Heating Element Average Useful Life

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After reading a few posts where heating elements stopped working in the middle of a boil, I was thinking of buying an extra 5500W heating element as a backup.

What is the average useful life of a 5500W heating element? I imagine their life must be long and similar to an electric water heater's heating element, but that is just an assumption on my part. Does anyone know?

 

[passedpawn]

After reading a few posts where heating elements stopped working in the middle of a boil, I was thinking of buying an extra 5500W heating element as a backup.

What is the average useful life of a 5500W heating element? I imagine their life must be long and similar to an electric water heater's heating element, but that is just an assumption on my part. Does anyone know?

Pretty long for me. I have two (one in the boil kettle, one in the HLT). I built my electric kettles in 2009 and I vaguely remember having one die in the subsequent 10 yrs. I use the ubiquitous Camco 2963 elements. Further, I abuse the crap out of them. I intentionally dry-fire the one in the boil kettle after every brewsession, until it's redhot.

 

[wilserbrewer]

If you have a spare handy, it will likely sit on a shelf unused, and without a spare you’ll likely need one j/k.

An ideal backup plan would be to have a hot rod heatstick from brewhardware.com

You could finish your brewing without delay and replace your element when the kettle is out of service.

Very handy piece of equipment, and if you have the power available you could “double up” when heating large quantities of water....

 

[Bobby_M]

When installed in a water heater, it sits untouched at a relatively constant temp. In a brew kettle the heat cycles and cleaning bumps and flexes will shorten life. One way to look at it is that it will most likely fail while its heating....during a brew day. Yes you need a spare.

 

[mabrungard]

In normal use, an element is only modestly stressed. Getting a decade out of constant use in a water heater is not uncommon. I’d be more concerned with SSR failure.

If you’re dry firing your element, then all bets are off. That will definitely reduce the lifespan of an element. Given the ease with which deposits can be wiped from a kettle or RIMS element, its foolish to dry fire.

 

[CodeSection]

Thanks for all the responses! Good point about the SSR as I never thought of that.

Hopefully, once I get caught up at work, I will brew 10 gallons every 2-3 weeks. During my last three brews I invited a friend and/or client over. I would hate if my EZBoil regulator or heating element went out in the middle of a boil. It would be a major disappointment with everyone. I have Spike's 20 gallons kettles. My pre-boil volume is 14 gallons.

If the EZboil regulator went out in the middle of a boil, I would not replace it at that point in time as I would wait until later when I could devote my full, stress free attention to it. As for the heating element, I could easily pump back the wort to the MT and replace the heating element in the BK. I only use one heating element in my two kettle system.

I like the idea of the hot rod stick as it appears it would be the fastest to get up and continue with the boil. I suppose if the heating element or if the EZBoil regulator went out when I was mashing, it might be very difficult to maintain a mashing temperature. But at least the process could continue as I would rely upon the manual thermometers and probably control the heat by unplugging and plugging in the hot rod.

Is unplugging and plugging in the heat rod to control the heat manually possible or is it considered too dangerous?

 

[wilserbrewer]

IF your system went down with your mash at temp, I would just throw a blanket over the tun and call it good.

Unplugging and plugging a high voltage device is a bad idea imo. As simple switch would be highly preferred.

To answer your question, yes you can stir a mash with a heat stick to raise the temp, keeping the element moving is key ime.

 

[augiedoggy]

I have noticed more reports of failures in the chinese elements than the camcos over the years... That said I only ever had one fail in 6 years and I believe it was because I damaged the base which was encased in epoxy so I couldnt check or correct it..

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

misquote

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

.

I intentionally dry-fire the one in the boil kettle after every brewsession, until it's redhot.[/QUOTE]

Really...I thought that that was taboo. I thought I was a rebel dry firing once a year when it gets funky...From the old posts I read on the site I thought dry firing kinda killed the element.

I'll be doing this far more often if you've found it to be non detrimental to the element to burn off the crud....as to the OP mines been going 6 years without issue.

EDIT: My quoting skills are not strong tonight LOL

 

[augiedoggy]

mistake post

 

[passedpawn]

I intentionally dry-fire the one in the boil kettle after every brewsession, until it's redhot.

Really...I thought that that was taboo. I thought I was a rebel dry firing once a year when it gets funky...From the old posts I read on the site I thought dry firing kinda killed the element.

I'll be doing this far more often if you've found it to be non detrimental to the element to burn off the crud....as to the OP mines been going 6 years without issue.

EDIT: My quoting skills are not strong tonight LOL

All I can say is it works for me, with the particular element that I have. I don't want to convince anyone that this is a good practice. Do it at your own risk. Smarter people than I on this forum have called me foolish for it, and I can't really disagree.

 

[BBBF]

An ideal backup plan would be to have a hot rod heatstick from brewhardware.com

You could finish your brewing without delay and replace your element when the kettle is out of service.

Very handy piece of equipment, and if you have the power available you could “double up” when heating large quantities of water....

Yeah, I consider my RIMS element to by my back up.

 

[Swamproad]

I have a propane burner and keggle that I keep as a back up. I use this equipment for club functions when I don't have access to power.