Heat stick advice

[stevedasleeve]

I'm making a 1500W heat stick based on http://lovebrewingcompany.com/brewing/diy/heatstick/ picked up all the parts and will build it this weekend. Not having any DIY skills or electrical for that matter I have a couple of questions before I begin! Forgive me if these are idiotic...

1. #6 brass screw, nut, and washer to hook up the ground wire to the chrome/brass sink waste arm -- the washer is stainless, the nut and screw are brass - that's not a problem right? Also any idea on what drill bit size for drilling the hole?

2. There are rubber washers on the element and plastic on the nut that attaches it to the tube. Should I use these or remove them when I apply the epoxy?

3. Searching the web I found one person mixing JB weld with nail polish remover to make it pourable. Do you think this is necessary for a water tight seal i.e is this a good idea or not?

4. The nut I got that attaches the heating element to the sink waste arm has zinc in it. This makes me nervous but what do I know - thoughts?

Cheers and thanks for your comments!

Steve da sleeve

 

[stevedasleeve]

Hmm I guess these questions are too idiotic - I'll go ahead with the build and hope nothing goes bang then...

Cheers!

 

[grathan]

Good luck.

I built one one time. It worked well until I ran it dry one day. I bought parts to make one out of tri-clover next time so the element will be replaceable.

 

[signmastr]

I built a straight version, like this. Worked fine.
http://www.cedarcreeknetworks.com/heatstick.htm

 

[stevedasleeve]

Finished it this morning, testing tonight. Friday the 13th.... hmmm

 

[BradleyBrew]

use a outlet with a gfci

 

[stevedasleeve]

It works - not terribly difficult to make actually. I have this 1500W heat stick on one circuit and my 1800W induction burner on another, a test 6 gallons in my pot and it is heating up nicely.

After my brew day next week I'll decide on if I need a lower or higher wattage heat stick - now that I have this figured I'm making another that looks a little prettier!

Steve da sleeve

 

[stevedasleeve]

To answer my questions for anyone who might want to do this with similar (lack of ) knowledge:

1. #6 brass screw, nut, and washer to hook up the ground wire

I ended up draping the ground up over the top of the chrome tube and fixingit onto the metal with epoxy and the plastic PVC handle - no drilling needed.

2. There are rubber washers on the element and plastic on the nut that attaches it to the tube. Should I use these or remove them when I apply the epoxy?

3. Searching the web I found one person mixing JB weld with nail polish remover to make it pourable. Do you think this is necessary for a water tight seal i.e is this a good idea or not?

I used the washer and a 1 1/2 - 1 1/4 inch reducer nut for a nice seal then mixed the JB weld with Acetone and poured it into the tube to seal the electrical connections

4. The nut I got that attaches the heating element to the sink waste arm has zinc in it. This makes me nervous but what do I know - thoughts?

On some searching I surmised this was not a big deal.

Cheers!

Steve

 

[stevedasleeve]

 

[stevedasleeve]

My heat stick/ induction burner combo rocks! Brought 8 gallons to full boil with the stick & induction burner on 10 in 25 mins from mash out and it's a rolling boil on 3 with the stick. Should have done this a long time ago!

Steve da sleeve

 

[snooby]

Thanks for putting this up. I also plan on using it with my induction burner.

Do you regret not drilling a hole in the 1 1-2 chrome pipe? I wanted to skip that step also from the other guides.

 

[Spellman]

What I did on mine a while back was soldier the ground to the inside of the pipe. Use a little sand paper to rough up the inside in a spot then got a little glob on it and heated the ground wire into it with the iron. Took 5 min, they never failed on me. Heat sticks are a totally underrated and cheap way to do basic brewing indoors. I used mine for a year before upgrading to a eherms system (which I love but was certainly a big investment). Hard for me to let them go now that I don't really need them anymore, my mind tells me I may need them someday, but for what I have no idea.

 

[snooby]

I don't have access to soldier. Can I just use the JBWeld to glue the ground wire onto the pipe? I'm not sure why people needed to drill a hole through the chrome pipe, where they could have just used glue only.

 

[djt17]

I don't have access to soldier. Can I just use the JBWeld to glue the ground wire onto the pipe? I'm not sure why people needed to drill a hole through the chrome pipe, where they could have just used glue only.

I dont think the glue is conductive. So glue would not work for electrical grounding

 

[wilserbrewer]

Gluing electrical connections is a bad idea!!!

There are alternatives, one example shows the ground wire crushed under the drain pipe nut, or crushed against the drain pipe at the top connection.

 

[cjgenever]

Built a1500 watt heat stick based on the site previously credited. The heat density was way too high. It scorched the hell out of my wort. Only good for strike water.

For wort use a 6000w 240v element @120v. That gives you 1500w with a lower heat density.

I use the galvanized compression nut with some silicon gasket maker to hold the element in and place the ground (splayed out) over the threads first. I then use a nut/washer combo with more silicon to seal the top side of the element to the nut. no epoxy needed... completely rebuildable. I checked the galvanized for lead and watch it for corrosion. When it does corrode it will be a dollar to replace and in the mean time the small amount of zinc will help my yeasties.

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[Spellman]

I don't have access to soldier. Can I just use the JBWeld to glue the ground wire onto the pipe? I'm not sure why people needed to drill a hole through the chrome pipe, where they could have just used glue only.

A cheap soldering iron will set you back $15. They are more handy to have around than you will ever know until you have one. I used it so often (play in a band and fix a lot of audio equip.) that I upgraded to a $50 variable watt one that I absolutely love. Friends and family are always handing me stuff to fix now. It has more than paid itself off for projects I've been able to build with it and things around the house I have fixed.

 

[cjgenever]

To anyone reading this thread...

Electrical connections should always be secured by mechanical means. I wouldn't even trust solder solder joints break all the time. Remember, if all else fails that ground will give an instant path for the current. This will trip the breaker and save you (of course, the gfci should kick in way before that). In the event of a gfci failure and a loose wire energizing the casing, the unit will remain energized until it juices you.

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[augiedoggy]

Built a1500 watt heat stick based on the site previously credited. The heat density was way too high. It scorched the hell out of my wort. Only good for strike water.

For wort use a 6000w 240v element @120v. That gives you 1500w with a lower heat density.

I use the galvanized compression nut with some silicon gasket maker to hold the element in and place the ground (splayed out) over the threads first. I then use a nut/washer combo with more silicon to seal the top side of the element to the nut. no epoxy needed... completely rebuildable. I checked the galvanized for lead and watch it for corrosion. When it does corrode it will be a dollar to replace and in the mean time the small amount of zinc will help my yeasties.

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Or stick with an ultra low density heating element as often recommended and you dont have to worry about scorching (unless your using rims and the flow gets blocked.)

 

[cjgenever]

Or stick with an ultra low density heating element as often recommended and you dont have to worry about scorching (unless your using rims and the flow gets blocked.)

That's what I'm getting at. The instructions show a typical high density 1500w element. I followed that and got screwed. I couldn't easily source a 120 uld element so I ended up with a 5500 @240v on my heat stick. That gives me 1375w @ 120v. My second heat stick consisted of a T and half a trap to allow for two of these. Worked great, but I used lp to bring to a boil, then hs only to hold boil. I now have one in a heat stick that I use as a stir stick @120 to keep temp in the mash and help initial boil time. The other is mounted 1/3 the way up my bk to assist in 12g batches. The main bk element is a 5500w uld 240v mounted low.

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[wilserbrewer]

Surprised to hear you had such problems with HD elements, I have been using them for years and have only scorched once through my own fault...I let all the trub settle preboil then had a trub BBQ...ouch

 

[cjgenever]

No settling involved. the elements looked good initially (15 min in), but by the end of the boil they had a quarter inch of material burnt onto them. The beer was undrinkable due to the bitter burnt flavors. It did age out a bit, but I still only drink them for the alcohol and not so much the flavor (like after a couple good beers).

Fwiw,
It was a 1.040 wort after boil with only an ounce of pellets. The elements were from two different manufacturers and they both scorched, one was worse than the other.

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[wilserbrewer]

No settling involved. the elements looked good initially (15 min in), but by the end of the boil they had a quarter inch of material burnt onto them. The beer was undrinkable due to the bitter burnt flavors. It did age out a bit, but I still only drink them for the alcohol and not so much the flavor (like after a couple good beers).

Fwiw,
It was a 1.040 wort after boil with only an ounce of pellets. The elements were from two different manufacturers and they both scorched, one was worse than the other.

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Thanks for the information, were the elements caked with a white or black debris? My burnt batch tasted very burnt, i fermented it and upon tasting I tossed it out and cut my losses.

How long a boil?
BIAB or MT?
Curious if your wort had a ton of trub or not? I've also heard seldom reports of scorching with ULWD elements, but it is rare as well.

Thanks!

 

[cjgenever]

It was black. I removed what I could while it was wet, but ended up using a ss scruby to clean the elements. I use a three vessel system most of the time now, but this one was an extract with steeped specialty grains. Was short on time that week. The recipe was for a bitter.

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