What do you guys think of this for an electric burner?

[bcook608]

Carnival King 16" Crepe maker - 120v

It is large enough to hold my 5 gal stock pot and appears to be more than capable of producing the heat needed to get everything running. It has a tubular element which should mean I can bypass the thermostatic controller and run my own rheostat. I was thinking about removing the stock dial and inserting my own with an ammeter. What do you guys think? I know 240v would be better but 120 is what I have until I can get an extra outlet installed.

I haven't been able to really get a good look at the guts of the machine, but when I looked up replacement parts, it looked like it had all the hardware I should be looking for. I'm just trying to find an element that is large enough to cover the majority of the bottom of my stock pot because I feel like a "large" 8 inch burner would create too much of a hot spot even with a diffuser plate.