Thermostatic heating unit for boiler

[mcbrew]

Hi there,

I have a Mini brew HLT or essentially a large HPDE bucket and I need some kind of thermostatically controlled heating element for it. In my current set-up I use a Bruheat boiler and am looking for something with similar functionality for this unit.

Although the Bruheat units are a bit flimsy, they are nevertheless easy to fit. Can anyone recommend something similar to this or indeed a slightly more complex set-up?

Cheers!

[tubthumper]

you can get the bruheat thermostat as a spare part from a few home brew shops if thats what you want , otherwise its drilling holes in side of pot for probes and a different thermostat

[mcbrew]

So something like a Ranco ETC would do the trick in this instance?

[garwatts]

I wonder what everyone else on here uses? Especially when controlling two elements?

[garwatts]

you can get the bruheat thermostat as a spare part from a few home brew shops if thats what you want , otherwise its drilling holes in side of pot for probes and a different thermostat

An expensive way of doing it?

[tubthumper]

with 2 elelment ijust use themboth till it reaches boil then turn 1 off and let it boil toits heart content
but the HLT is an eltrim mash/boiler so that is thermostaicaly controled so I can hit mash temps and sparge to correct or as near as possilbe .

[mcbrew]

and the two elements are just standard kettle type elements? I assume you don't have any problems running them at the same time?

[tubthumper]

nope only time I had a problem was with an eletrimbin when the element got scorched ( foud out when I drained the boiler) and the thermostate cut it out
since then i dont use thermostate on boiler just hlt for sparge and mash strike temps
ideally you want a rolling boil for your full 90 or 120 min boil so on all the time is ok but 2 on at the same time is not such a good idea just use the second elelment to get you to the boil quicker ,Esspecially good as I got a 60 ltr boiler now so it takes a long time to get to boiling.
and with 1 tesco element on the full 90 mins no problem with a rolling boil , I dont reall care how long it lasts 9 a year I hope) as they are so cheap, I even made my self a couple of back up boilers just in case out of fermenting buckets ( and they are fine )

[mcbrew]

I have decided on the two element approach similar to tubthumper. I plan to use two 2.7Kw kettle elements. I will use both to get the water heated quickly and then use a thermostatic controller to control the remaining element. I have ordered a mash master thermostatic controller from Australia to do this. Along way I know. However this can easily handle the 2.7Kw element without the need for an additional relay and also has the advantage for me in that the temperature probe has an NPT thread which my boiler uses.