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Help with electric brewing RIMS tube

klondikekd

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So I did a search of the forums and did not find anything on this issue, if I overlooked it I am sorry for making a new thread.

I have made myself a rims tube and a controller 1500w element with a fairly standard PID/SSR setup to pump out 115v. I did my first wet test with 3 gallons to see how well the system operated. I ran the system for 30 minutes at about a 2gpm flow rate. This raised the temperature in the 10 gallon pot from 65F to 71F. This seems poor for such a setup. Tested the element and output of the controller with a multi-meter the element reads the correct resistance and the output in the controller is 114v. I cannot think why it heats so poorly does anyone have an idea on where I should start looking?  Or is this normal?

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
So 5 min/degree.  Have you considered putting a valve on your output and gating down the flow rate to see if you can get better heat transfer? 
 
Greetings.  Your description leaves out some variables that may help solve your question.  But let's do some math:

You raised 10 gallons of water from 65° to 71° (6° rise) in 30 minutes using a 1.5k heating element, correct?

Questions:
1) how long are the transfer lines? (The longer the lines the more heat loss you will have)
2) are the transfer lines insulated? (Non-insulated lined will loose heat quickly)
3) are you sure the heating element is actually putting out 1500 watts?  (You would need an amp probe to determine this. A 1500 watt resistance element should draw 13.03 amps at 115v.)
4) what is the ambient temperature? (The cooler the serounding, the greater the heat loss)

I was using a 1500 watt hot plate type heater under my hot liquor kettle and it took two + hours to bring 8 gallons of water from 60° to 170° (110° rise). But that's a hot plate with no circulation and the heat source directly under the load.

Just some thoughts.
 
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