frolickingmonkey

Recipes 

Rubbermaid encased with 3-4" extruded foam on bottom and sides?

__________________
Primary: Delicious Beer
Secondary: Delicious Beer, Delicious Cider
Kegeratin': Delicious Draft Beer
Bottled: Delicious Bottled Beer and Cider

bad coffee

Recipes 

I use a small aquarium pump. Anything that moves the water will work

__________________

FlyGuy

Recipes 

They make them that big -- I wish I knew the model or make of this one, but it has no markings that are revealing.

__________________
Cheap 10 gal cooler MLT • $3 Autosiphon • Aluminum Pot FAQ • Easy Steam Injection Mash System • Make a Frozen Yeast Bank
Improving Stovetop Boiling • Improving AG Efficiency

humann_brewing

Recipes 

They work great. I check mine with 2 thermoters and check all corners and all around for that matter and the temp difference is never more than .5 between the top and bottom and sides. It also keeps the water the same temp.

It is great temperature control. I even drapped a sleeping back around it to insulate it a little more.

johnnybrew

Recipes 

[bump]

Just found this thread after setting up a water bath and aquarium heater. It holds the temp perfectly, but I have my digital thermometer taped to one spot, so I wonder if the water is circulating enough. I tend to agree with another poster here that there's so little water to circulate that it will equilibrate on its own pretty quickly. I think there's maybe 2-3 gals of water in the tub. Is a pump really needed?

__________________
If you can read this, you're not drinking enough.

See my Corny Keg Chilling Insulator

Hex

Recipes 

I use a large fish tank wrapped with R-19 household insulation. It has two 6.5gal acid carboys sitting in it at the moment, fermenting.
I use a 100W fish tank heater (element without thermostat), mini fish tank pump, and a Ranco controller.
It will hold 68 even when it's 40 in the garage.

ingchr1

Recipes 

I just started a batch yesterday and what I found is that the top of the cooler is about 10 degrees warmer than the bottom. This morning the top was 70F while the bottom was 60F. My setup is a 60qt Igloo with a 150W heater, the temp in the garage is ~45F, the cooler has at least 5 gallons of water in it. Last night I put a piece of foam insulation on top of the cooler but that didn't help to equalize the temp.

I will be getting a pump today.

__________________
Chris

rcrabb22

Recipes 

Rubbermaid Roughneck 31 gal (#2244)

I nest 2 of them now as the picture shows the walls bowing quite a bit when full. I was worried about a fracture at some point. The aquarium heater is visible in the 1st pix and the pond pump for circulation in the 2nd. I use a Ranco controller for the heater as at it's coolest setting kept the tub at 70F. The probe wire is visible going between the 2 Better Bottles but what isn't seen is the thermowell. The stock probe is not waterproof. In the warmer months I add a little bleach to the water to keep the algae at bay.

ingchr1

Recipes 

When I got home today the fermentation was more active and the temps stabilized a bit on their own. There was only a 3 to 4 degree difference. Since I picked up the pump on the way home I put it in and the temps stabilized in a couple of minutes.

I think the active fermentation has a lot to do with the temps being more stable. Once that is gone they will probably diverge again.

I got the smallest submersible pump I could find at Petsmart. It was in the reptile section and has a flow rate of 45gph. http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752547

__________________
Chris