50l boiler build

[bigdave]

In an attempt to be able to fill a 30l polykeg without liquoring back, I'm building a new boiler. The boiler will initially be made from a 50l mango chutney barrel but the idea is to eventually transplant the components from this boiler to a SS vessel of the same size (when funds allow).

Parts have started to arrive (pics later) and so far the list of vitals looks like this:
• 50l mango chutney barrel
• 2 x 2.5kw spiral elements
• SS braid (for hop stopper)
• 15mm Ball valve
• Various copper elbows, reducers etc..

I wanted to be able to disconnect the power cables from the elements for ease of storage/cleaning and possibly have a switch on each element to turn them on and off as the boil gets going but I think that may be above my abilities at the moment... maybe something to work towards when I get a SS vessel?

[Fil]

£shop snaplock small round food boxes make cheap waterproof enclosures easy to get into if needed and to add switches to

[sbond10]

Did you see brewuk had used pp fermenters 60 litres for about 12 quid

[subfaction]

Would they hold up to boiling though?

[Fil]

the 67l PP buckets from the copperkettle are sold as suitable for boiler mods, a bit more the £12 at least double that, But they hold up better than hdpe mango barrels, while using a mango barrel boiler i uad a 67l pp bucket hlt.. mango barrel softening isnt a big deal, its a feature just calibrate any sightglass or dip stick AFTER you have heated it up so it can 'settle', Support valves when operating, and i found removing the disk from the lid centre allowed me to use the lid to maintain a circular mouth.. witout support it will tend to oval.. and its best imho to sit it on a flat surface when boiling..

[bigdave]

I'd already ordered the mango barrels when the pp buckets appeared, otherwise I'd have had one of them.

[sbond10]

There the same as the copper kettle ones just they've been used to store grain hence the used 12 quid price

[bigdave]

I expected the rest of my bits to arrive today but it seems Mr postie wasn't up for deliveries today. :/

[sbond10]

He's probs busy attempting a delivery at ditches

[bigdave]

Haha.

[bigdave]

Got started on this today...

I've not wired the elements up yet but so far everything's water tight which is good! A quick syphon check shows a 1500ml dead space which doesn't seem too bad especially when some of that will get filled with hops.

I usually tart my pics up in Photoshop but I'm short of time today so you can have em straight from my camera.

[ArmChair]

Looking good dave

[bigdave]

I've just wired the elements up and a double check shows everything is still water tight. There's no marking on the elements to indicate live, so I assume it can be either?

I've just got to wire up the plugs then I can give it a quick test.

[Fil]

grand job there

looks like a polykeg top your sat on there im sure your not going to but just in case i would suggest yu sit the boiler on a flat surface when heating/testing, the hdpe does soften and can settle into a nominally different shape, sat without support for the base it could round off at the bottom making a weeble boiler, thou reheating again on a flat surface will sort that out

there are a couple of features of these boilers, softening ive mentioned, another impact of this is that to operate the lever valve when hot you will need to support the valve when turning the handle, it freaked me out 1st time i tried to open the valve when hot without support as the whole assembly bent 90 degrees to touch the boiler side (no leaks or probs ..)
cuttting the central flat from the lid allows you to fit the lid rim back on during a boil to keep the opening circular. without such support you may find the mouth ovaling when soft.

secondly with elements fitted to one side you may experience a 'chilli bottom' that is the bottom opposite edge to the elements may remain cold during heat up until a rolling boil mixes it all up and normalises the temp. this will impact on hlt use too as if you dont stir you may get a false temp reading.

Another feature of my build was when boiling with 2 elements on the boil seemed to resonate resulting in the boiler doing what i called its belly dance, due i thi9nk to the boil running up the one side of the boiler. however running 2 elements shouldnt be needed to maintain a good boil, and only needed to bring it upto temp quicker or to quickly evaporate a bit more to hit targets i guess tho if left unattended with 2 elements and boiling the 'belly dance could get out of hand and result in spills??


if you plan on fitting switched into what looks like £shop snaplock lidded containers dont use a stanly knife or similar as the plastic can fracture when cut into with a knife, drill and file out instead, i binned one pot and lived with a small crack in a second due to trying to cut out the knock out for switches in mine.. dum dum dum,,


While i fitted a very similar hop filter arrangement to you, i didnt solder in the 2 bits of copper tube into the bottom T instead i jubilee clipped the braid to 2 short lengths of copper tube, and just dry fitted those into the bottom T on brewday using the jubilee clip excess band as handles.. made it easier to pull the filter post boil for a clean rinse dry and de-flour..

[bigdave]

Cheers for the info....

Do t worry about the poly keg, I'm a messy workman and it was the only place I could sit the boiler to work on the wiring.

Element wise, both will only ever be used together to get up to a boil then one shut off again. The idea of the 2 elements together is to create a bit of circulation in the wort while getting up to boil.
I've already cut the lid out.