Sparge Water Heater

It’s hard to imagine using my Grainfather Connect without this sparge water heater. It’s been such a great addition to my homebrewing process.Yes, as others point out, the temperature setting is in Celsius, but it doesn’t take long to convert. And most brewers sparge at a pretty constant temperature (168 deg F), so it’s basically a set-it-and-forget-it thing.Of note, this thing will draw every bit of 13 amps, so you’ll want to run it on a separate circuit from your Grainfather if you’re running them simultaneously and don’t have a 30 amp breaker installed.I love this thing — heats up fast and gets the job done. Highly recommend.

Item pictured was exactly what I received. Grainfather sparge heater with picnic valve. Perfect size for sparging a 5 gallon batch of all grain beer.

I USE THIS TO HEAT WATER IN MY HOUSE TILL THE PLUMBING IS FINISHED. IT WORKS FINE BUT THE GUAGE IS NOT READABLE. IT NEEDS A FLOAT OF SOME SORT SO YOU CAN TELL THE LEVEL; OF THE WATER. I AM ALWAYS AFRAID OF RUNNING IT DRY. I LIKE THE SHAPE, IT SITS ON THE COUNTER BY THE SINK AND DOES NOT TAKE UP ALOT OF ROOM. I DONT LIKE THE COFFEE POT SPIGOT. I WISH IT WERE MADE SO YOU COULD ATTACH A SMALL HOSE TO MAKE IT MORE CONVENIENT TO GET THE WATER INTO A PAN IN THE SINK.

We bought one for ourselves after years of coffee urns "good enough" to do the trick and a couple of Israeli style "meycham" that never got really hot enough. I stumbled over this on Amazon and got it. I had no idea that the company gears its products towards home brewing until we decided to recommend it to friends and went to their website. (we were thoroughly entertained by that.) Our friends got one and love it and we actually *did* donate one right after to our synagogue because they really did need a good hot water heater in the library and the capacity of this is great. Not the cheapest on the market but specifically made for heating water so worth every penny.

Works great! Expect a 30-40 minute warmup for about 4-5 gallons. Also, get an app to change over C to F as the dial is in C. For 165-170F set to the 75C setting. For those tired of using a propane burner just to heat water this is the ticket! The only downside I have is that it’s relatively small unless you are only doing 5 gallon batches; in which case it absolutely fine.

No sight glass, but has ball valve. Not sure if grainfather redid this but the coffee-pot style push/valve or picnic tap is gone and there's a ball valve now. However, the sight glass is gone. You still have markings, but you'll have to open the lid to keep an eye on run-off.

Great product for holding temperature constant while sparging grains. Nicely made and a quality product. I love mine!

After a couple uses the heater light failed. After a couple more uses the on off switch light failed. Still functional no big deal. Then after a couple more uses the heating element failed. That’s really disappointing.We don’t mind paying a premium price for a premium product. We expect quality and durability. In this case it didn’t hit the mark and we will try another brand. It’s a shame because we love out grainfather brewer.