Burner

The challenge was finding an induction cooktop with enough power to heat 15 gallons of water to strike temperature and to bring 13 gallons of wort to a boil.  The internet brewing forums were full of cautions that it will be difficult to get a good boil on much more than 8 or 10 gallons, and if you do, it will take hours.  No burner seemed to be available with the level of power needed.  Hours of research over weeks and months determined that a 5kW cooktop would handle the job, but nothing at that power level was available.  Until finally I stumbled on it on eBay.  A relatively pricey commercial grade cooktop.  From Hong Kong.  Though initially hesitant, I took a chance:

This is the current online offer and same seller.  Price has gone up since I bought it.

It arrived in a couple of weeks in good condition.  The owner’s manual was in Chinese.

 

It didn’t come equipped with a plug.  It had to be hard wired to a circuit box.  Luckily I have a friend who’s a homebrewer and professional electrician who wired the cooktop directly to my circuit box with a 30 amp, 240 volt circuit.  When we tested it, it worked like a dream. It brought ten gallons of water cold from the tap to an aggressive boil without a lid in about 40 minutes.

There was no information in the manual about the weight capacity of the burner.  A business colleague of mine who was born and raised in China scoured the manual, and couldn't find anything.  The online seller even worked with me to talk to the manufacturer, but they would only give a range.  So far I've been able to work with nearly 16 gallons in the kettle, which equates to about 168 pounds.

Now that I had the burner set up, I needed to figure out a way to vent all that steam out of the basement.  Check out the ventilation system.