# controlling an element



## frodo (Aug 22, 2015)

working on a project where I want to control 2  water heater elements.

I know what I want to do. but not how to do it.

need your electrical expertise 

what i want to do.

 to bring a 15 gallon pot of water to boil, with both elements, then regulate temp
with just one

both elements on  separate circuits,

first element , full on,  just using an on/off switch
the other ,  I want to control using a simple dimmer type switch.
from off--to full on

Camco 02202/02203 2000W 120V Screw-In Water Heater Element - High Watt Density 

I have a drawing, that I do not understand

http://www.amsyrup.com/sloj/images/120vac40a_rev.jpg


----------



## bud16415 (Aug 22, 2015)

I don&#8217;t think you want to do that and I don&#8217;t think you want to control a heater thru a dimmer switch. If you want to build such a circuit I think you need to switch the heater on and off between two set points. Its fine to have two heaters and one to help get to temp quickly. They should be controlled with some kind of a relay rated at more than the heater draws. The one could be set at a lower temp on the max end so that once it got to temp it couldn&#8217;t come back on as the other one would kick on first. Maybe you could use all replacement parts from a normal water heater tanks.

What are you building and can you just buy a water heater and use that? Does it need to be open at the top? Can you saw a tank in half?


----------



## oldognewtrick (Aug 22, 2015)

Go over to Home Brew Talk and look in the electric brewing section. Lots of good tutorials relevant to what you're trying to do.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum.php


----------



## frodo (Aug 22, 2015)

oldognewtrick said:


> Go over to Home Brew Talk and look in the electric brewing section. Lots of good tutorials relevant to what you're trying to do.
> 
> http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum.php



we were thinking along the same lines

http://homedistiller.org/forum/


found exactly what i am looking for


----------



## oldognewtrick (Aug 22, 2015)

Homebrew talk is a sister side of ours.


----------



## frodo (Aug 23, 2015)

oldognewtrick said:


> Homebrew talk is a sister side of ours.



they do not talk about the craft of


----------



## frodo (Sep 6, 2015)

this is how its done


----------



## frodo (Sep 12, 2015)

As built update

building it was fun


----------

