Anyone know where to buy a heatstick? I’m not very comfortable to build one. Or another easy option?
Commercially they are called bucket heaters.
Awesome, thanks. Any special way to clean it after each use?
Where were you guys when I bought my $150 1500watt fancy brew stick? It does come with a controller built in, but I could’ve used two of the 1000W units from Tractor supply and still saved $80.
As for cleaning, you probably don’t need to do much of anything. Just rinse with water. I’d probably im mediately stick it in a bucket of water after removing from wort, to keep from cooking the wort on the element.
[quote=“Nighthawk”]http://www.tractorsupply.com/allied-precision-bucket-heater-1000-w-2170534
I think you meant this on ML.[/quote]
Nope, that’s the one I use but that is why homebrewing is so cool we can use what we have. I can see where the other device is handy though.
Will either of those bucket heaters have enough wattage to get 5-10 gallons of water to sparging temperature?
I didn’t know these existed, and they seem like a great way to heat my HLT
[quote=“S.Scoggin”]Will either of those bucket heaters have enough wattage to get 5-10 gallons of water to sparging temperature?
I didn’t know these existed, and they seem like a great way to heat my HLT[/quote]
viewtopic.php?p=598954In this thread, Colorado Brewer said he gets about a 2* rise per minute with a 1000w unit. Depending on air temps. So it may take close to 1 hour to get water from 60* to 160*.
I have read about guys putting them on a timer so that their water is ready in the morning for mashing.
I own three bucket heaters and used 3 to heat sparge water (9 gallons) for a ten gallon beer batch, which got up to 180f in the time it took me to get 6 gallons of strike water to mash temp in the mash tun with a banjo burner (less than 45 minutes). I typically use two in the HLT and one in the mash tun on timers, but I forgot to set them the night before.
Highly recommended!
:cheers:
My 1500W unit is slow enough to bring water to temp, I bet 1000W would take a good hour. Also, if you use two then try to put them on separate cirsuits because 2000W on a 15-20amp breaker would probably be too much.
[quote=“tom sawyer”]if you use two then try to put them on separate cirsuits because 2000W on a 15-20amp breaker would probably be too much.[/quote]2000 watts on a 120v circuit will pull just under 17 amps and just over 18 amps at 110v.
Thats a bit close to the limit isn’t it? I believe my 1500W unit blew a breaker once, I think it was a 20 but might’ve been a 15. I just worry about pushing the limits of the wire and having it get hot and catch the house on fire, but my house is 40 years old too.
Yeah it is pretty close for a 20 amp circuit, general purpose duplex outlets are rated @ 15 amps, but I see it a lot where there is 12 gage wire and a 20 breaker on them. It would be best to just use one per circuit. If you have to run an extension cord, a 16 gage cord less than 50’ is rated at 13 amps, 14 gage would be better.
[quote=“Nighthawk”]http://www.tractorsupply.com/allied-precision-bucket-heater-1000-w-2170534[/quote]This is similar to the one I use (if not identical) along with a heavy-duty timer and GFCI outlet. It consistently adds 250F per hour to one gallon of water, so if I have 20 gallons of 70F water and want it to be 170F at 6:00 AM, I know it’ll take eight hours to add 100F and start the heater at 10:00P the night before. After I get the mash going, I’ll use it to start heating the sparge water to save a little propane.
I wouldn’t use it in wort, though - it’s not 100% stainless and it has some rust on it.
Gonna go all electrical engineer on ya here but a 2000W heater load on a 20amp circuit is not allowed by code. The code reads that cord and plug connected equipment not fastened in place shall not exceed 80% of branch circuit rating. With a 20amp circuit that’s 16 amps or 1920VA, 1920W of resistive load.
But alas, as GM mentions, a lot of the receptacles in our homes are rated for 15A but are connected to 20A wire and circuit breakers. If installed correctly, which we know happens all the time, the circuit breaker should pop before the wire heats up to the point of melting.
I put my 3 on separate circuits all with GFCI breakers - no problem encountered.
:cheers:
[quote=“mvsawyer”]Gonna go all electrical engineer on ya here but a 2000W heater load on a 20amp circuit is not allowed by code. The code reads that cord and plug connected equipment not fastened in place shall not exceed 80% of branch circuit rating. With a 20amp circuit that’s 16 amps or 1920VA, 1920W of resistive load.[/quote]Good point. Ironically many people have 1500 watt electric space heaters and they exceed 80% of a 15 amp circuit, especially around here where rural electric customers are lucky if they get 110 volts.
