on my current quest for a new boiler, i have come across a couple of stainless steel bucket like things from work that are going spare. they hold about 8 gallons, so loads of room to be used for boiling a 5 gallon batch.
anyway, my main concern is fitting a kettle type element into one of these, as i'm not sure if they need to be earthed. obvously the kettle lead has an earth/ground lead in it, but does this need to be attached in some way to the body of the boiler itself, incase theres a fault in the element and the whole thing becomes live?
cheers,
bod.
kettle elements, metal boilers and earthing
- Andy
- Virtually comatose but still standing
- Posts: 8716
- Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2005 1:00 pm
- Location: Ash, Surrey
- Contact:
As does my Burco - I may have discovered how useful this is when a boilover spewed down the side of the burco straight into the simmerstat control dial
on the side and caused the house fuse to trip. Without an earth that could be a very nasty situation if you happen to touch/brush the casing (or happen to be stirring the brew with a metal spoon as I do!).

QUOTE great, cheers for the advice! where abouts on the burco and the tea urns does the ground connect to?
i've spoken to a few folk about this now and some seem to suggest it has to be above the water level.
Nah, they are connected underneath the base. I don't think it matters as long as its not IN the water.
i've spoken to a few folk about this now and some seem to suggest it has to be above the water level.
Nah, they are connected underneath the base. I don't think it matters as long as its not IN the water.