Single Phase Immersion Heaters.

Anyone limited to a 240v Single Phase supply, as most domestic situations are, must buy a Single Phase Immersion Heater. These will by necessity be limited to 3kW under normal household circumstances, or 6kW if you have 32 amp wiring, fuses, etc.* If you are reading this & are clever and wish to educate me so I am able to elaborate further, feel free on 07897 246 779 or immhtr at gmail dot com)

If you buy something on a budget, you are likely to get one element on a screwplug, thus you attatch live to one terminal, neutral to the other, and away you go (unless you have a control/cutout stat, but lets keep things simple here & now. If you want complicated, there is a wiring diagram HERE). The downside to the financially economical (cheap) option is that it is likely to have a really high watt density (explanation for normal people HERE , but if you are one of that rare & special breed, THE BREWER, click HERE).

Put simply the more heating power coming out of every square inch or cm of your hot element, the higher the sheath temperature, the more sh1t sticks (calcium & magnesium in our gloriously hard water) and the more any chemicals, acids/alkalis, etc, in your solution will attack the glowing element, and cause it to go pop, sooner rather than later. I sometimes advise customers to follow this disposable route, which is fine if you are proving an application, limited on budget, etc.

But if you want to (hopefully) fit & forget, you will have to spend a little more money on a 3 element Single Phase Immersion Heater, like our Industrial Immersion Heaters Range at 3kW or 6kW or our Brewery Immersion Heaters Range at 3kW or 6kW , or indeed any of the Oil Immersion Heaters Range. 3 element terminals will be linked with busbar to provide a common connection for the LIVE line, and similarly the other 3 terminals will be “commoned” up with busbar to provide connection for neutral. As below, in images I immediately feel the need to apologise for. Sorry.

3 elements will allow the watt density to be chopped into thirds. For example a 3kW heater with 1 x 3kW element, or a 3kW heater with 3 x 1kW elements (If the immersed length & element shape are the same. (It’ll last longer. How much longer? 3 times longer? Who knows? Certainly not me. But surely logic dictates? Only if you are a Vulcan). Which leads me on to U bent or looped elements. On a 1.5″BSP screwplug (Domestic Standard in UK) it is only possible to fit 3 U bent elements (8mm ⌀ , and a coupla stat pockets if you know an ElementJedi) whereas on a 2.25″BSP screwplug (Industrial Standard in the UK) you can fit looped elements, as below.

This enables even more element to be fitted into the space available. Which is why I often annoy customers by insisting on the “MAXIMUM immersed length”. An extra inch (Matron!) on 3 looped element is an extra 6″ of element, which is only gonna extend the working life of your heater a little bit more. So size is important, after all.

We stock the Industrial Immersion Heaters listed below for rapid delivery, but can make bespoke items to suit your specific needs if required. In BRASS that can include BSP screwplug sizes including 1″BSP, 1.25″BSP, 1.5″BSP, 1.75″BSP, 2″BSP as well as the British Industrial Standard size of 2.25″, which can be fitted with an adaptor to take it up to 2.5″BSP. In STAINLESS STEEL we can offer 2″ & 2.25″BSP screwplugs.

Bespoke items usually take a coupla weeks, but can be shuffled to the top of the pile if you are willing to pay a premium surcharge of approximately 50%. Customers only tend to do this when they are desperate, due to a production line being down & costing £££’s due to not carrying a spare. The moral of this story being, CARRY A SPARE, especially if your heaters are not standard (ie, 2.25″BSP and a multiple of 3 in terms of kW power output) and stock as listed below.

STOCK Single Phase Immersion Heater

• 3kW, 6kW, Industrial Immersion Heater stock available for rapid delivery.
• One cable entry M25 (two available as an option).
• Terminal covers rotateable through 360 degrees to allow cable entry position to be chosen.
• Alloy IP67 terminal enclosures. Measuring 120mm diameter x 105mm height.
• Incoloy 800, “a superior stainless steel”, 8mm diameter elements.
• Complete with SS thermowell to house our range of 11″ stats.

BESPOKE Single Phase Immersion Heater

• Available at any kW loading from 500w up to 6kW.
• 1.25″, 1.5″, 1.75″, 2″, 2.25″ and 2.5″ screwplug sizes are available in brass.
• 2″ and 2.25″ BSP also available in stainless steel.
• Available with 1 or 2 thermowells at 7, 11 or 18″ for thermostats / cutouts.
• 1 additional M25 cable entry glands as an option.
• Available with no thermowell if specified by the client. If you don’t need it, omit it from the build, as it is an unecessary weak point.

Call Jamie on 07897 246 779 to discus your Single Phase Immersion Heater needs.

*Fair play to you for checking out the footnote, hope it’s worth it? Having said all of the above, I have spoken to many a mad brewer, telling me they are running 12 & 15kW on a single phase, but that is mere rumour & hearsay, and my calls are not recorded for training & quality purposes). Again, if you are clever and can explain htf that is doable, please contact me, explain in small words, and if I can grasp it, we will share it with the world. I love a bit of Collaboration.

How to choose a brewery immersion heater

Jamie at immersionheaters.uk 07897 246779 loves breweries and brewers, who provide happiness and hangovers to us all. Could live without the hangovers, mind you! The older I get, the longer they seem to last.

Remember all of the stuff that applies to all water immersion heaters, plus the key consideration for breweries is ease of cleaning.

Our existing ranges of immersion heater had limitations when used in brewery applications.

The II Range has many benefits, including bespoke screwplug size, immersed length, double stat pockets, etc, all with a 2 week leadtime, BUT as you can see from the images (particularly the 5th) our aim of maximising the length of 8mm diameter element, hence double looping rather than merely U bending, leads to a fair old ‘clump’ of elements.

Now, we are fully aware that all of you happy brewers are only boiling clean water (ha, ha) and are fastidious in cleaning thoroughly with a jet wash between every brew (chuckle, chuckle), but still, this ‘clump’ led to build up of ‘mystery stuff’ over time, leading to hot spots, element splitting and heater death.

So, in conjunction with one of our Italian suppliers, we designed the BI Range. These are a 10mm, U bent element, which has masses of gap between the elements (see pictures 2, 4 & 6) to enable efficient jet washing of the element to clean off any deposits. We will never be able to deviate from the specs on the website, as we have to buy in bulk with horrible lead times. But thankfully, we seem to have pitched the immersed lengths just right, and the watts density at around the 60w/in² mark, seems to be just right.

Even with the antique gear that some of you chaps are recycling for 21st century brewing, no one has needed any screwplug size other than 2.25″, tho I suppose we could throw on an adaptor to make them 2.5″ if needed.

So if you fancy buying an immersion heater that was actually designed for brewers, give me a call on 07897 246779. Feedback from new and existing customers is greatly appreciated and collated at G##gle & FB.

Thanks for visiting.

How to choose an oil immersion heater

Informational content provided by Jamie at ImmersionHeaters.uk

Call on 07897 246779.

Remember all of the stuff that applies to all water immersion heaters, plus for oil heaters our target is to get the watts density down to 12w/in² or below for heavy, industrial oils, and 25w/in² or below for lighter cooking oils.

Oil Imersion Heater

The II Range has many benefits, including bespoke screwplug size, immersed length, double stat pockets, etc, all with a 2 week leadtime. The 8mm elements can be double looped to fill your maximum available immersed length with a large overall length of element. As can be seen in the fifth image on our PII web page, the elements drop from the screwplug to your maximum available immersed length, before looping back up to within a few inches of the screwplug, before dropping back to full immersed length, then returning back up to the screwplug. This allows us to fit nearly twice the length of element possible in a plain U bent element. For example, in 24″ of maximum immersed length, we could use an 84″ element double looped.

if you have a very large tank with a massive maximum available immersed length, you may choose not to double loop, but to have plain U bent elements over a meter in length.

Informational content provided by Jamie at ImmersionHeaters.uk …who would love you to leave a comment.