Electric hot plate and controller questions

[Deezil]

Ive searched and read like crazy, anyone have a link or info for a setup that would work on a 5-10gal pot? And controller? I cant see a definite plan on a simple DIY one, Id like to get away from the propane setup I have now.

On an off the shelf hot plate, how big of one is needed? Also, to regulate it, could you simply put a heavy piece of steel under the pot will that retain enough heat to carry through the cycling? or make it worse?

[Od1tspyd3r]

Deezil, inrun a 3 gallon with a 1300 watt waring pro cast top hotplate and complete a run on a pot still in bout 2 hrs.that from cold charge down to 40%. If I may suggest as I am getting my parts together now to bo to an internal camco element with either a harbour freight controller or a custom build ssr controler.

[Deezil]

thanks, must not be very many people here using the smaller pots.. Local store has a 1000w plate, its pretty small in size, biggest Ive seen online so far for 120v is 1500w, hopefully someone else also doing the same thing will come along and find this thread with more info.

I did find this on another still site, it says for 220v though, but price is good

http://www.stilldragon.com/diy-controller.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[sambedded]

!500 Watt for 10Gal will work (if you put thermounsulation on your boiler but it will be very slow and you'l need a hole day to complete your run. For 5 Gal speed well be the almost the same but since it 2 times smakke you'll need twice less time to complete a run than on 10Gal.

That DIY kit works for 120V as well. But it better to use 250K pot for 120V to get better precision.

[Deezil]

Ok, so its really not worth trying to do on 120v then it sounds. I guess Ill just have to live with doing the propane burner outside.

[S-Cackalacky]

For a decent hotplate, you might expect to pay from $80 to $150 and it won't heat efficiently. For a fraction of the cost you could outfit your boiler with an internal element. If your boiler is a stock pot (open top), you could even install it without welding or soldering - I did mine this way. Many here, including myself, are using cheap Chinese controllers that can be easily setup and made ready to run with a few additional parts. The whole setup (element, controller, and parts) could cost less than $100.

Do some reading. There's tons of information here on the forums that will help you.

[Bugflipper]

You'd have to go to 220v for 10 gal for the time. They have up to 3000w hot plates that I've seen. The more reasonably priced 220 ones are 2000w. A stripper run on 10 gal with 2000w is about 1.5-1.45 hours with a moderate run, depending on mash.