Heating your water barrel using a kettle element?

[Mattzilla]

Hi i recently saw a picture on another forum where a guy has stuck some kettle elements in buckets to heat water.

I have heaps of questions about this...so here goes:

Is it faster?
Is it cheaper?
Is it safe?
What sized kettle element would you use for a 220ltr barrel?
Could you use an element from an urn?
How do you safely install the element?
Does anyone currently use this method?


I think that about covers it....

If anyone has any experience with this method of water heating could you please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks very much
Matt

[pete321]

I have been toying with a simlar idea.
I want to heat up water in a 1000 liter plastic tank and am thinking of using a geyser element.
The secret is to make sure that the element boss does not get to hot to melt the plastic.
In theory it should work. I will have to see in practise.

Pete

[Graham]

Immersion heating elements are very common place... farmers and ranchers use them all the time in water troughs to keep them from freezing. Aquaculture farmers use them all the time to heat holding tanks. Even back yard gardeners with bird baths use them

I use two of them with electronic controllers to heat my holding tanks for the koi during the winter...

But the one thing that they all have in common is that they are expensive to run.

The kettle ones are designed for short bursts of heating of a gallon of water, not 25 to 60 gallons and I think that you'll find they are anywhere from 1500watts to 3000watts or 13 to 27 amps approx.... a very expensive way to heat water

The other thing to keep in mind is if you burn the house down with a DIY heater, you're going to have a fight with your insurence company.

When my koihouse burnt down in Aug 2006 the fire inspectors and electrical engineers grilled me big time about my DIY heater...thank gawd it wasn't plugged in

So instead of looking at DIY heaters...buy ones that are certified CAS or UL etc and cover you're arses

[korbi_doc]

Matt, your "kettle elements" are used by us horse ppl as an immersion heater that's quick, but not safe, need to watch it constantly, does not have thermostats so supervise, not cheap & not totally immersible...I used one in NJ & strung it from a pc of pvc that I stretched across the water storage tubs....somewhere here there is a thread 'bout it...it does suffice in an emergency situation when you need that water heated FAST.....you can find one at any farm supply store....

Dottie