Space heater I bought for Saison fermentation chamber didn't work out - any ideas?

So I came across a deal for a small chest freezer that was too good to pass up, so I scooped it up and set about turning it into a fermentation chamber for doing Saisons. I was hoping to get something setup to get the temp up to around 90 or so.

Wired up a new STC-1000 and hooked that up to the freezer for cooling and this model space heater from Amazon for heating. Put some water in my fermenter, put the probe in the thermowell, set it for 80, and the heater kicked on and things started warming up nicely. I came back 5 minutes later to check on it, and the heater had stopped running. The power light was still on, but the fan was no longer running. I checked the manual, and sure enough it has a safety that will shut it off if it gets too warm.

Just to be sure, I let it cool down and then put it outside the freezer, and it worked fine for an hour with no problems. Stuck it back in the freezer and after a few minutes it had shut off again. So now it looks like I have a very nice little space heater for the garage, but nothing to use as a heat source for my fermentation chamber. :smack:

Anyone have any suggestions on something else I could use? Would a heating pad or electric blanket work? I've seen people mention using paint can heaters (seem a bit scary) and hair dryers as well (seems like it'd use a lot of power).

 

Get a reptile infrared heat lamp. They don't put off visible light and they come in a good variety. 60-100 watts would work depending on how warm your area is. It might be too much if you live somewhere pretty warm .

 

I use reptile wrap around my carboys, in conjunction with a thermowell to get the STC probe right in the wort.

I can dig up the links for both if you are interested, let me know.

 

I built a paint can heater for my fermentation fridge - it works great. I have a link to instructions in my signature if you're interested. With a 60W bulb it does get pretty warm though, so I wouldn't want it in direct contact with the fermenter or anything plastic.

 

Paint can heater here. Used the smaller can and a 40w bulb, but my space is smaller than the fridge space. Bulb burned out about a month back, so I got a good number of brews (fermentation and bottle conditioning) out of it.

Have a pc fan hooked into that circuit to help spread the air around.

 

My wife does kombucha and has one of these.. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008OHZ1C8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 I wrapped it on my 30L Brewcraft bucket, it only went about half away around, used a little take to keep it on but kept my internal heat at 77-78 the whole time.

 

Yeah, in the end I ended up going with the 12" reptile heat tape from Reptile basics. I got 6' of it, which wraps completely around the inside of my small chest freezer, with the connector/plug installed, shipped for $29.98 shipped. It works perfectly. I was able to get 5 gallons in my Speidel 30L up to 90, 95, 100 with no problem, and there was no ping-ponging about with the Freezer. I did add a small fan that I had laying around to the same circuit on the STC-1000 to help circulate the air when the heat is on, and I think that helped as well.

Wow, umm, I think your wife may have gotten ripped off pretty bad. By my calculations that same thing would have for $16.18. Here's the 4" Heat tape, which is what that is made from.

 

Well, $29.98 could buy a $5 porcelain fixture and a lifetime supply of light bulbs.

The 750w/1500w heater thing was pretty funny, though. Folks that think the Lasko 200 watt ceramic heater is a good fit for a ferm fridge/freezer are clearly thinking small...

Cheers!

 

Lasko Personal Heater here - works great for me so far!

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...&ei=izvcVO3FIYnRoATgl4HwDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CHcQuSQ

 

And this means?

It easily keeps my 50 ft^3 fermentation chamber at least 25f above ambient.

 

You missed the "ferm fridge/freezer" thing, didn't you?

Cheers!

[edit] My temperature logger says the room temperature in the brewery is 43.1°F while the stout sitting on nibs in my 17cf ferm fridge is at 68°F, by virtue of a 40w appliance bulb and a small fan running at a roughly 20% duty cycle. What tiny percentage of a 200w heater does that calculate out to?

 

I don't think got ripped off. I think she found hers for $15-$20. I was just posting what it looks like.

 

Yeah, one of the main reasons I didn't want to go with any sort of light bulb (paint can heater, infrared bulb, ceramic bulb, etc.) was just that those things all burn out at some point. I didn't want that happening when my Saison was fermenting at 100 degrees while it was below freezing in the garage, and I'm away for the weekend. Figured better safe than sorry; with the heat tape it'd basically need a mechanical failure to breakdown, otherwise it'll pretty much last indefinitely.

And yeah, haha, I think it was on Reddit I saw someone recommend that heater, and it was only a few dollars more than the Lasko 200w that folks here recommend, so I went with it thinking "bigger must be better right? It'll just need to run less." Well, I was wrong! At least I've got a nice small space heater for the garage now.

Oh, good! I kicked myself after buying the FermWrap product from Midwest for my first fermentation chamber, only to later discover the heat tape, which is the exact same thing, for so much cheaper!

 

i use this one in mine http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003XDTWN2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

The only problem i had with this one was it will turn off after being on too long. Just have to disconnect it for like 5 min and reconnect it. was able to keep my saison @ mid 90s. was using the dupont strain.

 

Do you really want a higher duty cycle?

Here is my ferm chamber currently - It's probably running less than 10% duty cycle.

 

I'm not sure what day_trippr is getting at either. I'm using the 200w space heater and it works great for me, it's running about 2 minutes every 45 minutes or so right now, keeping my fermenter +- 0.15F of setpoint.

For the record I started out with a 600w space heater that I already had lying around, that thing was just too hot for this application and I had huge temp swings.

Also, OP, I imagine that it could be a safety issue with your 750w heater. If there were some kind of failure in either your relay or the thermostat in the heater and that thing got stuck always on that could be bad news.

(edit) I'm assuming day_trippr means to say that those that use space heaters for their ferm chambers are looking for the smallest wattage heater they can find.

 

What I was trying to say is a 200w heater might be a good fit for a 70 cubic foot fermentation chamber but it's most likely way overkill for a fridge or freezer.

Pretty simple, actually...

Cheers!

 

Nobody wants a higher duty cycle

And I'm not surprised that heater only runs 10% of the time.
Imagine what it'd do in a 17cf fridge...

Cheers!

 

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