Cheap Kettle Elements (a cautionary tale)

[orlando]

I very recently bought a Tesco kettle and took out the element to use in addition to my boilers original and to replace one that wasn't working. The kettle was ridiculously cheap even for a kettle but they are built to a price and of course to take a couple of minutes to boil water and stop. They are not built to boil for 90 minutes. I know plenty of guys have done this before me but suspect that their elements were built before price became everything and build quality went on to suffer. They say every picture tells a story so take a look.



What you can't easily see is the buckling that occured on the nearside. It appears to have "melted" and touched the backing plate and shorted, you can see the blackening quite clearly. It's up to you but if you are going to use the "new" kettles from Tesco make sure you have a back up. This occured about 45 minutes in and I had to finish using just one. I had previously just used the second element to get the boil going then switched the Tesco one off. This time it just didn't have a good enough rolling boil so I decided to keep it going with the consequences you see. Other than that it was a brilliant brew day so hurry over to the brew day section where I will be posting pics as soon as they have uploaded to photobucket.

[jonnyt]

I've used the same element without issue for over 15 boils now.

[orlando]

Mine was bought in January 2012 can you be sure they are the same?

[jonnyt]

Looks identical

[orlando]

Good luck

[Blackaddler]

Hopefully, you were just unlucky with that particular element.

No doubt we'll hear, if anyone else has a similar problem.

[Kev888]

IIRC there was another thread on here not long ago that suggests there may have been a cut in quality quite recently. It wouldn't really surprise me; that the elements could manage to withstand repeated 90min boils suggests they were probably far better than strictly necessary for such a small budget kettle, so perhaps in the current economic climate they cut a few more pennies somewhere. Or it could just be a bad batch or something - I guess time will tell (though not from me!).

Cheers
Kev

[Deller12]

Let’s face it the whole kettle is less than a tenner most probably made in China its not going to be a quality product.

[Spud395]

I use 4 argos value range elements between my HLT and Boiler.
2 of them have done 30 odd brews (and doubled up as HLT/boiler for 24ish of those) one of the newer elements has given me grief almost every brewday.
I dont know if it's just a bad one of as orlando is saying quality is slipping

[orlando]

Spud, with that many brews I suspect that yours are quite a bit older. Mine is only a few weeks. As I said in the OP it seemed fine used to supplement but couldn't cope under pressure. I measured the temp with both rolling and it was 110c. Hitherto it has just helped to get the wort to boil so I think that is why I got away with it up to that point. I reckon it was 1/2 hour or so to get it to boil and then it lasted perhaps 30-45 mins after that before failing (I wasn't in the brewhouse when it happened). I will be replacing it with a Backer elemnt (ouch nearly £25) unless someone can suggest another reliable element from someone else.

[196osh]

I have used loads of kettle elements, all you haeve to do is make sure they are spotless prior to brewing. The black stuff is burnt in wort. you can scrape it away if you leave it in something corrosive/hot and there will be silvery kettle element under it.

[staplefordbill]

+1 196osh. I have 2 budget Tesco elements in my boiler and they always end up blackened as per the picture. I can never get all of the burnt wort off, but I get enough off for the elements to work for the next brew. Nothing to worry about.

[Naich]

I think the element is actually welded to the backing plate when they are made. Mine certainly are. The thermal cutouts are the other side of the weld point so they see the temperature of the element. The buckling is a bit worrying though. I avoid the burnt bits by regulating the temperature with a thyristor power controller and having it going at about 85% of full power.

[orlando]

I have used loads of kettle elements, all you haeve to do is make sure they are spotless prior to brewing. The black stuff is burnt in wort. you can scrape it away if you leave it in something corrosive/hot and there will be silvery kettle element under it.

This black is not wort it is a short out! Take another look at the pictures the element is "welded" to the back plate. I envy the guys that bought these ages ago and have no problems with them.

[mrwalsh]

My Tesco elements get blackened as per photo, done 2 brews so far...I scraped/cleaned the burnt on bit and so far touch wood, has worked OK on the 2nd brew and hopefully many more to come.
It does look worrying though, I must admit.