single pass rims tube to heat strike water

[killian]

I have been looking for ways to shorten my brew day and do it on the cheap. So I was looking at a full on ekettle but running 240 to the garage is out of the question at this point. I started looking at rims tubes and it made wonder...

would it be possible to heat strike water using a tube by filling my kettle then running through the tube to the pump then to the MLT one pass with the element on full power.

Thanks

 

[brewingmeister]

On 120... It's just not likely.

 

[killian]

ok how so?

 

[ChuckO]

At 100% efficiency a 1500 watt element can heat 1 gallon of water from 60 deg. to 160 deg. in about 10 minutes. At that rate it would take you about half an hour just to add 3 gal. of strike water. That's without making any allowances for heat loss from the system.

I fill my mash tun with cold water and then recirculate through my RIMS tube to heat strike water. A 5500 watt element at 240 volts takes about 10-15 minutes to get it up to strike temperature. If I only had 1500 watts available I don't think that I could do that in less than an hour.

 

[bigdongsr94]

I was concerned with using 110 when I fist built my system. Now I just use two circuits from opposite phases. So I have two extension cords each 110VAC on different phases. This is how 220 is in your house anyway you just have to put it together with a hot to each side of the heater. So if you have your garage outlet you just need another extension cord from inside the house. If its not giving you a measurement of 220 across the two hots then move one breaker or the other one slot down. There are still many things to mention to do this safely but just keep it in mind.

 

[Bobby_M]

It's hard enough to get a usable flow rate on a 240v 5500w element. No way 1500 would do it. Well, let's look at it this way, you'd have to run it at 1/2 quart per minute to get a 100F rise. By the time you got 4 gallons in your vessel (32 minutes later) you would have lost a lot of the heat in the collected volume.

On 5500 watts, you could get 100F rise out of a 1.5 qt/minute flow rate. That's more reasonable in that you could get 4 gallons of strike water in the tun in 10 minutes.

In any case, I agree that directly filling the tun and recirculating is the better way to do it. First, you wouldn't need to dial in the flow rate as precisely and you wouldn't have to stand there waiting to shut the water off. Quickly fill to volume, set the temp and walk away. Where on demand really shines is in fly sparging because the water doesn't sit around losing heat.

 

[Darkness]

I have a 6000 watt element running on 110v this putts out 2000 watt. I have a gas water heater turned all the way up and that gives me 144-148 deg water out of tap I go through rims tube and in to mash tun at 168 all day. ? Why the crap are you filling a mash tun with cold water to begin with?
If I want a cold drink, I don't set my glass in the sun I get it out of the freezer, and the beverage out of the frig. Start with hot water and it takes energy to heat it.

 

[jeffmeh]

I have a 6000 watt element running on 110v this putts out 2000 watt. I have a gas water heater turned all the way up and that gives me 144-148 deg water out of tap I go through rims tube and in to mash tun at 168 all day. ? Why the crap are you filling a mash tun with cold water to begin with?
If I want a cold drink, I don't set my glass in the sun I get it out of the freezer, and the beverage out of the frig. Start with hot water and it takes energy to heat it.

Actually, an element that outputs 6000w at 240v would only output 1500w at 120v, and less at 110v. And there are a number of reasons as to why one might start with cold water, with a need to filter the water perhaps being the first among them.

 

[Darkness]

Well I guess that's why I filter all the water as it comes into my home. Problem solved.

 

[Darkness]

Even at 1500 watt I can fill a mash tun in 15min easy and I sparge straight through rims tube out of tap and can sparge in about ten min. We have done 55 gal in 9 hours. It is faster.