Fermentation Chamber Heater Needed?

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I just got a 7cuft GE Chest Freezer,,along with a Johnson Controller. I live in Ramona, Ca. where in the winter it can get below freezing during the night but never during the day. Seeing that the temp could be below freezing for a few hours, is there a need to have an "aquarium" type heater?
My freezer will be in the garage. Something tells me that I should not need a heater.
 
Not sure whether you will "need" one, but ... the goal is to keep the fermentation temperature as constant as possible. As the temperature in your garage drops below your fermentation temperature, so will the temperature in your freezer. If, during a cold snap your garage stayed at 45-50 degrees for a week or more, the temperature of your fermenting beer would probably get pretty close to that, and that's probably not what you want.

After a bit of research (mainly on HBT) I bought a Brewer's Edge space heater from William's Brewing. It may not be the least expensive option ($35) but it's nice, takes up no room, and comes with adhesive backing for mounting to the wall of your freezer.
 
Any old space heater with a temp controller will work, or you could get one with. Built in thermostat (check it, sometimes they are 5-10 degrees off!) some people just use a lightbulb or a greenhouse-style heated mat.
 
The controller will turn on the compressor when temp gets above "designated" temp?
The freezer is insulated like a Igloo cooler?
Is there a device to tell me the inside temp without opening the lid and reading a thermometer?
 
You'll need a heater. Especially if you want to ferment any Belguim-Type beers and you want to ramp up the temperature to 75 or so. Even when I do an ale i like to start out on the low side of fermentation temps and then towards the end bump it up to ~70. This time of the year you have to have some sort of heat.

I actually built one of these: http://http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/Fermentation-Can-Heater, and it worked great but I wanted to have some airflow in my chamber so I bought one of these: http://http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lasko-Products-My-Heat-Personal-Heater/16503222.

You can get them at Walmart for $11, not 18. I really like it. I hook it to my temperature controller on the heat cycle and set it for 70 and when it runs it also circulates air which I think keeps the inside of your chamber from getting stale.
 
You can use a PID from auberins and an SSR to control a freezer using a light bulb as the heat sources. The Johnson will only control one side (like all Johnsons, it is single minded!)
 
I use a 7cu ft chest freezer as well..and the Johnson Temp Controller..and its in my garage....and I also use the My heat Personal Heater from Walmart....$12.00 Works great.

I have the sensor sitting in my chest freezer about mid height (away from the wall), and I set the heater on the high end of freezer (where compressor is) and plug into temp controller. Works like a charm!

One bit of warning though....during the first couple of days when the fermentation is rocking...the chamber got a little warmer than I wanted on my first use of this setup....because there was so much heat generation from the yeasties....so now I put a 3/4" block of wood under lid to prop it open to let any excess heat out....during the first couple of days. The heater will still maintain temperature with no problem....but if too much heat builds up it will allow it to escape. Once the initial fast rate fermentation is over I remove block.

Oh yeah...like another poster said....make sure to set your controller to heating mode....

here is another option for heater....but it is more expensive....

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BREWERS-EDGE-SPACE-HEATER-P518C100.aspx
 
So the Johnson Controller will allow the freezer to turn on when the set temp gets to warm........but what will control the heater?
 
You need a two stage temp controller. Johnson control makes one for about $100
 
Yep...if you need to control freezer and heater....you will need a dual controller or buy another A419 and use one for heater and one for freezer.....

More economical to buy the dual controller of course.....
 
pogden said:
Not sure whether you will "need" one, but ... the goal is to keep the fermentation temperature as constant as possible. As the temperature in your garage drops below your fermentation temperature, so will the temperature in your freezer. If, during a cold snap your garage stayed at 45-50 degrees for a week or more, the temperature of your fermenting beer would probably get pretty close to that, and that's probably not what you want.

After a bit of research (mainly on HBT) I bought a Brewer's Edge space heater from William's Brewing. It may not be the least expensive option ($35) but it's nice, takes up no room, and comes with adhesive backing for mounting to the wall of your freezer.

+1 for this. I have this in my ferm chamber. Does the trick
 
for some reason I don't see the temp in the garage getting too cold where a heater is needed. But what controller will work for any heater?
 
I use this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057APR3I/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Set the high and low temp points and the heater or freezer compressor will fire to keep within a set range. I've got mine set up to limit the compressor cycling. Works great, although this model is a slight pain to wire. The Johnson ones cost a bit more but generally don't require much electrical expertise.
 
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After looking on this site, I went with the eBay stc-1000 and wired it myself. Wasn't very hard and controls both my freezer and heater. For everything it was less then 50 bucks.
 
tonyc318 said:
After looking on this site, I went with the eBay stc-1000 and wired it myself. Wasn't very hard and controls both my freezer and heater. For everything it was less then 50 bucks.

Yep, I did the same thing and it's working great so far. I wired it up the same as Bobby_M does in this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDud8Yl2EMg&feature=youtube_gdata_player.

I just mounted it to the wall behind my 7cf Whirlpool chest freezer. The controller is plugged into the wall, the freezer is plugged into the Cool side of the controller outlet and the Brewer's Edge heater is plugged into the Heat side.

Bobby uses a Love TSS2 controller in his video, which is similar. The wiring diagram that comes with the STC-1000 is straightforward.
 
Yep...if you need to control freezer and heater....you will need a dual controller or buy another A419 and use one for heater and one for freezer.....

More economical to buy the dual controller of course.....

Looks like I may have to throw in the towel and get another A419,,,,unless someone can recommend a dual controller and then I could sell the A419 in our classifieds. Right now I have freezer unplugged as the temps always seem top be in the mid 60's when I'm trying to keep temp around 70. As soon as compressor kicks on, turns off when temp gets to 68. but coils are still cold and then temp goes down to 64 or so. So if I get a Brewers Edge Space heater, will this solve my problem?
 
Auberins has dual contollers for about $45 but you will also need the temp probe. It has a cooling and heating function and is even diagramed in the instructions.
 
I have the same freezer and live in the high desert of CA where the nights get cold as well. I just got 2 ranco etc. I use one for the freezer and the other goes to a 100wt light bulb I ran inside an old paint can. Cheap, and it works great.
 
I put a gallon water bottle filled with warm water in the chest freezer and it's working for now. Once I get my ducks in a row I'll probably get another controller and brewing blanket
 
I do the lightbulb covered in foil thing in my 5 cu ft. I'm in Southern California though so it kicks on pretty rarely, but when it does is enough to warm things up a bit. I have a dual stage STC1000
 
PackerfaninSanDiego said:
I just got a 7cuft GE Chest Freezer,,along with a Johnson Controller. I live in Ramona, Ca. where in the winter it can get below freezing during the night but never during the day. Seeing that the temp could be below freezing for a few hours, is there a need to have an "aquarium" type heater?
My freezer will be in the garage. Something tells me that I should not need a heater.

I had the same set up as you and had the same questions. My climate in the garage is not stable enough for just one cooling/heating element. In the summer it's too hot and my freezer isn't very efficient so it kicks the freezer on but even with a small differential set, it over cools the fermenter by 6 degrees. And in the winter, it drops too cold.

I bought a Johnson controller II. This didn't solve my issue because I run into 30s at night and 70s during the day. And in the summer, again my inefficient freezer over cools. So I scrapped my Johnson II and bought a Ranco dual controller. Below...

http://morebeer.com/view_product/16664

It's a bit on the higher end, but extremely easy to use, no wiring needed, and you use normal plugs. I have my freezer plugged into the cooling outlet and a simple 12inch heating pad into the heating outlet and merely hang the heating pad in the freezer. This setup keeps my fermenter between 66-69, but can adjust to any 3 degrees that I need... Works amazing and is the best buy I've made for home brewing.
 
I went with the STC-1000, which a lot of people on here refer to as the Ebay Aquarium Temp. controller. Here's a tutorial on this site for how to wire it up:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ebay-aquarium-temp-controller-build-163849/

I'd never done any electrical wiring in my life, but these directions were easy to follow and I had my controller set up rather quickly. It's dual stage, so I plug the chest freezer into the cold outlet and the heater into the hot outlet. The STC-1000 also comes with a temperature probe, which I tape to the side of the fermenter.

For heating I bought some thermal tape from Reptile Basics online. It's exactly the same thing as a Brew Belt, but comes in different sizes and is customizable.
 
supermoth said:
I went with the STC-1000, which a lot of people on here refer to as the Ebay Aquarium Temp. controller. Here's a tutorial on this site for how to wire it up:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ebay-aquarium-temp-controller-build-163849/

I'd never done any electrical wiring in my life, but these directions were easy to follow and I had my controller set up rather quickly. It's dual stage, so I plug the chest freezer into the cold outlet and the heater into the hot outlet. The STC-1000 also comes with a temperature probe, which I tape to the side of the fermenter.

For heating I bought some thermal tape from Reptile Basics online. It's exactly the same thing as a Brew Belt, but comes in different sizes and is customizable.

This sounds like a great set up and if the controller is sound enough to keep the probe in a 3 degree range, I'd say its a much better investment than the ranco. Wish I had heard about this earlier... Ya win some ya lose some... But ya live, live to brew another day
 
I had a heating pad from the drug store, hooked up to a timer. I would set it to stay on for 55 minutes every two hours to avoid the auto shut off on the heating pad. It worked for me, but the man cave only got down in the high 50's, not sure it would work if it was any colder
 
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