Homemade Plastic Boiler - The Thunderbird

[floydmeddler]

Hi folks...

Thought I'd share with you my extremely cheap and very effective homemade plastic boiler. I call it The Thunderbird.

After pricing plastic boilers I thought I could do just as good (if not better) myself. So, I bit the bullet and took a few chances. First thing I needed was a Vessel. It was very obvious that I needed something heavy that could handle 100c boiling wort splashing around in there for 1hr-1.5 hrs so I decided I needed something made from HDPE. I searched high and low and nearly gave up as they were pretty expensive brand new and deliver charges were very steep too. Then I checked Ebay. To my surprise and luck, this guy: ibcextreme was selling 30L drums for £3.45. Delivery on top of that was only £4. (See pic at bottom)

I ordered the drum then drove to my local Tesco where I picked up a value kettle for £4.75. (See pic) When the drum arrived, I got to work installing the element. As a safety measure, I removed the original fitting section from the Tesco kettle and used this too. This gave more depth which in turn gives a better seal. (See pic at bottom) After taking this pic, I removed the wires which were connected to a light. Didn't feel the need to have it there.

IMPORTANT! I noticed that with the extra depth, it was possible that the earth plate no longer made a connection with the actual element. If you plan to use this design, ensure that you bend the earth plate forwards to ensure a secure connection. If you are confused when reading this part, it will become clear when you have the part in front of you.

I went to B&Q and picked up a cheap brass tap and a few fittings for around £7, filled it with water and it worked a treat! It powers using a typical kettle lead. IMPORTANT! ensure you use a 13A fuse. I used the one which was supplied with the Tesco kettle.

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Here is my Thunderbird 30L boiler boiling some sweet Irish Red Ale wort:

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No plastic taste at all from the now fermenting beer which is bubbling away in the corner. The only issue with this boiler is that the element is quite high up the vessel. This couldn't be avoided as it curves in below this point. I noticed that when heating strike water, the water below the element was only at around 30c whist the water above was around 70c. This isn't a problem though as I can simply raise the temp to equal out. When it is on the boil, it doesn't seem to be a problem. Probably because the boiling water rolls around the vessel.

Inside the vessel, I connected tubing to the tap so that it could reach the bottom of the vessel. Only a tiny drop is left behind when I'm draining out strike/sparge water and sweet wort.

I now have a fantastic 35L boiler which cost me around £20. Hope this has been useful.


Floyd in Brighton

Other pics:

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[Frisp]

Fm
Nice boiler . Just one question did you have any problems with the bin imparting flavours into your brews. Im thinking about trying a 60l one as a fermenter. One supplier of new ones tells me that 30 and 60 L are only suitable for dry goods. but I think they just wanted to sell me plastic liner bags.
Has anyone else used on of these as a fermenter.

[floydmeddler]

Hi. This particular drum was used to house mango chutney so that immediately relaxed me when I thought about drinking from it. I boiled around 15L when I got it, cooled the water and drank it. No weird flavours at all. Have sampled my Irish Red Ale and again, no flavours.

Hope that helps.

Floyd

[Shifter]

Well that's me in it up to the nuts , I've only gone and done it too! Two virginities lost in one go!
First all grain session planned, and first time on ebay!! not bad for an old git. Waiting for the little blue beauty to arrive and then it's off for all the bits, hope it turns out as good as yours seems to have, Ta for advice and pics.

[floydmeddler]

Pleasure. You will need to drill a 40mm hole for the element to fit. If you can't find the kettle in Tesco, ASDA kettles (although different looking) have the exact same element.

Would be great of you could put up some photos.

Get in touch if you need any more advice.

Good luck!

Floyd

[mike004]

Looks good. Floyd, I have a couple of questions:
1) How long does it take to get a boil going?
You have taken the heating element from a 1.7 litre kettle and are using it to boil much larger quantities of water. Surely, it will take a long time?
2) How do you fit the element to the boiler, so that it is a watertight seal?

Thanks
Mike

[floydmeddler]

Howdy Mike,

1.) It took around 30 mins to reach strike temperature then after sparging etc, it took approx 40-45 mins to get it up to a rolling boil. This can easily be sped up by installing another element but I don't feel the need.

I'm brewing again on Friday, so I'll give you exact figures then.

2.) I simply used the watertight seal that came along with the kettle. It was a little loose which is why I attached the small section of the original kettle to give it more depth. It is completely water tight now.

Cheers

Floyd

[mickoh]

Hi Floyd

Thanks for the tip off with this - bought myself one today. £8.45 which includes delivery. I wanted to get something a bit more sturdy than an FV for a boiler - at the end of the day you are just making really big kettle and with two kids under 5 I need to take all the precautions I can

Just a question - what did you use to drill the hole - a hole cutter or a flat drill bit

Also you don't seem to have anything by way of a hop strainer in there yet - I was thinking about the plastic plate with a million holes? How have you dealt with this?

Thanks in advance

[mickoh]

Sorry Floyd - just thought of another question

Are these sturdy enough to be able to hold in immersion heater element do you reckon?

Mick

[floydmeddler]

Hi Mick

I measured out the hole and used a knife. I twisted it around and made the hole that way. It was a really risky way of doing it but it was all I could do as I don't own a drill. When I make another one of these with a friend, I'll use a 40mm hole cutter as I can imagine problems with the flat bit.

As for the hop strainer, I hop in bags so I don't need one. The plate sounds good but remember it would need to stay in there during the boil so a plate might not be suitable. What about a steel braid?

Hope this helps somewhat. Add pics if you can!

Floyd

[floydmeddler]

Sorry Floyd - just thought of another question

Are these sturdy enough to be able to hold in immersion heater element do you reckon?

Mick

Hi Mick,

I'm not sure. Don't know much about immersion heaters I'm afraid. Works great with a Tesco element though!

[mickoh]

The plate sounds good but remember it would need to stay in there during the boil so a plate might not be suitable. What about a steel braid?

Hope this helps somewhat. Add pics if you can!

Floyd

Good point - didn't think about that. Quite fancy the braid - seems a bit easier than drilling holes in copper pipe

Just another question if you don' mind - does one kettle element create a decent enough boil or are you tempted to put another in?

Thanks again

[floydmeddler]

No worries, keep firing away. One element creates the perfect rolling boil. If it had another element running, the wort would leap out of there!

The only reason I would put another element in there would be to heat the water at a faster speed. I would turn it off when it hit the boil though.

[garwatts]

Fm
Nice boiler . Just one question did you have any problems with the bin imparting flavours into your brews. Im thinking about trying a 60l one as a fermenter. One supplier of new ones tells me that 30 and 60 L are only suitable for dry goods. but I think they just wanted to sell me plastic liner bags.
Has anyone else used on of these as a fermenter.

Yes I have used two as fermenters and they are good. Am currently converting another into a boiler using an old fashioned 2.4Kw kettle element. Have fitted the tank connecter but due to curvature of the bottom of the tank the pipe comes out pointing down instead of at a right angle. This makes it difficult to fit a hop strainer as the base is quite small. I can't quite make out how you have overcome this? Any chance of a close up of the interior bottom please?

[garwatts]

Inside the vessel, I connected tubing to the tap so that it could reach the bottom of the vessel. Only a tiny drop is left behind when I'm draining out strike/sparge water and sweet wort.
I now have a fantastic 30L boiler which cost me around £20. Hope this has been useful.

What are you using for a hop strainer?