Using a reptile heating pad to heat buckets

Its starting to turn cold in New England...dropping to low 60s at night and into the morning. My friend gave me this heating pad that goes under a terrarium. How could I use that to heat my two buckets?

I have a temp control so I was thinking wrapping the pad in a towel and just push the two buckets together with that in the middle. Then tap the temp probe to one of the sides. The only thing im worried about is it getting to hot for the bucket. The warning on the pad says no plastic but I would assume that is if you left it on all the time.

How big is the heating pad? Any idea of the wattage?

Could build a small insulated box for the buckets and see if the pad will heat the the space adequately.

Is it made out of Flex-Watt? This material is used to make reptile heating pads and is also used to make the FermWrap heater.

I'm not sure you can modify it to heat two buckets, but it should work with a single bucket; just strap it around.

If you are set on doing two buckets at a time, fdben idea sounds good.

This is the heating pad

http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/E...iO3M6MToiMCI7czo4OiJTZWFyY2hfeSI7czoxOiIwIjt9

I'd test it first with a bucket of water. I'd worry about the buckets getting too hot.

This is what I do with the NY winters and my brew room getting down to 60 - I use a fish tank heater and stick my carboys in big buckets filled with water. Unfortunately, last year I kept the buckets with the carboys on the floor and caused a stuck fermentation on a batch of wine. My floor is all concrete underneath (I live in a raised ranch) and the heater couldn't keep up. This year I'll keep them on a table.

WhineinAlbany said:

I'd test it first with a bucket of water. I'd worry about the buckets getting too hot.

This is what I do with the NY winters and my brew room getting down to 60 - I use a fish tank heater and stick my carboys in big buckets filled with water. Unfortunately, last year I kept the buckets with the carboys on the floor and caused a stuck fermentation on a batch of wine. My floor is all concrete underneath (I live in a raised ranch) and the heater couldn't keep up. This year I'll keep them on a table.

Click to expand...

That is what I was going to do while I build my fermentation chamber but I figured id give this a try since it was free.

"Low 60s" sounds perfect, so I wouldn't warm it up until you got into the mid 50s or lower. I ferment almost of all my ales at 62-65 degrees, but sometimes at 60 degrees with a very "clean" strain like pacman yeast to make a lager-like ale.