bucket heater for hwt?

[dye4me]

I was wondering if anyone has used a small 1000W bucket heater to preheat their hwt? I am using a 50 gallon stianless drum and was thinking it would be a time save to drop one in the night before and just have to raise it a bit to start brewing. Also are the completely submergible?

 

[IslandLizard]

1000W for 50 gallons in an uninsulated SS vessel? That's not enough energy to overcome heat losses of that tank at higher temps.

 

[dye4me]

Im not looking to walk in the door and drop the water Id just like to get the gap smaller. What wattage would be needed to hit maybe 110-120f?

 

[IslandLizard]

If you had a super-insulated vessel, 1000W will bring 50 gals to a boil. 100W would, given enough time.

But you sustain real time heat loss with that huge SS vat filled with water. It will radiate heat and quite a bit. the higher the temp, the more it radiates out, and at some point, as fast as the element puts it in. I don't know at what temp that would settle at, but I doubt it being even anywhere near 120F.

Insulating that vessel well would be your first step. Then you should estimate heat loss at a given vessel temperature and (its surronding) ambient temperature. Then you would know how many BTUs (or Watts) to input to overcome that heat loss.