Rims heating elememt Options

[Kansan]

Looking for a rims heating element less than 4500w that is low density, and at least 13in before it folds back (could be as long as 17in) to fit my element tube. Would like it to be a stainless or nickle finish, not a fan of the black incoly or "lime-life" sheathings on so many elements. I found a Camco 3500w ld but is only 7" at the fold, seems pretty short to really be a low density with wort flow. Any ideas on where to find one?

Thanks,
Kansan

[Ijones]

I personally dont think you can find a true "low watt density" element of the type you described. The ones that clain a LWD are claiming that for their intended purpose water heaters not wort heaters. For my rims tube I have a 37" long 1" around heater that is 2000 watts. And acording to the calculations done by the company I ordered it from it is still to high a watt density to guaruntee no wort scorch. But with the PID it is not on constintly and with the constant flow over it I have had no problems. All of the water heater types I have seen always have some wort stuck to them after use even the ones from people who swear theirs wont scorch wort. If there is sticky sugar that has to be scrubbed off the element then there has to be some carmalization going on or there would be no sticky sugar to scrub off.

[Dean Palmer]

Been running a 4500 ULWD element on 120v for a few years now in my RIMS tube and there is never any scorched wort, even when the pumps lose prime for a little bit. It currently runs of a simple Ranco controller and no fancy pulsing relays (yet) but as long as there is liquid in the tube it works well. My element and tube is always clean and never takes more than the sparge water rinse to clean it acceptably. I'd wonder what folks are doing different as I've sure made a few mistakes where the wort sat and boiled a bit with no pump :-)