120v setup using stove as supplement

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72Chevelle

72Chevelle

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Has anyone ever built a system using a herms setup and used there stovetop to speed up the heating of the water. Basically i am looking to do 2.5 gallon batches and use my 16 qt stainless pot and put a copper coil in it and a 240v 5500 ULWD element running at 120v so it should run at 1375 watts, use a pump and hoses to constantly recirculate through my 5 gallon cooler. Then do the boil as usual on the stove and maybe upgrade later to an electric boil kettle and do the same thing, use the stove eye to speed up the getting to boil process. I would build my box to be able to expand to later add the addition pid for the boil. The reasoning behind not going with a standard 2000 w 120 volt element is I am in an apartment and dont know if the outlets can handle it and am nowhere near my dryer plug so no option on a 220v outlet. I am very much a noob at this and dont know if this is an option.
 
Is it a gas or electric stove you're using? there are a few examples of people using an electric stove in combination with an electric brew kettle. Some have even unplugged their stove to use 240v.

If it's gas I would be very careful. The heat that would come up the sides of the pot put some serious stress on any type of element that is mounted directly to the kettle. I have seen several people use heat sticks to supplement a gas stove, that typically moves the delicate parts of the element away from the direct heat.
 
its an electric stove, I was searching everywhere for a good example, maybe a wiring diagram. I googled it using this site specific instead of using the thread search and couldnt find anything. The closest I could find is the Countertop Brutus wiring which I should be able to use I think.
 
72Chevelle said:
Has anyone ever built a system using a herms setup and used there stovetop to speed up the heating of the water. Basically i am looking to do 2.5 gallon batches and use my 16 qt stainless pot and put a copper coil in it and a 240v 5500 ULWD element running at 120v so it should run at 1375 watts, use a pump and hoses to constantly recirculate through my 5 gallon cooler. Then do the boil as usual on the stove and maybe upgrade later to an electric boil kettle and do the same thing, use the stove eye to speed up the getting to boil process. I would build my box to be able to expand to later add the addition pid for the boil. The reasoning behind not going with a standard 2000 w 120 volt element is I am in an apartment and dont know if the outlets can handle it and am nowhere near my dryer plug so no option on a 220v outlet. I am very much a noob at this and dont know if this is an option.
Click to expand...

I use my kitchen stove plus a LWD 120V 1650 Watt element to boil 10 gallon batches now. The element plugs straight into the wall and I regulate my boil with the stove eye control. It works well but I generate a lot of steam with 10 gallons.

I bought the 1650 watt element, the box, power cord, stainless steel nut and box cover all as a complete kit from one of the online vendors.
 
I think it depends on how much you want to invest. You could pretty easily go tphjr route with minimal investment, or you could build a full on electric kettle. Which you could then add in the HERMS coil.

While neither of these are HERMS systems. I would think they would get you the electric kettle portion. You'd just need to add on the coil and such. They do both use PIDs though. If you're against using the PID for now, I would think just running the element plugged directly into the wall would produce good results for you.

If I remember right I think a few of the builds of this system use the electric stove to supplement the heating element
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/110v-recirculating-ebiab-2-5-gallon-batches-341219/


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/how-build-5-gal-110v-ebiab-kettle-304914/

I referenced both a ton while building my rig. There are also quite a few EBIAB threads floating around that are great and different examples of electric kettles.

Good luck!
 
Thank you so much for linking those 2 builds, the first one is what I was looking for. I am wanting to build a control panel with a PID. My goal is to build it in a box with a single PID and put my temp probe on the output of the coil in my HLT. I am not able to do the dual element option because I do not know which plugs in my apartment are on which breaker and I don't want cords running all through my kitchen for my dogs to get hung up on and pull a pot of hot wort down on themselves.
 
Another question I wonder about is if the heating with the stove eye would mess up the Autotune on the PID?
 
You know with a 120v 2000w element you dont need the stove at all. Mine heats from cold tap water to boil in 35min.

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BxBrewer said:
You know with a 120v 2000w element you dont need the stove at all. Mine heats from cold tap water to boil in 35min.
Click to expand...

I would tend to disagree on the only needing a 2000w element. I think there are a few variables that might come into play. What volume are you boiling and your pot diameter being the two biggest factors.

In my experience I was unable to get 7 gallons to come to a boil using a one 2000w element. I ended up going with two separate 2000w elements. I originally had a fairly wide pot which I believe caused most of my issues.
 
I have no problem boiling 6 gallons with a 1650 watt element but it takes almost an hour to go from 65F to boil. I can bring 11 gallons from mash temperature to boil in 20 minutes using my stove top + my 1650 watt element, then I have to turn the stove down a little.
 

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