Bucket for electric DIY boiler

[dean_wales]

Where is the cheapest place in the UK to get a bucket for building a kettle element boiler for 5 gallon brews.

Im ideally looking for a 6 Gallon plus bucket to allow headroom.

Everywhere seems to charge a packet for something that costs next to nothing to manufacture?!?!?

Thanks,

Dean.

[trucker5774]

Watch out for those blue plastic tubs which are used for the supply all sorts of things in bulk, like chutney and dry goods. You may pick something up from a local business or try flea-bay. At the moment I am using a Youngs 30l FV.

[prolix]

some times cheap is what you pay for, make sure the plastic is not too thin.

I would second the blue tubs as cheap and safe if you can get a good deal, don't seem to be any smaller ones on the bay atm

correction I found this one on ebay by searching google

here

[alexe]

This place seems to have fairly cheap bucktes, especially if you buy a few.

[Kev888]

Maybe a bit off-topic, but if you have the option I'd suggest not to getting 'too' swayed by cheap when it comes to all that boiling wort. If you want plastic then ideally something reasonably chunky in polypropylene would be the ticket.

Some people use thick walled HDPE - I believe some of those blue barrels are made of this - but its towards the minimum of whats adequate and there have been recent posts on it sagging; I won't fly in the face of popularity, but for myself I wouldn't want to use it for boiling. Smiths of the forest of dean and dvfuels have a range of new and recycled tanks like that anyway - though not all are suitable for food use.

Cheers,
kev

[haz66]

This place seems to have fairly cheap bucktes, especially if you buy a few.

Thats where i`ve just got my 4no 120 ltr FV`s from, they charge a packet for postage but they do allow pick up

As for buckets for boilers, Leyland Homebrew sell a ready made boiler which is basically their 30ltr plastic bucket with an element in it,
so just buy one of their buckets and stick your own element in, i used one of theirs for 2 years and 66 AG brews with no problems at all,
cant remember prices but the bucket was reasonable but to buy as a boiler was quite expensive.

[SMASH3R]

I phoned round local curry houses for one of the ~40 litre(ish) mango chutney bins until I found one that
(a) had an already empty barrel and
(b) would let me have it

Used it successfully for about 10 brews now, but the moulding is sagging on the bottom as reported elsewhere on this forum.
I will change to a different boiler container for safety's sake as soon as I can find something suitable that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The PP barley bottom 60-litre bins have had the wall thickness reduced by the manufacturer, and so are no longer any good, and generally a stainless 50 litre pot is well over £100 everywhere I have seen.