Fermentation chiller idea

[Elkon]

I was wondering what the feasibility would be for a liquid fermentation chamber. I have a stripped down water fountain that has been sitting for a few years. Would it be possible to sit my fermentation bucket in a tank and pump cold water around it?

Basically disable the temp sensor on the fountain so it is always in the run position and use a temp controller to feed power to it when the water temp increases. I would also have a submersible pump in the tank to cycle the water from the tank into the fountain to be cooled (this would also be controlled via the temp controller).

In the case of warming I would just use a submersible heater to keep a steady temp. Any input is appreciated.

Elk.

 

[MalFet]

Sure. What you're suggesting is similar in concept to this, which many report has been very effective. Post some pictures when you're done!

 

[NinjaMedic]

I was wondering what the feasibility would be for a liquid fermentation chamber. I have a stripped down water fountain that has been sitting for a few years. Would it be possible to sit my fermentation bucket in a tank and pump cold water around it?

Basically disable the temp sensor on the fountain so it is always in the run position and use a temp controller to feed power to it when the water temp increases. I would also have a submersible pump in the tank to cycle the water from the tank into the fountain to be cooled (this would also be controlled via the temp controller).

In the case of warming I would just use a submersible heater to keep a steady temp. Any input is appreciated.

Elk.

Elk this is what my buddy and I have developed on our own, I'm not really surprised to see it wasn't a new idea though. We don't have room right now for an extra fridge or cooler and we have two 6.5 gallon carboys to keep at temperature. What we've used is a large tough box to contain the carboys and water and then we run water through a pump controlled by a plug in temperature controller into tubing that's in a seperate cooler. Simialar to a counterflow wort chiller. We went with this instead of actually pumping water in and out because it saves us from having to drill any holes in the tough box, and as it's inside the house it also lowers the worry spilled water.

The problem we've run into is that the vinyl tubing we are pumping the water through isn't exchanging the heat well enough so the coldest we can get seems to be 67 degrees. I think this week we are going to get copper tubing and run it through a cooler to effectively make a large counterflow chiller that will take the place of the vinyl tubing. I'll let you know how that goes but I can't see why it wouldn't work. Does anyone have better ideas? We're pretty much doing this stuff on the fly by trial and error.

As for heating elements I haven't looked real hard but from looking at aquarium heaters they don't seem to go low enough, did you find any that did?

 

[timbudtwo]

As for heating elements I haven't looked real hard but from looking at aquarium heaters they don't seem to go low enough, did you find any that did?

You are going to have to temperature control the heater too. Aquarium heaters, for the most part, are mechanical devices. They work like old rotary thermostats that have a bimetal strip in them that flexes at a certain temperature. Depending on the flex of the strip at a certain temperature, it will create contact that allows electricity to flow.

I have been in aquarium keeping for a long time. If you want to heat something up you could just get a low wattage heater (50w) which is about good to warm up 10 gallons of water to 78 degrees. But if your water is already chilled its going to take an eternity to heat that up.

 

[Ravenshead]

NinjaMedic,
I was planning on doing something similar. You might think about using an automotive heater coil as your heat exchanger. I think you can get a new one for around $20. That should help you heat exchange issues.

 

[NinjaMedic]

NinjaMedic,
I was planning on doing something similar. You might think about using an automotive heater coil as your heat exchanger. I think you can get a new one for around $20. That should help you heat exchange issues.

Where did you find one that cheap?

 

[Ravenshead]

I just googled "auto heater core" and one came up. Autozone used to have some for about that much as well but it's to find them via the web site. I'd just go down to the store and ask for the cheapest one the guy behind the counter can find