My fermenter heater

johnnyc · 12-15-2009, 12:42 PM

Here's my original fermenter thread. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/my-new-fermenter-131260/

And here's how I'm getting through the winter. Last week it was in the high 30s and it held steady at 66º. Its a ceramic reptile heater, that and the box I was out about $35-40 and an afternoon's work.

Chosenwon · 12-15-2009, 05:11 PM

That is awesome! I am looking for a simular set up and was considering buying a small ceramic heater and controlling it with a johnson controller. Can you do a parts list write up? Can you control it or is in simply on/off?

**lamarguy** · 12-15-2009, 05:22 PM

Ya, ceramic heaters are a good option.

I've been using a 16 watt reptile heating pad in a 14 cu ft freezer with good results. It was in the high 30's last week and 16 watts was sufficient to maintain 70F. The pad heats the inner metal wall of the freezer, so it's quite effective.

johnnyc · 12-15-2009, 06:02 PM

Its controlled by my love controller, I switched it from cooling to heating manually since I don't have a dual stage. W/ a johnson though it should be easier. To power it I used a replacement power cord for power tools. HD sells them. I bought that round box and got a ceramic light bulb socket. I screwed it onto a spare piece of plywood I had to make it stable so it wouldn't fall over.

I bought the ceramic bulb off amazon for about $25. Its way overkill though, 150watt of man power! Probably could have used a 60 watt and been fine, about $5-10 cheaper too. Some ppl use regular light bulbs but I prefer to not have any light in there and that's why I went this route. That computer fan runs all the time to keep the air moving. I wired it to a 5v cellphone charger to it.

LeftTurnOnly · 01-25-2011, 01:15 PM

Hey Johnnyc..... Do you still use your heater like that? I'm looking to do something similar, and was wondering if you've had any issues now that it's been a while. Wasn't sure if having it pointing up vs. down had any effect on the life of the device... even though, i'd think pointing up like you have it would dissipate the heat better.

Anyway, just curious...

Cheers...
Kyle...

**motobrewer** · 01-25-2011, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnyc

I bought the ceramic bulb off amazon for about $25. Its way overkill though, 150watt of man power! Probably could have used a 60 watt and been fine, about $5-10 cheaper too.

yes! glad to hear it! i bought one and didn't know if it was gonna be enough.

**ubermick** · 02-04-2011, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lamarguy

I've been using a 16 watt reptile heating pad in a 14 cu ft freezer with good results. It was in the high 30's last week and 16 watts was sufficient to maintain 70F. The pad heats the inner metal wall of the freezer, so it's quite effective.

Hmm. My Williams Brewing "Brewer's Edge" heater is 25 watts, and while it does fine at holding temp in my 15 cu ft freezer, it takes an absolute age to get there. I did a bump from 64 to 69 degrees to get a porter finished up, but it took the wee heater a day and a half to make that 5 degree jump.

anojones · 02-04-2011, 11:40 PM

I'm using a small ceramic space heater in my fridge that was on clearance at wally world- it's controlled by a single stage love controller, have to change it from heat to cool manually. It held 66F in a 40F garage no problem and didn't seem to cycle that much. The nice thing about the space heater is that it has a built in fan to push the heated air around- the ceramic heaters are safer as I understand it. I like the idea of a reptile ceramic bulb.

**BrewBeemer** · 02-05-2011, 12:55 AM

I picked up from work a couple Design Aire Electric Heaters, made by Hoffman Engineering Company, 120 volt 100 watt, adjustable stat 0-100*F with a built in fan no fire hazard with a glowing element.
An example of them, big wow in price vs freebies; http://compare.ebay.com/like/290516886057?ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar& rvr_id=207362583858&crlp=1_263602_304662&UA=WVI8&G UID=bfea264a12d0a0e204c53995ffc82877&itemid=290516 886057&ff4=263602_304662

**aaronhrab** · 01-23-2012, 09:14 PM

Has anyone simply tried using a light bulb? I used an old fridge and a 100w light bulb to dry out firewood in the past, but I am not sure how well it would hold up because of the possibility of any moisture causing it to explode.