Induction hot plates

[paultr]

I am thinking of going AG and thinking of the equipment I will need.

I have read threads here on installing kettle elements in shiny SS but I have just watched a video with a guy who uses hot plates as his heat source. This would make it unnecessary to drill a hole for the element and would make cleaning much easier - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbbJRyhaAa0

These hot plates are very cheap in the far east so presumably could be bought cheap off ebay.

What do people think - a good idea and would it get hot enough ?

 

[paultr]

Having looked into this further, apparently Stainless Steel pans will only work on induction hobs if the base is of a type of stainless that is a magnetic grade.

Could I ask a big favour please ? If anyone has one of the Schengler stock pots (the German ebay ones) and a magnet handy could they check if the magnet sticks to the base. It would also be good to know if the base looks completely flat (machined?).

Many thanks for any replies :)

 

[asd]

Induction heaters are brilliant things in the kitchen. I use mine all the time for cooking. I don't for brewing, because my french/german e-bay 100 litre shiny stockpot doesn't work on it!

The German guys seem to use induction heaters a lot. I think they would need to be hacked to use for mashing, as they cycle on at full blast vs off, with a very broad frequency. Not sure how to do this - I think the germans describe how to, but I don't speak German.

You can't just connect them up to a PID, unfortunately.

Link to German brewery list:


www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=30291

Simon.

 

[paultr]

Thanks Simon

I agree that they are brilliant. I have recently spent a couple of years living in China and they are ludicrously cheap there - If I was away travelling I would sometimes buy one and small frying pan for £2-3 so I could knock up an English brekkie in my hotel room - did not even bother taking them with me - just gave it to the room cleaner when I left !

As regards use for home brew, the guy on the video link I posted has his connected to a PID and it seems to work fine. It seems a good idea as they are instant on/off so easy for the PID to control the temp. I do not really understand what you mean when you say ' as they cycle on at full blast vs off, with a very broad frequency'. Surely it is better to come on and off instantly vs an kettle element which takes time to heat up and cool down ? Just my instinctive feeling.

As I said in my original post it would be good not to have to clean a kettle element and I have read somewhere that the wort can burn on to them.

Anyway, if the French/German pots do not work on them it is just idle speculation ..... :) What a pity.

 

[paultr]

Just confirmed from the horse's mouth .....

Dear Paul

Thanks for your mail. Sorry to tell you that this pot is not suitable for induction oven. We do not have such pots for induction.

Best regards
Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Sandra Schmidt
Bergland Handels GmbH
Kirchstr. 71 - 73
08248 Klingenthal
Deutschland

Now to find out if the Malt Miller's ones work .....

 

[calumscott]

Now to find out if the Malt Miller's ones work .....

They *might* be the same pots... :whistle:

I don't see why they wouldn't work though. I thought the only stipulation for induction was that they had to be steel??? i.e. not aluminium?

 

[calumscott]

Now to find out if the Malt Miller's ones work .....

They *might* be the same pots... :whistle:

I don't see why they wouldn't work though. I thought the only stipulation for induction was that they had to be steel??? i.e. not aluminium?

Ah, has to be ferromagnetic... I guess the grade of stainless they use isn't...

 

[asd]

Thanks Simon

I agree that they are brilliant. I have recently spent a couple of years living in China and they are ludicrously cheap there - If I was away travelling I would sometimes buy one and small frying pan for £2-3 so I could knock up an English brekkie in my hotel room - did not even bother taking them with me - just gave it to the room cleaner when I left !

As regards use for home brew, the guy on the video link I posted has his connected to a PID and it seems to work fine. It seems a good idea as they are instant on/off so easy for the PID to control the temp. I do not really understand what you mean when you say ' as they cycle on at full blast vs off, with a very broad frequency'. Surely it is better to come on and off instantly vs an kettle element which takes time to heat up and cool down ? Just my instinctive feeling.

As I said in my original post it would be good not to have to clean a kettle element and I have read somewhere that the wort can burn on to them.

Anyway, if the French/German pots do not work on them it is just idle speculation ..... :) What a pity.

What I mean is that when my hotplate is turned down low, it blasts on for about 5 seconds, then is off for about ten seconds, then on again. That's too coarse a cycle for mashing, IMHO. Regarding using a PID, when I've tried it on mine, once the PID switches to "off", then the hotplate thinks its been switched off, and loses all settings, and has to be restarted by pressing its buttons. That stage needs to be bypassed, and then I think you need to make sure the fan is kept working to dissipate any heat.

Maybe its just my hotplate, and others can just "plug and go" with a PID controller.

Simon.

 

[paultr]

Hi Simon

Understand now :)

The American guy on the video said his plates were cheapo ones from some chain store. There is a section where you can see one of them clicking on and off quite frequently (every couple of seconds or so). I think he mentioned where he got his stainless from so I might just send them an email to find out more.

 

[paultr]

As suspected, pots that work on induction plates are significantly more expensive than standard all SS ones. This is because they need another metal (usually aluminium) encapsulated onto the base.

The cheapest I have found so far is £110 & VAT for 50L

Damn - I can hear the sound of a bee starting to buzz in my bonnet :hmm:

 

[asd]

Hi,

They don't need another metal in the base - they just have to be ferromagnetic. For reasons I don't know, some grades of stainless are not, or only weakly, ferromagnetic.

Simon.

 

[RokDok]

Hi Guys,

I use induction heaters.

The ones I use are Buffalo induction heaters which I got from Nisbetts catering supplies- the are £100 plus each and are 3 KW.

I use them for the HLT and boiler both of which are 70 l, and there is no problem getting a vigorous boil.

They have an adjustment dial on them so to keep the HLT at 85 degrees or so I just turn it down low.

If you're boiling 50l then I'm sure their 2.5 KW heater would do and they are very much cheaper.

I must say I'm delighted.

The pots I use are Genware, I got mine at pubshoponline they were about 30% cheaper here than elsewhere.

Cheers

RD

 

[RokDok]

The pubshop has 50 l s/s stockpots at £90 plus vat, lid is £15 plus vat, they are very solid.

 

[paultr]

Thanks RD

Is that 50L one from the Celsius range ? They look really nice pots.

Are your Genware ones aluminium ?

cheers Paul

 

[RokDok]

Hi,

No they're stainless.

Not cheap, but, you don't need to do many brews for it to pay for itself.

They are nice.

RD

 

[paultr]

.....
Not cheap, but, you don't need to do many brews for it to pay for itself.
.....

That is what I keep telling swmbo !

 

[rpt]

As suspected, pots that work on induction plates are significantly more expensive than standard all SS ones. This is because they need another metal (usually aluminium) encapsulated onto the base.

Definitely not aluminium as that's not made from iron! Some SS pots are made from ferromagnetic SS and some have an additional piece of ferromagnetic SS. Some also have aluminium encapsulated but that is for better heat distribution.

 

[paultr]

As suspected, pots that work on induction plates are significantly more expensive than standard all SS ones. This is because they need another metal (usually aluminium) encapsulated onto the base.

Definitely not aluminium as that's not made from iron! Some SS pots are made from ferromagnetic SS and some have an additional piece of ferromagnetic SS. Some also have aluminium encapsulated but that is for better heat distribution.

Yes sorry, I gave the wrong info. They press a ferritic plate into the aluminium pad which is there to spread the heat evenly across the base of the pan/pot. Apparently you can get some pans which continues the aluminium layer up the side of the pan sandwiched between two layers of stainless which spreads the heat up the side.