Flexible Fluid-filled jacket for Fementer?

I have two conicals and a nice coolign system that pumps cold water around jackets around them when it is called for.

Currently it uses about 30' of tubing wrapped aroudn the fermenter. This is a pain in the but each time I brew, since I have a long tube and need to wrap and unwrap it from the fermenter each time (I fill the fermenter in the garage then bring it downstairs in the basement to ferment).

Anyone ever seen a nice fluid-filled jacket that could be used for this? I know that they exist for hyper/hypothermia applications in the medical world, but probably not the size and shape that I need.

How about DIYing one? Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Something like this? http://morebeer.com/view_product/10775/103722/7.5_Gallon_Conical_Fermenter_-_Heated_and_Cooled

This includes the conical I guess. There may be some clues as how to do it in the specs section.

Very interesting idea.

Yeah, they use a peltier system, and control the ammount/direction of current flow to either heat or cool the fermetner.

I chose to use fluid to do mine...

Thanks though!

More searching found this:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=ON8nAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Different form factor and it might be perfect!

I've thought about something like this:

http://www.aircaststore.com/aircast/cold-therapy/back-hip-rib-cryo-cuff

Edit: You could attach your existing tubing in a zig/zag pattern across a piece of material and use velcro to wrap/attach it to the fermentor similar to the cryo-cuff.

I guess I'm confused as to why you need to unwrap the tubing from around the fermenter. What about wrapping the fermenter with the tubing permanently, but putting some kind of quick-disconnect on the ends of the tubing so you can easily detach it from the pump?

It would be an interesting DIY project for sure. I'd question the durability though.

the_bird said:

I guess I'm confused as to why you need to unwrap the tubing from around the fermenter. What about wrapping the fermenter with the tubing permanently, but putting some kind of quick-disconnect on the ends of the tubing so you can easily detach it from the pump?

Click to expand...

Duh, good idea

Dredging up an old thread... I'm interested in doing this as well. Paul, what did you end up doing? I imagine permanently attaching the tubing to the fermenter may add too much weight to a full fermenter and may cause issues with the tubing dripping all over while moving it.

The issue I'm running into is that I have five different fermenter sizes, all of which I would like to cool with this flexible cold plate. At this point, my intentions are to pump cool fluid through some very thin-walled plastic tubing. The tubing will be sewn onto an insulating material (like an insulated lunch box or something) and then fasten that "cold plate" to the side of the fermenters. The primary issue, in my opinion, is the plastic material won't be the best heat conductor, but I can't find reasonably priced flexible tubing that conducts heat really well.

So, just curious, what path did you take? Thanks!