Sanitizing Imersion Chiller and heating elements

[NTexBrewer]

New to electric brewing.

Do I need to be concerned about putting my copper immersion chiller in the boil kettle for the last 10 minutes of the boil to sanitize it.

It will be resting on the electric elements

Can that be a problem for the element or copper chiller?

 

[b-boy]

I think you'd be OK. I can't imagine it would hurt the chiller. If anything, I'd be more concerned about the element.

Any way to rig it so it won't sit on the element? Maybe add some copper or SS wire to allow it to hang off the side of the kettle and not touch the element?

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Buy a cheap pizza rack to put over the element...why put weight on the element when its so easy not to...

I never put the IC in during the boil to sanitize. I tried that a few times and it instantly cooled the wort down and stopped the boil and even got some cold break. Basically putting a stop to my last 10 minutes of the boil which is not what I want

Now I give it a rinse in the sink to get off dust and whatever, give it a starsan spray and put it in at flameout. its still in boiling hot water that would kill off anything immediately. Never had infection issues

 

[NTexBrewer]

Thanks for the replies. I have a grate I use during mashing. That should work great for 5 gallon batches but today I was testing it out with a 2 gallon batch and half of my chiller was above the wort. Think a counter flow chiller is something I'll have to look into since most of my batches are 2.5 to 3 gallons.

 

[logdrum]

I agree w JONNY, used to drop my IC in @ 15 min to flameout & bring it back to boil, now I just drop it in (after wiping it down & liberally dowsing w Starsan) @ flameout, never any issues

 

[wilserbrewer]

Lots of worrying goin on here....

I would not be overly concerned with the chiller sitting on the element, adding the chiller at flameout should sanitize it adequately, and half a chiller submerged for a half a batch should work as well as a full chiller for a full batch.

Carry on lol

 

[tofuguy]

Now I only have a 25 foot immersion chiller (works fine for my 5 gallon batches) and I was concerned about this too. But after 2 batches on my eKettle, I will say, the element can handle me gently setting the chiller directly on it. Not sure if I would be in the same place with a 50 foot chiller, would have to try how the weight would effect things.

 

[augiedoggy]

you could put the weight of 5 immersion chillers on an element and at the base where all the stress is on it the element could still handle it without problems...
I wish someone would make a sticky thread answering common questions for people and include this since this question comes up a lot!

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

you could put the weight of 5 immersion chillers on an element and at the base where all the stress is on it the element could still handle it without problems...
I wish someone would make a sticky thread answering common questions for people and include this since this question comes up a lot!

I'm sure it could but why bother. There is a one inch hole in the bottom of a pot that the pot nor the element was designed for. A pot filled with boiling water. My concern would be a leak from the slight stress on the pot loosening up the Oring over time.
I'm a huge proponent for keeping it simple and not overthinking it but for such a simple thing like not stressing the element or connection by sticking a simple rack over it I find zero reason not to.

 

[augiedoggy]

I'm sure it could but why bother. There is a one inch hole in the bottom of a pot that the pot nor the element was designed for. A pot filled with boiling water. My concern would be a leak from the slight stress on the pot loosening up the Oring over time.
I'm a huge proponent for keeping it simple and not overthinking it but for such a simple thing like not stressing the element or connection by sticking a simple rack over it I find zero reason not to.

The thing is this question comes up often and usually a bunch of people chime in they do it with no issues. Ive never seen anyone state it caused a problem is all.
I guess making hooks to hang the chiller inside the kettle would be an easy solution too.