to the element.

In a kettle the element is most often controlled by a simple switch which detects steam being produced and turns on the power to the element.

If that fails and the kettle boils dry then there is another safety trip in the kettle that operates when the element gets hotter than it does when normally boiling water.

That is not normally part of the element but is part of the kettle.

That temperature will almost certainly be higher than the melting point of the plastic used to make the bucket you intend to use. Kettles are made of a different type of plastic than that used in buckets.

 

[gifford69]

im trying to safely apply a bit of DIY to a project – safely! Costs need to be kept down and please don’t think of that as an excuse again to bypass safety it is not.

ive no intention of dipping my hand in a collapsing plastic bucket full of boiling water with a butchered kettle element chucked in with a few switches. Its hard to get across your intentions in a forum but like I say I still do appreciate the fact that people are atleast responding and do understand the emphasis on safety. Fact is you can never be too safe!!! Whoever you are.

I merely wanted to know my options someone might have said buy this wire it to that and that’s it. If I couldn’t do it I wouldn’t and I would then consider the urn with a different tap. U don’t always get the answer your looking for eh

PS the plastic will definitely hold the temperature 100% ive witnessed it for other uses than brewing therefore it didn’t need the temperature control I desire. I would never leave it unattended either I love beer too much

 

[davelx]

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/heating-hot-water-programmers/4893547/

not cheap though!

 

[gifford69]

far too advianced for what i need but thanks anyway

as you can all tell im no electrician. Im not going to attempt this but could you add a simple potentiometer suitable for that kind of power ofcourse?

 

[davelx]

far too advianced for what i need but thanks anyway

as you can all tell im no electrician. Im not going to attempt this but could you add a simple potentiometer suitable for that kind of power ofcourse?

No - unless it was a HUGE pot - the power you would need to dissipate in the pot would be far too high, it would burst into flames.

http://www.electrical-contractor.net/Nostalgia/Lg_dimmer2.jpg

 

[bernardgreen]

If you insist on putting a kettle element in a plastic bucket as a DIY hot water urn then learn some DIY ( dress it yourself ) first aid, with special attention to treatment of scalds and burns.

If you are boiling mash then a stainless steel element would be advisable as some elements corrode rapidly when heating anything but pure water.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Do they not make metal buckets any more?