Increasing ferm temps with aquarium heater question

Ok, so I just got my hands on some ECY08 from love2brew, aka, my plans for brewing my first saison have just jumped to the front of the line, priority wise! I currently use an 18gal tote filled with water to cool my temps, and I figured I could use the same style tote to raise my ferm temps into the 80's, in conjunction with a submersible aquarium heater.

What size does everyone seem to go with?
Are the really cheap units I see reliable enough to see use for a few weeks or so at a time?

What models would you recommend, with a special eye towards economy:cross:

Thanks!

Edit-for clarity's sake, I am speaking of the submersible aquarium heaters, which would be submersed in the water surrounding my fermenting bucket in the plastic tote. I found an Aqueon 100w that is supposedly good to 30 gal, may go with this one. Anyone have any experience?

I have an Aqueon 150 w heater that I use for my saisons and Belgians. I have an 80 qt cooler and it is very easy to get the temps up, even in the winter when my basement is at about 59-60 degrees.. I am very happy with the Aqueon. Holds temp to within about + or - about 1/2 degree. The 100w would probably work but I went for the 150 because my basement gets pretty cold in the winter and i wanted to be able to reach the high 80's.

i use this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002DHOB8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
(150W) it does work for me but max temp i setup with it was 78F, it didnt have problem reaching it fast, im sure it can do mid 80 easily i just never test it. I have 27gal tote, with 2 6.5gal i have 9-10gal of water around them. I use external temp controller (for heating and cooling) so i dont use heater settings (its crank up on max) so can not say how precise it is

Just make sure you're setting the temp using a separate thermometer. The thermometers in aquarium heaters are off by as much as 7 or 8 degrees.

Excellent advice, all around. Thank you all very much! I think I'm gonna go with the 150w model....seems like it could reach the temps I need without breaking too much of a sweat.

Do you have to circulate the water in the vessel, or does it heat uniformly enough on its own?

flyingfinbar said:

Do you have to circulate the water in the vessel, or does it heat uniformly enough on its own?

Click to expand...

Anyone?

If you wanted to heat faster and more evenly you could get 2 heaters and put them on both sides of the tote. Plug them into one temp controller.

I don't circulate and it seems to work just fine. I have a separate thermometer that I attach to the side of the bucket/carboy to monitor temp. Since the water covers about 3/4 the way up it keeps very stable temps.

I don't circulate. I think there is enough movement between the water molecules to distribute the heat evenly. Hot water rises to the top, so there will be continual movement. It may take a while, but eventually all the water will be withing a degree or so. Certainly enough for our purposes.

I don't recirculate and it seems to work out fine. One thing you might want is a heater that you can calibrate. I have two of these..http://www.eheim.de/eheim/inhalte/index.jsp?key=liniendetail_24552_ehen
I am thinking you could even "trick" the heater into lower temps by calibrating it at a lower temp.