How to Morrisons Savers Kettle Boiler

So I couldn't get hold of a Tesco Value Kettle, and I live almost next door to Morrisons, so I thought I'd give it a try using one of their value kettles a go. They are available now (Aug 14) for a mere £5!

Here is my first guide, but hopefully someone will find it useful.


PLEASE NOTE ELECTRICITY CAN KILL, PLEASE ONLY FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS IF YOU ARE COMPETENT TO DO SO. I DO NOT ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INJURIES OR DAMAGES THAT MAY OCCUR THROUGH FOLLOWING THESE INSTRUCTIONS, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Equipment Required:
2 x Morrisons Savers Kettle £5 each
1 x 50L HDPE Food Safe Plastic Bucket (or similar) c£10 from ebay
2 x IP55 Enclosure (http://www.screwfix.com/p/7-entry-junction-box-with-knockouts-grey-95-x-95-x-51mm/30356) £1.79 each from Screwfix
2 x Compression Glands (http://www.screwfix.com/p/tower-male-comp-gland-black-20mm-pack-of-2/80851) £1.21 for two

Total Build Cost: £24.79

Tools required:
Posi and Flat Screwdrivers
Star Screwdriver (or small terminal driver)
Hacksaw
44mm & 51mm Hole Saw
Drill + 4mm bit
Silicone Sealant

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Unscrew the two star screws on the base of the kettle, I managed to do this easily with a terminal driver (small flat screw driver), but if you have the right sort of screwdriver even better!



Next remove the two screws near the lid.



You should now be able to lever off the back of the handle to reveal the back of the heater element with a flat screwdriver.



Undo the three posi-screws that hold the black plastic, (two of which can't be seen in this photo). Retain the washers that come off with them. Note which screw has the metal washer, as this is used for earthing the element.



Withdraw the element from the kettle, and recover the seal, making a note of which way round the seal fits (thick side is on the inside of the kettle).



Now remove the two screws that hold the clear plastic switch mechanism onto the black plastic.
Unclip the rocker switch lever from the clear plastic, and unwind the red wire from the retaining clips.



Lever the LED from the clear plastic clips with a small screwdriver.

Next, use a hacksaw to cut off the rest of the switch mechanism (along the red line), our elements are going to be always on, so we don't need this.



We now need to take apart the base unit to recover the cable. Remove the 5 screws from the bottom of the base unit. Pull away the cover to reveal the crimp connectors. Disconnect these connectors from the base unit.



Using a small flat screwdriver, bend out the crimp connectors to accommodate the larger pins on the back of the black element rear chassis.



Trail fit these on to the pins to ensure a good fit.

Now it's time to drill your holes in your boiler. I did these as low as I could without risking the element touching the bottom, but the curvature of the barrel meant the point slightly upwards.

A 44mm hole saw is required, once driller, clean off any burrs with a stanley knife and some emery cloth.



Fit the seal into the newly cut hole, and reassemble the element and black plastic back by fixing back in the three screws. (Make sure you put the metal washer back in the correct place!)

It would now be a good time to fill your boiler with water to check for leaks. Leave it a good half hour and make sure you put as much if not more water in the boiler than you would on your brew day. While you are testing for leaks, you can get one with making the wiring covers.

Drill out the back of the IP55 enclosure with a 51mm hole saw, and fit the cable gland into one of the openings.



Pass your cable connectors through the gland.

Once you are happy that the boiler is not leaking, you can start to wire up the elements.

With the middle pin being at the top of the three pins, the left pin is live (brown), the middle pin is earth (green/yellow) and the right pin is neutral (blue).

Push the crimp connectors onto the pins ensuring a good fit, pinch up with needle nose pliers if you have a wobbly one.

Apply a ring of silicone sealant around the hole cut in the back of the IP55 enclosure. Position the enclosure over the connectors and hold in place with some tape. Apply more sealant around the edges of the enclosure to secure it onto the barrel.



Wait for 2hrs for the silcone to go off.

Once the enclosures are securely stuck to the barrel, you can drill 2x 4mm holes, one in the top and one in the bottom of the enclosure. In the top hole, push through the led and apply a blob of sealant to the back to hold it in place.

The bottom hole is just for drainage in case of any small leaks.




All that's left to do now is to test it!



I ran mine with the enclosure lids off for the first boil, in case of any massive seal failure, and to monitor any leaks.

With the lid on it, brought 30 litres to the boil in about 30minutes! There was some slight softening of the barrel when it was boiling, so I will be cutting a hole in my lid and using that to help maintain the shape during the boil.

Next thing I need to do is add a ball tap, but I don't know where is best to get the parts, anyone have any experience with doing this on a budget?

I used this tap on my similar setup http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Bin_Fermenter_tap.html#.VAJXgvldXjc If anyone reading is interested I can confirm Wilko and Argos £5 kettles also work the same.

Great guide..

I did a similar build with tesco elements and £shop snaplock food boxes, tho i shaved the sealing grommet and used the element back to pinch secure the food box lids, i dont know if the silicone will hold after a few boils??

for a basic tap/hop filter attachment, look at a basic 15mm compression tank connector circa £3 and file or drill out the pipe stop so you can push 15mm tube all the way through the fitting, you can add a 1/2" bsp F valve straight onto the tank connector thread, or use a cheap compression valve by using tube to join it to, but watch out for a front heavy tap and tap sag..

for mine i soldered an elbow and a length of tube to dip down to the bottom and then terminated that with a T at the bottom, i then just crimped Stainless steel braid onto 15mm tube with jubilee clips each end and poked those into the T for a circular hop filter..

also due to the hdpe softening somewhat with boil temps, you will need to support a lever valve when opperating otherwise you can just bent the tap assembly when you try to open/close the valve.

iirc the copperkettle online brewshop sell drilled out tank connectors for a lil extra.

My old mango barrel boiler


i cut the lid so i could fit it during the boil as without the mouth tends to an oval shape when hot n softer.




front heavy tap assembly = tapsag.. i would suggest a 1/2" bsp F threaded valve straight onto the tank connector to help avoid this.

I've got a very similar build with the mango chutney bucket and 2 wilko kettle elements but someone raised the question the other day would boiling in these plastic containers cause leaching of the plastic into the wort? Could this then also lead to off tasting beer and even so far as to affect your health?

Sorry for the scary thoughts!

I don't thin kfood grade plastic could leach anything bad for you or it would not be sold as food grade. The only health risk is the amount of liquid so near up to 4.4KW of electricity especially if the plastic softens.

I agree however I would assume that's for a temperature range for the containers original purpose i.e. room temp mango chutney. So when using it at boiling liquid temperatures plastic could possibly be released?

As for the amount of liquid i'd think the surface area would be more of the issue.

Im trying to identify what the plastic is so have contacted the company that makes them, shreeji plastopack india and have asked as there isn't a plastic recycling symbol on them like these: http://fivegallonideas.com/plastic-types-old/

Great my boiler is polypropylene

Davetherave said:

I agree however I would assume that's for a temperature range for the containers original purpose i.e. room temp mango chutney. So when using it at boiling liquid temperatures plastic could possibly be released?

As for the amount of liquid i'd think the surface area would be more of the issue.

Im trying to identify what the plastic is so have contacted the company that makes them, shreeji plastopack india and have asked as there isn't a plastic recycling symbol on them like these: http://fivegallonideas.com/plastic-types-old/

Click to expand...

Its difficult to check as i have since passed on the hdpe barrel boiler onto another brewer after upgrading my kit but im 80%+ sure the original mango barrel i used sourced via a UK supplier http://www.smithsofthedean.co.uk/
did have a recycling mark identifying it as hdpe..

However i have since bought a few via ebay for grain storage/brewshed stools and after reading a post regarding thsi matter checked them to find them lacking the information??

Yes a lack of information is frustrating/worrying. Will post up when the company get back intouch with myself.

down here in chch nz...we use 2nd hand copper hot water cylinders.....just strip the outer shell off, cut the top off the cylinder , bend the sharp edge over with a bit of hammering, install a tap on the side or from the old water inlet and bobs yer uncle....

but then after the earthquakes there were 100s of damaged cylinders about.

gollyfish said:

down here in chch nz...we use 2nd hand copper hot water cylinders.....just strip the outer shell off, cut the top off the cylinder , bend the sharp edge over with a bit of hammering, install a tap on the side or from the old water inlet and bobs yer uncle....

but then after the earthquakes there were 100s of damaged cylinders about.

Click to expand...

Proper copper coppers eh how do you guard off verdigris or isnt it a problem?

Gollyfish i love that idea of using a hot water tank, i havent looked to see how much they cost yet but interesting stuff!

Ive had a reply from plastopack india and quite literally all the said was "it's HDPE" so should be ok at boiling temperatures.

Davetherave said:

I've got a very similar build with the mango chutney bucket and 2 wilko kettle elements but someone raised the question the other day would boiling in these plastic containers cause leaching of the plastic into the wort? Could this then also lead to off tasting beer and even so far as to affect your health?

Sorry for the scary thoughts!

Click to expand...

I seem to remember reading somewhere that food safe plastic is good to significantly over boiling temp. I will have to see if I can find out the original article to check but I think it would be fine.

Hi,
thanks for this guide - I bought 1.7L morrisons Saver kettles @ 5 pounds last month, and noticed some changes:-
the base is held together by five star screws now, I broke it apart with a large flat screwdriver in the end,
the 3 pins sticking out of the black plastic have the middle pin lower than the outside ones,
the clear plastic has to come off first to reveal the 3rd screw holding the black plastic,
all 3 screws have metal washers, the earth screw has a metal strip underneath it,
the seal now seems to have no thick side,
MOST importantly, the elements fit through a FORTY mm hole in the barrel.
Thanks again,
Pete

Thanks Pete. :hat:

how good is copper for this? ( i have a couple of old cylinders kicking about)

only issue is the bottoms are domed.... a problem or not?

copper is great, and a domed bottom can accommodate a central bottom drain to eliminate deadspace too..

only issue you may have is keeping the large inner surface of copper verdigris free as its highly toxic and the last thing u want in your brew.. but the reason some folk refer to a boil kettle as a copper is cos it was a very populat boiler material.. easy to cut/and solder up too

I'm gutted.
I added the kettle elements to my blue mango barrel and spent ages
cutting out the lid. My last job was to add the tap. I started drilling,
but the 18mm bit wasn't firm in the chuck and it skewed.
So now I've got a hole 30mm by 20 mm in the curved part
of the mango barrel. Can it be blanked off anyway?
Pete

Yes.. i used a £shop alluminium tax disk holder in my placky hlt when the replacements for the dead element were smaller..





drilled thru the screw holes completely and used SS nuts and bolts n washers that fitted all the way through
and used some silicone baking sheet to creat a sealing washer.

alternativley consider fitting a bigger brass 22mm pipe sized tank connector and reduce the pipe size down to fit a 15mm inline valve