Ferm Chamber Not Warm Enough

[cyanmonkey]

I have a small fridge/freezer in my garage with a ceramic bulb for heat. It's great for holding temp during active fermentation, but I'm trying to push a diacetyl rest up to 70 and it only gets up to 65.

It's about 40 F ambient in my garage. Is that my problem or should it perform better than that?

 

[Backslide]

What's the wattage of your bulb? I have the 100w version and I can easily get into the 80's with it while ambient temps are in the 30's. My fridge is also in my garage.

 

[cyanmonkey]

It's a 75W. I opted for the cheapest I could find. Reading the reviews I guess it doesn't get very hot? It's weird because I've seen people use a lightbulb in a paint can and they don't seem to have any issues. I was wondering if my fridge isn't insulated well enough.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M1BBH3K/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[MX1]

try wraping a heavy blanket around the fridge

 

[Pivovar_Koucky]

If you have Temp control why not use a hair dryer?

 

[Backslide]

If you have Temp control why not use a hair dryer?

I would guess that this is a fire waiting to happen.

 

[Pivovar_Koucky]

I would guess that this is a fire waiting to happen.

You keep a lot of gasoline soaked rags in your fermentation chamber?

I don't know, I guess I can understand your point, but compared to a lot of the other DIY projects I have seen on the forum (electric brewing, anyone) a hair dryer on a temp control seems pretty benign. I guess you could use a reptile heating pad on a temp controller if you were really that concerned about it.

I like the hair dryer because it moves the air around while heating it, but I suppose an untended hair dryer is more dangerous than, say a bunny sleeping on a pillow.

 

[bragona71]

I wrap a heating pad around mine then cover up with a ski jacket works great but my ambient temp don't get as low as yours

 

[cyanmonkey]

I had asked opinions when I was putting it together about the hair dryer and got the fire thing and temp swings as an issue. I already have it wired in for a bulb heating element. I think it's a weak element, tbh.

 

[Pivovar_Koucky]

I had asked opinions when I was putting it together about the hair dryer and got the fire thing and temp swings as an issue. I already have it wired in for a bulb heating element. I think it's a weak element, tbh.

Not sure why temperature swings would be an issue. An insulated box loses heat at a certain rate based on the temperature inside and outside. Maybe because a lightbulb takes longer to heat it up? Dunno, I'd want to see some data on that one before I'd buy temperature swings.

 

[cyanmonkey]

Well, at the time I didn't know any different. Now, I'm not convinced.

 

[MX1]

You keep a lot of gasoline soaked rags in your fermentation chamber?

I don't know, I guess I can understand your point, but compared to a lot of the other DIY projects I have seen on the forum (electric brewing, anyone) a hair dryer on a temp control seems pretty benign. I guess you could use a reptile heating pad on a temp controller if you were really that concerned about it.

I like the hair dryer because it moves the air around while heating it, but I suppose an untended hair dryer is more dangerous than, say a bunny sleeping on a pillow.

A hair dryer is not intended, and will not work well in a enclosed space, they have a thermo reset and when they get to hot it trips and kills the dryer, and what if the bunny was sleeping on the pillow and it wa placed over your face, that could be pretty dangerous, say as dangerous as a hair dryer in a cnfined space.

Tim

 

[Backslide]

I had asked opinions when I was putting it together about the hair dryer and got the fire thing and temp swings as an issue. I already have it wired in for a bulb heating element. I think it's a weak element, tbh.

I'd just go out any buy a higher wattage bulb. Like I've stated above, my 100w ceramic heat element works just fine in my fridge. One thing I forgot to ask, how big is your fridge? mine is just big enough to fit a 7gal stainless steel milk can vessel.


I'm currently fermenting a Belgian Quad that requires a ramp from 64deg to 76deg. I need to hold 76deg for 10+ days until I hit my FG. My ambient temps last week dropped down into the low 30's in my garage. During that time I still didn't have any issue at all holding 76deg with my little 100w bulb.

A hair dryer is just a stupid idea imho. A 1500w + blower is just not safe left unattended. there's no need for that much wattage to heat a small fridge. Sometimes it's not a good idea to try and rig **** up to try and save a little coin, when in fact you may end up spending way more on the back in via your utility bill. There's a time and place to let your inner hillbilly out but, IMHO this isn't one of them.

 

[wardens355]

Do you have a fan in there? Maybe the light bulb is mostly heating the wall of the freezer that its closest to?

 

[OleGoatBrewing]

Understand you trying to save money, but splurge and get a higher wattage bulb. What are we talking a few bucks?

 

[Hello]

Are you using a clamp on lamp? It still seems like you'll need more wattage.

 

[fergusmj]

I have a small fridge/freezer in my garage with a ceramic bulb for heat. It's great for holding temp during active fermentation, but I'm trying to push a diacetyl rest up to 70 and it only gets up to 65.

It's about 40 F ambient in my garage. Is that my problem or should it perform better than that?

I don't see that anyone's asked, but how is your temp controlled? Through a temperature controller?

How is your temp probe setup to read? Open air? in a glass of water, strapped to the fermenter? I think this may help a lot.

 

[Pivovar_Koucky]

A hair dryer is not intended, and will not work well in a enclosed space, they have a thermo reset and when they get to hot it trips and kills the dryer

It is unclear to me why additional safety controls would be a bad thing in such a deadly dangerous situation, also unclear is how a hairdryer is in any way less "intended" to work in "a enclosed space" than a light bulb in a paint can.

A hair dryer is just a stupid idea imho. A 1500w + blower is just not safe left unattended. there's no need for that much wattage to heat a small fridge. Sometimes it's not a good idea to try and rig **** up to try and save a little coin, when in fact you may end up spending way more on the back in via your utility bill. There's a time and place to let your inner hillbilly out but, IMHO this isn't one of them.

I would certainly concede that a 1500 watt hairdryer is overkill for a small fridge. I used a small travel hairdryer to heat up a much larger fermentation chamber, perhaps it's not the best solution for the original poster's situation. I'm pretty sure if you asked an engineer (like say, me) to design you a device to heat up a space, it would look a lot like a heat source and a fan to move the air around (what does that remind you of?). Why? Because forced convection moves heat faster than free convection. Also it would reduce the thermal gradient that would inevitably develop with a fixed heat source. Obviously, if we are not going to "rig" something and let our "inner hillbilly" out we should skip the hairdryer and the radiant heater and buy the brewbelt. I didn't buy it because it wouldn't work for my chamber.

 

[dzlater]

How warm is it in the house?
Maybe you could just take out of the ferm. chamber and move it inside?
Maybe it doesn't need a diacytle rest have you tasted it?

 

[cyanmonkey]

Wife won't let me bring it inside.

I'm using STC 1000's to maintain temp.

I think I found the issue, though. The ceramic heat emitter I bought originally is meant for a 240V system. So, it turns out I'm just not a bright person.

 

[Backslide]

Wife won't let me bring it inside.

I'm using STC 1000's to maintain temp.

I think I found the issue, though. The ceramic heat emitter I bought originally is meant for a 240V system. So, it turns out I'm just not a bright person.

Ha, good catch! You're certainly a smart guy cause If you weren't you wouldn't have been able to find HBT.

 

[cyanmonkey]

Touché!

 

[cyanmonkey]

That was it. My chamber got up to 80 degrees in 15 minutes and I could never get it above 75 before.