Brewbuilt Heat Pad on Ss Brew Tech

[Thegundog]

Has anyone used a Brewbuilt Heat Pad on a Ss Brew Tech conical?

If so, did it work?

 

[bloombrews]

Better yet, go buy this 200 watt, Heat Rod, with 1/2 inch threads. Just screw it into a Tri Clamp x Female adapter, control it with Fermentrack (here on HBT), and you are set! Works better than any heat pad I have bought and/or made. Do not get any more wattage than 200, or your 5-12 gallons will heat up too fast.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CSS2CLGQ?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_0_0
I love the new Brewbuilt X3 Unitanks - look way better than my SS tanks for the money and "future-proof"

 

[bloombrews]

Has anyone used a Brewbuilt Heat Pad on a Ss Brew Tech conical?

If so, did it work?

Sorry, I forgot to tell you that just about any heating pad I ever tried works good. The cheapest are the ones you make yourself from "Reptile Heat Mats". You can buy them any length and width, cut it as needed, solder a cord to it, and it is cheap and effective. I think I bought mine on ebay for my Stout Kettle Tanks and also my SSbrewtech tanks. But now use the Heat Rod for quicker warmups and good also if your tanks are in a cold room

 

[homebrudoc]

Better yet, go buy this 200 watt, Heat Rod, with 1/2 inch threads. Just screw it into a Tri Clamp x Female adapter, control it with Fermentrack (here on HBT), and you are set! Works better than any heat pad I have bought and/or made. Do not get any more wattage than 200, or your 5-12 gallons will heat up too fast.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CSS2CLGQ?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_0_0
I love the new Brewbuilt X3 Unitanks - look way better than my SS tanks for the money and "future-proof"

Bloom, do those heat rods have to be fully submersed? How much needs to be for them to work properly?
homebrudoc

 

[Bramling Cross]

As an older homebrewer, I haven't lost that streak of degenerate cheapness that used to define homebrewing. Sure, I've happily sprung for some expensive gear along the way, but it's hard to beat a brew belt placed low on the fermenter coupled to a tempurature controller with the probe in a thermowell placed high in the fermentation column. Sure, it's not very sexy. But it is a proven solution. I've used this rig with success on my SS Brewbucket--and my old 6gal glass fermenters.

That said, I only ever use my brew belt during the dead of winter when my ground water is in the low 40s and I've badly overshot the chilling cylce on my ales and I need to get them up to temp quickly in my dedicated fermentation fridge. If you're relying on your heating rig to keep your fermenter up to temp during the winter in a garage or shed, perhaps what you propose is a better solution. If, however, all you need is a bit of spot heating, it's hard to beat the brew belt.

It's not very sexy and it's certainly not very gadgety, but it does get the job done.

 

[bloombrews]

Bloom, do those heat rods have to be fully submersed? How much needs to be for them to work properly?
homebrudoc

Definitely YES, all resistance type, heating elements must be submersed in a liquid (heat sink), or they will quickly burn out.
Heat Pads, (like Fermwrap) are more forgiving and very low wattage. They do not have to be in a super efficient heat-sink, just strap the heat tape onto the outside of a tank, even if the liquid inside the tank is below the tape.
So, if you just maintaining your beer temperature, and it is close to room ambient temperature, then the tape works great. One of my conicals has a Heat-Rod and the other Heat-Tape. The Rod cycles on for only less then 10 minutes at most, whereas the tape will stay on for close to an hour.
I never had any scorched wort on the rod, at 200 watts, so this is a good thing! I do occasionally unscrew the rod from the tri-clamp adapter and clean the 1 or 2 threads that are on the liquid side. I never had any contamination issues with this threaded rod, but just getting beer-stone off of your adapters is what I am doing here.

 

[bloombrews]

As an older homebrewer, I haven't lost that streak of degenerate cheapness that used to define homebrewing. Sure, I've happily sprung for some expensive gear along the way, but it's hard to beat a brew belt placed low on the fermenter coupled to a tempurature controller with the probe in a thermowell placed high in the fermentation column. Sure, it's not very sexy. But it is a proven solution. I've used this rig with success on my SS Brewbucket--and my old 6gal glass fermenters.

That said, I only ever use my brew belt during the dead of winter when my ground water is in the low 40s and I've badly overshot the chilling cylce on my ales and I need to get them up to temp quickly in my dedicated fermentation fridge. If you're relying on your heating rig to keep your fermenter up to temp during the winter in a garage or shed, perhaps what you propose is a better solution. If, however, all you need is a bit of spot heating, it's hard to beat the brew belt.

It's not very sexy and it's certainly not very gadgety, but it does get the job done.

I agree, that belt-wraps do work, but can be too slow to heat up larger volumes. For instance, if my wort coming out of the heat exchanger is too cool to pitch a yeast starter that is at room temperature, then the rod is the solution. The cost of the Rod is only $20.13 including tax in PA, and the tri-clamp adapter is only $12. I recently made wine from 6 gallon buckets of California juice. The juice was quite cold (54F) when I got it home, and wanted to pitch yeast as soon as possible, so a quick warm up was needed and the rod did its job great.
One Note - Buy the shallow female threaded tri-clamp adapter, so more of the rod is in the liquid tank, not in a hidden tunnel (hard to clean).
Also, I made a lot of "Ferm Wraps" from rolls of heat tape. Just heat the tape up with a heatgun where you want to solder your cord wires onto, then scrape the plastic off to expose the metal resistance strips. Cover the solder joint, with good sticky electrical tape. This is way cheaper then buying them already made. Assuming you have spare cords lying around..... I cut off cords on discarded appliances, just for "someday" needing them. I think there are YouTube vids on this, I do remember.....

​

 

[homebrudoc]

I've found many frugal solutions. I ferment "cool" in a dorm fridge. I make a fair number of saisons (high temp) where I use an immersion heater for an aquarium wired through the lid of a plastic bucket. I've recently acquired 2 brew buckets on the cheap and while I can put them in a fridge for lower fermentation temps, those heat rods look very attractive but I'd have to do major surgery to the brew buckets if they have to be fully immersed.

 

[bloombrews]

I've found many frugal solutions. I ferment "cool" in a dorm fridge. I make a fair number of saisons (high temp) where I use an immersion heater for an aquarium wired through the lid of a plastic bucket. I've recently acquired 2 brew buckets on the cheap and while I can put them in a fridge for lower fermentation temps, those heat rods look very attractive but I'd have to do major surgery to the brew buckets if they have to be fully immersed.

I bought many parts and fittings from this place, including the solder on type bulkhead x tri-clamp adapters (weld ferrule)
This link shows the "weldless" adapter. You only need the drill bit, also from them -
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/tc15wlf_xl.htm
I have seen plastic bulkhead adapters that use washers to seal the hole, but never used plastic fermenters.

Some Saisons do very well with high temps, and also the Kveik yeasts. I also did manage to maintain very warm 100F temperatures on a big pot, Kettle souring a Berliner Weisse, with only a heat pad.
But the Rod really does great on those big quick ramp up, higher temperatures.
I am not sure if the Heat Rod is totally imersable, as the wires may not insulate under water. The end where the wires go in, is epoxy sealed, so no problem there, just the wires possible problem. A possible solution would be to use water proof heat shrink tubing with the epoxy that oozes out once heated, for the wires.