Ceramic heater in ferm chamber?

[HollisBT]

Hey all, I am having an issue with my ferm chamber actually being too cold with the winter weather at the moment... And I have a quick question about putting a heater in the freezer with my brew.

Has anyone else resorted to this before? Is this a reasonably safe idea? If I do put a heater in the freezer to bring the temps up, should I put it in the freezer with the heater on the lowest setting, and leave my temp controller on the freezer itself? Or would I be better off putting the heater on the temp controller and letting my Johnson unit (hehe) cycle the heater on/off?

Any input will be appreciated, as I have a HUGE imp stout that I want to make sure I get a complete fermentation on. Thanks!

 

[day_trippr]

The ideal solution would be to use a dual-stage temperature controller with the freezer plugged into the cold-side circuit and your heater plugged into the hot-side circuit. See "STC-1000" for an inexpensive start...

Cheers!

 

[HollisBT]

The ideal solution would be to use a dual-stage temperature controller with the freezer plugged into the cold-side circuit and your heater plugged into the hot-side circuit. See "STC-1000" for an inexpensive start...

Cheers!

100% agreed, and that is where I'd like to move to. But in the interim I am trying to make do with what I have lol.

SWMBO is already eye rolling me for the things I keep buying lol.


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[day_trippr]

If the "interim" ambient temperatures would not require the compressor to operate, then I'd run the heater on your Johnson...

Cheers! (yeah, I wrote that )

 

[antony]

I'm in the same boat...subscribed. I was thinking this or a ceramic reptile heater. My chamber is huge & I was leaning to hooking the controller up to the heater.

 

[HollisBT]

This thread is a Freudian gold mine... Lol. Thanks for the input, I'll hook up the heater to my johnson and monitor how things go.


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[BowAholic]

I recently converted my old 20.8cf freezer into a fermentation chamber. I made a control box with an STC-1000 controller. On the heat side I used a 7" ceramic heater and it works perfectly for the job... it was in the 20's several times this week and the unit is in an outdoor shed. One thing... if you have carboys or buckets with bubblers/airlocks, turn the heater away from them...direct it towards a freezer wall. The first night mine was used it melted a bubbler so that the stem was at a 90* angle and unable to function...I warmed it and straightened it out, but if it had been a primary rather than a secondary I might have had a mess...

 

[jtratcliff]

Heating pad or Lightbulb in a pant can can work too.

 

[Jim_Holmes]

i use this one in my ferm chamber http://www.walmart.com/ip/Patton-Electric-Utility-Heater-PUH680-WM1/17808701 and seems to work fine hooked into the stc

 

[MaxStout]

Fermwrap.

 

[bondra76]

I bought a pond liner ($30) from Lowes and an aquarium heater ($30) from Amazon and I do a water bath in my chest freezer. It holds very well. I was getting the wild temp swings but with the amount of water in the bath (about 2-3 gallons) and the water in the carboy, I really don't have a lot of swings anymore. I've found that it's very very rare that my heater kicks in also - the fermentation is always kicking up the temp of the whole operation.

 

[RogueMonkeyBrewing]

try one of these, i am going to get one for our True Refer. looks like it will provide just enough heat for our situation.
http://tinyurl.com/ojzps9v

 

[pmoneyismyfriend]

I had the same problem keeping my temp above 50 in my garage keezer last winter when I was trying to ferment a lager. I experimented with different watt light bulbs until I got the right temp. I think it was a 25 watt appliance bulb

 

[day_trippr]

I bought a pond liner ($30) from Lowes and an aquarium heater ($30) from Amazon and I do a water bath in my chest freezer. [...]

I totally missed this before, but it seems unique.
Could you post a couple of pictures?

Cheers!

 

[bondra76]

I totally missed this before, but it seems unique.
Could you post a couple of pictures?

Cheers!

Will try and take a couple tomorrow. It's a little bit of a ghetto set up but it's produced some amazing beers for me and I'm about 10 brews into it without any hiccups