Cedar Creek Brewing Company - Homebrewing Electric Heatstick

How to Build an Electric Homebrewing Heatstick
v1.5
Updated 03/08/07

Parts Required:

Screw-In Hot Water Heating Element. Choose based upon your home's electrical system and how much liquid you intend to heat. I bought a 2000watt 120volt element made by Camco. Two of these heatsticks can bring 6.5 gallons of 64 degree water to a HARD boil in 37 minutes. Stepping down to one heatstick holds a strong boil from then on.
12 gauge, 3-wire Rubber Electrical Cord
Heavy Duty 20 amp Armored 3-Prong Plug
12" Long X 1 1/2" I. D. Chrome Plated, Brass Drain Pipe
6" Long X 1 1/2" I. D. Plastic Drain Pipe Extension Tube with Compression Fitting
3/4" PVC Coupler
1" PVC End Cap
1ea. 3/8" long #6 brass machine thread bolt, #6 brass nut, #6 brass washer
J-B Weld Epoxy (not pictured)
Permatex Ultra Blue RTV Silicone -Automotive Gasket Maker (not pictured)

Notes:

NEVER - NEVER - NEVER - RUN A HEATSTICK DRY!!!
A heatstick must ALWAYS have the heating element FULLY submerged or it will overheat and burn out very quickly! The rest of the heatstick does not need to be submerged, but the heating element itself MUST ALWAYS be completely submerged in liquid. Failure to do so could result in serous personal injury, fire, or worse!!!
A single heatstick sucks a lot of power! Be sure the electrical circuit you run your heatstick on has little or nothing else running from it, or you'll almost certainly blow a fuse or pop the circuit breaker. Also, be sure your house's wiring can handle a big load. Older home wiring insulation may already be dry and brittle and not be up to such a high load and could cause a serious fire.
ALWAYS - ALWAYS - ALWAYS - PLUG YOUR HEATSTICK INTO A GFI PROTECTED OUTLET!!!
If your heatstick should develop a water leak, any electricity going to the ground (i.e. the metal pipe, then wort, then kettle then you!) will automatically trip the GFI circuit and shut the heatstick off. GFI adaptor outlets are readily available for about $10 at most hardware stores if you don't have an available built-in GFI outlet.
If you build more than one, EACH heatstick requires a SEPARATE 15 or 20 amp circuit, depending upon the heating element you use.
Be sure to allow the epoxy to cure for AT LEAST 24 hours before submerging and or testing.
Next, water test your heatstick WITHOUT electricity! I slid the end cap down a bit on the power cord and shined a flashlight down the tube as I submerged my heatsticks to full water depth in my brew kettle. Look for any signs of water or leaks. I then also tapped mine upside down to see if any water came out.
Once you know it's waterproof, test out your power circuit(s) by heating some water with the heatstick. If you pop a circuit, refer to second note point above.
The heating elements DO NOT GET RED HOT IF SUMERGED IN A LIQUID! Not even close to red hot. Remember, they're made for heating water.

HOWEVER..

THEY DO, REPEAT, THEY DO GET RED HOT IN OPEN AIR - so never plug them in until fully submerged or a fire could (will) easily be started!!! That said however, when submerged in wort, don't think of them like stove-top or oven elements - they're not nearly that hot. If fact, I've been pleasantly surprised to discover that it only takes about 15 seconds or so after unplugging to be able to remove a heatstick from the wort - at which time both the heating element and metal drain pipe are no hotter than the wort temperature. Scorching or caramelization, even in light brews, has not been a problem for me at all.
NEW TIP (3/17/05) - If your building only one heatstick, use a 90 degree, right angle drain pipe for heating shallow liquids. If you're making two heatsticks, make one straight (great for heating and stirring a mash) and one right angle. The photos below show me making the second of two straight heatsticks however, building a right angle stick is identical.
Encasing the Electrical Connections (03/08/07) A NEW MUST READ/MUST DO - After I had problems with both a new and older stick developing leaks in the silicone seals, I decided to try a new approach. I used to work in the tropical fish industry many years ago, and knew that all the good submersible electrical devices were encased in a epoxy or plastic resin material so I decided to do the same with my heatsticks. I first experimented with Alumalite plastic casting resin. Alumalite worked out, but my original two sticks had been filled with aquarium silicone first, then I had poured Alumalite on top of the silicone to encapsulate the inner contacts. After almost two years of use, both sticks suddenly died! Upon ripping them apart, I discovered the silicone had failed and caused a leak.

I have now completely re-built both of my sticks, including new 2000 watt elements and heavier 12 gauge wire. This time I chose J-B Weld epoxy as the connection encapsulate, and Permatex Ultra Blue RTV Silicone Automotive Gasket Maker for the external seal. J-B weld is non-toxic, non-conductive, and can handle temps up to 600 degrees - plus it's extremely strong stuff. Ultra Blue RTV Silicone should be non-toxic when cured, since it's silicone plus it can handle temps up to 500 degrees while maintaining elasticity and a strong bond.
I now consider encasing the electrical connections a necessity!

Lastly -
Heating elements generate an invisible, high-density plasma stream from their tips. It is best if you try not to allow the plasma streams to cross. Actually, the streams should NEVER cross. In fact, ALWAYS keep the tip's pointed in separate directions within the brew kettle or a thermal electric plasma reaction will occur resulting in the instant vaporization of your hard-earned, precious, sweet wort! (Just making sure you're still paying attention!) Seriously folks, while a heatstick works great - if built and used correctly for heating water, step mashing and boiling wort - like any power tool, please respect it as the potentially dangerous device it is and everyone will be able to relax, not worry, and brew MORE homebrew!

Prosit from Milwaukee!

Tom Bardenwerper
Homebrewer - Cedar Creek Brewing Company
Thiensville, WI

Completed heatstick	03/08/07 - Parts Needed Ignore the aquarium silicone. I am now using J-B Weld for the inside encapsulate, and Permatex Ultra Blue RTV Silicone Automotive Gasket Maker for the exterior seal.	Cut cord insulation	Expose wires
Cut wire insulation	Mark the ground nut hole at the threaded end of the drain pipe	Tap an indent for drilling the ground nut hole	Drill the ground nut hole
File the edges of the ground nut hole	#6 Brass bolt, nut and washer for making the ground nut	Screw in #6 brass bolt.	Grounding nut from the inside
Thread power cord into pipe and attach green ground wire to brass ground nut	Water heater element	03/08/07 - I used 80 grit sandpaper and roughed up all the surfaces of the base of the element and the inside of the drain pipe so I'd get maximum bonding with the J-B Weld epoxy. Next, attach the white and black wires to either screw on the heating element	03/08/07 - IGNORE the aquarium silicone pictured here. Apply thick layer of J-B Weld Epoxy to completely coat the entire base of the element. Also completely coat the pipe's inside ground wire connection. I used a wooden tongue depressor to spread the epoxy inside the pipe and on the element. I REALLY gooped it on as heavy as possible! Next, quickly attach the pipe nut to screw down the element and hold the assembly together.
03/08/07 - A good seal is absolutely critical to success and long-term reliability! My first pair of sticks used aquarium silicone to seal them. The silicone failed after about two dozen uses or less: the sticks started leaking and thus instantly poped my GFCI outlets. Then I poured Alumalite plastic casting resin inside the pipes to completely encapsulate the contacts (on top of the old silicone - not exactly ideal). One stick worked great for about two more years, while the other stick was consistently flaky, popping the GFCI outlet about half way through a boil. Just before I wrote this update, both sticks completely died. When I ripped them open, I discovered the first (original) layer of aquarium silicone had failed and allowed wort to get inside and create a short. Nothing would seal these sticks at this point so they had to be completely rebuilt, including new elements and a new right angle drain pipe - as the Alumalite was not about to come out of the right angle pipe elbow! A trip to home Depot and $60 later - my two new sticks use J-B Weld for the inside contact encapsulate and Ultra Blue RTV Silicone Gasket Maker for the outside seals. As mentioned above, I used a wooden tongue depressor to spread a thick coating on the entire base of the elements, then I spread as much epoxy on as possible before screwing the elements down on to the drain pipes. J-B Weld is too thick to pour in from the top of the pipes like I had done with Alumalite, so I really wanted to get as much epoxy in there as possible to encapsulate the entire element base from the inside. Time will tell if this revision improves the sticks long-term reliability. FWIW: I know of at least one homebrewer who is using electrical-grade epoxy as the encapsulate with good success. Others have reported good success using just high-temperature automotive RTV silicone. If you use another compound to seal your sticks and experience good long-term success with it, please e-mail me and let me know what you use and I'll add it here. There's probably many products that will work well.
03/08/07 - Center the element on the the pipe end. I found small remaining gaps a the base of the element allowed a small amount of epoxy to drip through. I stuck plastic shipping tape around the edges of the element's base to hold the epoxy in, then stood the stick upright - element-end facing down and allowed it to cure overnight. After the epoxy was cured, I applied a bead of the RTV silicone to the outside edges of the pipe nut and at the element base to form an exterior seal.	Mark center for cord hole in PVC cap	Drill center hole in PCV cap	Thread plastic end-screw and compression ring onto metal drain tube
Thread plastic pipe on and tighten end screw	Connect PVC coupler to PVC cap	Thread PVC cap and coupler onto power cord	Synch cap down tightly - I did not glue end-cap in so I could disassemble the heatstick if needed in the future
Cut chord insulation on remaining end	Cut wire insulation	Heavy duty 20amp plug	Remove plastic shroud from plug (cord is too large) and thread cord through end of plug
Attach wires the plug - BE SURE green wire is attached to ground prong!!!	Tighten plug end to clamp down on cord	It's Done! Your heatstick should look something like this	03/08/07 - My (original) two heatsticks - ready to mash. I have since made a right angle stick using a right angle drain pipe. The right angle stick allows me to heat much shallower liquor and wort which really speeds things up! (BTW: These are my first two sticks which are now dead and buried due to leaks.)
Brewing with Heatsticks I have found heatsticks to be very versatile tools that I use to apply heat at virtually all stages of my brewing process. Below are pictures I recently took while brewing a creamy Irish stout and will give you some ideas of where to use a heatstick in your brewery!
Maintaining the 150 degree infusion mash temp by stirring with a vertical-element heatstick	Maintaining 170 degree sparge water in the hot liquor tank	Checking temp while bringing wort to boil with two, 2000-watt heatsticks	Reaching a quick and VERY hard boil with two heatsticks!
	Holding a strong boil with one heatstick

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