Electric element safety shroud ideas

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mbt22

Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by mbt22 » Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:05 pm

Afternoon all,

Like most people I have a healthy desire to avoid electrocution. I keep thinking about the back of a kettle element on a boiler and wondering how best to protect it from water. A bit of searching gives me:
  • 40 mm drain pipe with a blank. Cable glands out the blank for the power and earth leads. This seems the best overall option. If it's araldited/JB welded to the element, should be totally water tight.
  • Immersion heater for a hot water tank. Bigger hole to make and probably too much current for a 13A plug. Does come with a decently manufactured cover.
  • Backer element. More expensive (with a lead even more so), but electrics better protected than a salvaged element
Anyone other ideas I've missed or opinions?

Matt

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trucker5774
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Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by trucker5774 » Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:17 pm

A suitable sized plastic lid from an aerosol can!
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Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by Oggy' Bar » Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:08 pm

A length cut from a "caulking gun sized" bath sealant or No-nails tube; epoxy or super glued to the 3mm of plastic at the base of the element....Idea from someone else on here about 2 years ago and works a treat. :wink:

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Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by Oggy' Bar » Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:15 pm

P.S....I would think it is a good idea to bond all your metal bits together with 6mm earth wire, preferably bolted to each component and then connected to a good earth. Though I am NOT an expert and wouldn't advise you to do this without seeking expert advice.

Alternatively, you could brew wearing only wet socks...thus guaranteeing a short route to earth should an electrical fault occur :twisted:

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Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by Blackaddler » Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:24 pm

Check out this post.
Image

Damfoose

Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by Damfoose » Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:27 pm

I was talking to an electrician a few months back and apparently with these new RCD's that are in new houses these days you know the ones a bulb pops and they ll go off until you reset the RCD, Their is talk of bonding not being compulsary any more as the RCD trips at the slightest short.


Not her yet though.

mbt22

Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by mbt22 » Wed Dec 16, 2009 9:21 pm

Thanks all for the ideas. I think my preferred idea may be the one presented here http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/node/9?page=7. Use a metal outdoor junction box and crimp my power cable directly to the element pins. Pretty much waterproof, and a bit more metal thickness for the element seal to clamp around.

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Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by Horatio » Thu Dec 17, 2009 1:07 am

•Immersion heater for a hot water tank. Bigger hole to make and probably too much current for a 13A plug - A 3kw immersion heater will draw 12.5 amps at 240V so should be fine with a 13amp plug. The amps drawn is equal to the wattage divided by the voltage; if I'm remembering my college days correctly! :?:
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Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by BrewingAgain » Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:18 pm

You can draw 3kw from a 13amp plug as there a 3kw quick-boil kettles on the market, however, you're going to be doing it for 90 minutes and not a few minutes to make a pot of tea. Not sure that it's a good idea to operate a plug at it's maximum for that length of time but there are brewers on this forum that do it so it must work and I've not heard of any stories about houses being burned to the ground due to boiling wort !

We were having a chat at the work about this the other day and were floating the idea of splitting the 3kw immersion heater between two 13amp plugs. Connect the immersion to a 20amp boxed switch and then connect the 20amp switch to two 13amp plug sockets. Have the 20amp in the 'off' position and switch on the two 13amp plugs and then switch the 20amp to 'on'. In theory (?) it would draw 6.5amps from each plug thus reducing the strain on a single plug. Or just connect the immersion heater to two leads/13amp plugs.

Would it work ?

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Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by Oggy' Bar » Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:17 pm

BrewingAgain wrote:Y
Or just connect the immersion heater to two leads/13amp plugs.
Would it work ?
Why not just use 2 X 1.5kW, kettle elements, that way, the plugs are well within design limits..and..if you use an independent circuit for each plug, you also reduce the load on the ring main which might also be running the washing machine, dishwasher, tumble drier and microwave :shock:

Also, if an element fails..gets wet..coated in 5hit...well you will likely as not still have the use of the remaining element and you wont have to throw your wort away #-o and kettle elements are designed to operate at boiling point....immersion heaters aren't.

OB

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Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by themadhippy » Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:30 pm

We were having a chat at the work about this the other day and were floating the idea of splitting the 3kw immersion heater between two 13amp plugs. Connect the immersion to a 20amp boxed switch and then connect the 20amp switch to two 13amp plug sockets. Have the 20amp in the 'off' position and switch on the two 13amp plugs and then switch the 20amp to 'on'. In theory (?) it would draw 6.5amps from each plug thus reducing the strain on a single plug. Or just connect the immersion heater to two leads/13amp plugs
In the day job we call this a widow maker,If some unplugs 1 of the plugs without turning off the other the pins on that plug will be live waiting for you to touch it,not good.
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BrewingAgain

Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by BrewingAgain » Fri Dec 18, 2009 6:19 pm

In the day job we call this a widow maker,If some unplugs 1 of the plugs without turning off the other the pins on that plug will be live waiting for you to touch it,not good.
A very good point. Hadn't thought of that !

crowds

Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by crowds » Fri Dec 18, 2009 7:01 pm

I have found young's steriliser tubs to be a good fit if you cut the ends off.

tubthumper

Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by tubthumper » Mon Dec 21, 2009 3:16 pm

you need to work out the amps again on the elements as we no longer have 240V in the Uk, its been 230V for quite some time but manurfactures keep quoting the 240 watage. as for kettle elements they only draw 10 amps and if you look for the plugs you will see thay are only rated for 10amps anyway.
a imersion heater element with a 240 rating of 3KW will be 2.4Kw if memory serves me right so a 13 amp supply will be ok so long as the fuse in the plug is 13 amp amd not a bit of wire you will be covered . of course have it all conected to an RCD at the very least

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Re: Electric element safety shroud ideas

Post by themadhippy » Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:59 pm

you need to work out the amps again on the elements as we no longer have 240V in the Uk, its been 230V for quite some time
Almost but not quite, Year ago the supply voltage in the UK was 240 volts plus or minus 6% ,then europe decided we all need to be the same,they used 220v. so they moved the goalposts to 230 volts plus 10% and minus 6%,so in the uk it can be anywhere between 217v to 253V,mine sits fairly constant at 242 volts.
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