Heater for glass carboy.

I am thinking of buying a heater for the glass carboy. Do I need a temp controller for them? Are there hazards for covering a glass carboy with a heater on with a blanket?

I'm thinking about doing this too, but I will use a small trashcan (20 gal) with about a foot of water in the bottom, in goes the carboy, and then in goes the fishtank heater.

Even the cheep ones (under $20) are adjustable, and you can calibrate them to another thermometer, if you are unsure of the accuracy.

I may look into that.

Hex said:

but I will use a small trashcan (20 gal) with about a foot of water in the bottom, in goes the carboy, and then in goes the fishtank heater.

Click to expand...

the problem with that is in my experience the thermostat on those are really crappy. used to have a fish tank and in the morning it would get cold in here so i had a heater for the fish. i would set it to keep the fish in their temp range. the indicator light would be flickering. but sure enough the next day the fish would be cold again.

i would go with a carboy heater like you where thinking. not a heating blanket. the blankets shut off after 3 hours and you have to go turn them back on. you can control the heating power of a carboy heater by varying the amount of the carboy you cover with it or adding some insulation.

Fish tank heater ,Johnson control and a swamp cooler well now it would be a swamp heater . Set the heater to high hook it up to the controller set to the desired temp works well.

you could use the "son of a fermentation chamber" modified with no ice.

I bought one of those wrap around carboy heater thingys....Didn't really like the idea of putting my temp control probe between the carboy and the heatpad.... So..I tywraped the pad to the back of my fermentation fridge...with a small 110v computer fan. Plugged into my temp. controller....test run this morning in my 63 degree basement...Set at 70 about 2 hours ago..this thread made me remember to check. Sitting pretty at 70F... I think I'll keep it....