Anyone use a reptile heating pad (Zoo Med ReptiTherm) to heat a fermentation chamber?

I have been looking into getting a ZooMed ReptiTherm reptile heating pad to heat my relatively small fermentation chamber and was looking for someone to share their experiences with it.

Their website lists the following wattages:
Mini - 4 watts
Small - 8 watts
Medium - 16 watts
Large - 24 watts

I am curious to find out:
-What approximate temperature the pad, itself, gets to.
-How quickly it heats up a fermentation chamber.
-How warm it can get the chamber to over ambient.
-How well of a job it does to maintain the temperature.

Please note which size you have.

Thanks!

I tried the large, but my ferm chamber is in a non heated garage. It could not keep up when heat dropped below about 50 degrees. I decided to spend $10 on a ceramic heater with a fan. It keeps the chamber at temp when the outside temp is below 0 degrees. Plus no hot spots due to the fan.

KGB09 said:

I tried the large, but my ferm chamber is in a non heated garage. It could not keep up when heat dropped below about 50 degrees. I decided to spend $10 on a ceramic heater with a fan. It keeps the chamber at temp when the outside temp is below 0 degrees. Plus no hot spots due to the fan.

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Thanks for the feedback. I'm assuming you got the Lasko mini heater? I was looking into that but was afraid it would get the inside of the fermentation chamber ridiculously hot while the thermal mass of the wort was heating up.

Yep lasko. I always try to cool my wort to pitch temp/ferment temp. And only heat up last couple days of primary.

It really depends on where you live and how cold it gets. I live in Dallas,Tx and I use the large reptile heater and it keeps the temp right where I want it. I keep my fermentation chamber in the garage and it can get in the 40's at night.

I use a brewbelt, 15W. So far it keeps a full sized upright freezer warm enough for fermenting two 5 gallon lagers in a detached garage. (50F inside, 28 - 33F average outside).

Using a fan to circulate the air is important. What you would want to do is mount it to a wall and use a fan to circulate the warmed air. I have a desk fan in my freezer right now but I'm working on making a computer fan panel. It's similiar to a stir plate build but without a rheostat or magnet.

Somebody posted recently about using a hair dryer and a temp controller. The hair dryer provides heat, has a built in safety circuit and IS a fan. Struck me as genius...

I use a small reptile heating lamp. With the ceramic heat bulb (no light). And that works great for me. My garage gets to about 20F

maddcow said:

I use a small reptile heating lamp. With the ceramic heat bulb (no light). And that works great for me. My garage gets to about 20F

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I have also been considering this. What wattage are you using and did you make your own fixture?