Beer brewing with tankless?

[ruveco]

Just a crazy idea. I brew my own beer and the grain mashing step requires me to heat up water to 165*. I am contemplating buying a 110v Eco Tankless Water heater to save on time/propane usage. I know that the output of the heater is dependent of input temperature, (output been 30* or so warmer than the input). My question is. "if I pump the same water 2 or 3 times trhough the heater, would the water reach 165*?. I know that theoredicallly it should, but was wondering if those gadgets come equipped with a thermistor or a device that would keep them from exceeding a certain temp. TY

 

[Terry]

Most tankless water heaters come preset at 120 degrees. You would need to check to see if a unit would allow for a much higher temperature like that. 165 out of a tankless unit?
I don't think it's a good idea.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Dana]

Electric tankless water heaters have an adjustable, controlled output temperature, but I'm not aware of any that deliver water hotter than 140F or so (which is already a serious enough scald risk.)

Heating water with electricity is usually much slower than heating it with propane, especially with a 120VAC tankles. I'm not sure you'd be saving any time here. At 15A @120VAC is only 1800 watts, or ~6,000 BTU/hr. A typical propane cooking range burner puts out about that much (usually a bit more.)

 

[Jadnashua]

If you don't do this often, depending on how much hot water you need at a single time, you might find a small/medium electric tank-type WH would be the easiest and cheapest way to go. If there's a lot of time in between needs, you could shut it off. At 165-degrees, it would kill most anything in there if it sat at that temperature for awhile before you used it.