heat source for fermentation fridge?

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dfess1

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So I built a fermentation/carb fridge/freezer using a love controller and a chest freezer. Works awesome, except in the winter. It resides in my garage, which is insulated, but not heated. I need to get this thing up to 50* to allow my schwarzbier to ferment. Problem is, i can't get it over 40 degrees at the moment.

So I'm looking for some kind of heat source. My fermenters are glass carboys. If I got the red light bulb/reptile route, will the artificial light make a negative impact on the beer? The bulbs are rated as non UVA.

Secondly, is there an issue with running an element like this, in the freezer, which will then make the freezer cycle. Trying not to make an instant fire hazard here. Anyone have any thoughts on how to heat this thing up?
 
I've just got an old lamp with a ceramic reptile heater bulb - works great for me. But, as has been pointed out to me since, a 100W incandescent bulb wrapped up in aluminum foil (to block the light and still radiate heat) probably would've done as good a job for cheaper.
 
I picked up one of the paint cans at HD. I was planning on building a heater using my existing 60W reptile heater like the one mentioned above. I've always been uneasy about having the bulb exposed. It gets pretty hot to the touch and there is a lot of plastic in my keezer and my fermentation chamber.

The paint can has a lining to keep the metal from corroding. Will that be a problem? Will that end up melting or smoking if it gets too much heat? Any experience with this?
 
I would use a higher watt bulb then you plan on using in your chamber to cook the can. Set it up with lets say a 100 watt bulb and let it run outside for a day or two. By then anything that is going to cook off will have done so. Then put in a 60W or whatever and put it in your chamber.

You should be good to go.

Dan
 
For fermentation the cooling part for a Love controller is the easy part, heating is the hard part. My recommendation is go to the cheap EBAY aquarium temp build thread, order and build yourself this device. It specifically allows you to plug your chest freezer in one plug for cooling, then in the winter unplug your freezer and plug in your heating device (in the other plug) for heating. I just finished fermenting an ale in my freezer in 30 degree outside temps. I went to Reptilebasics.com and bought 2- flexwatt heat tapes (I ferment 2 carboys at a time), with plug attachments. Also, I had a stainless thermowell which I put into one carboy (allows the temp controller thermocouple to fit inside to sense temp). Just set the temperature to what you want, plug the heaters into the heater side on the device you made and mission accomplished.
 
I am going to use the little ceramic heater from Amazon when I build my fermentation cabinet. It has a fan in it so it will move air around the fermenter.
Pretty hassle free.
 
Well, I needed more PB2, so I ordered the ceramic heater from amazon. I liked the idea of the fan pushing the air as well. If it doesn't work, I'll try the heat light idea. Thanks for the responses guys!
 
My ferm chamber will/is going to have fan's in it already so air movement wont be a problem.

Dan
 
I had purchased all the items to make the paint can heater but forgot a power cord for the light. I was searching the house to poach something off of an old lamp or whatever and found my old Christmas lights. Since I changed to LED lights I have a bunch of the old ones laying around. I stuck two strands of multi-color lights into the can and plugged it in to my temp controller. It sits in the bottom of my freezer and easily warms it up in to the 70's while in my garage in Minnesota.
 
I just picked up a $12 hair dryer from walgreens and its hanging via a zip tie in the fridge. Fridge is holding 53 deg F with my oktoberfest in it right now very well
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I am in the same situation as the OP. Right now I use a ceramic reptile bulb, a small computer fan and a Ranco controller with great success in my small chest freezer/fermentation chamber. I use it mostly for fermenting lagers this time of year since my basement is around 58-60, so I can do most ales there with just a temp-controlled heat wrap. The ebay temp controller build is going to replace the Ranco on the freezer shortly. I've found air circulation in the chamber is key whether you're heating or cooling, and it's really easy to wire a computer fan with a 12V plug/adapter.
 
my freezer is used for lagering, but it's main use is for cold conditioning and carbing up cornies. I was just lucky enough to get a big sucker off of craigslist for next to nothing. Hell, the love controller cost more than the freezer did.
 
SlimeyBooger said:
I'm using a $15 hair dryer as the heat source in my chamber. It has heat, a fan, and a GFCI just in case.
Click to expand...

One thing to note is that hair dryers (especially the cheap ones) aren't designed for continuous use. I started down this path and quickly all of the women in my life started telling me stories about how they've melted hair dryers by running them too long.

If it's just on for a couple of minutes, then you should be fine. However, running it longer than that could cause problems.

I ended up going with a cheap ceramic heater instead.
 
I just wanted to chime in and say that you can easily get dual-stage temp controllers for heating and cooling of a single chamber. Some of the posts sounded like people might not be aware of these.. The Love dual-stage model (series TSS2) is just $69 versus the regular $50 TS2:
https://www.dwyer-inst.com/Product/Temperature/TemperatureSwitches/DigitalPanelMount/SeriesTSS2

Of course you still need to decide on the heat source, but this allows you to have the whole chamber rigged for fool-proof temp control all year.
 
kenan said:
I just wanted to chime in and say that you can easily get dual-stage temp controllers for heating and cooling of a single chamber. Some of the posts sounded like people might not be aware of these.. The Love dual-stage model (series TSS2) is just $69 versus the regular $50 TS2:
https://www.dwyer-inst.com/Product/Temperature/TemperatureSwitches/DigitalPanelMount/SeriesTSS2

Of course you still need to decide on the heat source, but this allows you to have the whole chamber rigged for fool-proof temp control all year.
Click to expand...

You can get a dual stage controller for a lot less than that.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005RZUJAE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

And I use this one for $23.99 plus shipping. Was easy to set up and works great with my heater and freezer. [urlhttp://www.ebay.com/itm/All-purpose-Temperature-Controller-STC-1000-sensor-/220812377568?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3369717de0#ht_3985wt_952[/url]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
bblack7489 said:
One thing to note is that hair dryers (especially the cheap ones) aren't designed for continuous use. I started down this path and quickly all of the women in my life started telling me stories about how they've melted hair dryers by running them too long.

If it's just on for a couple of minutes, then you should be fine. However, running it longer than that could cause problems.

I ended up going with a cheap ceramic heater instead.
Click to expand...

That's a good point. I have heard of brewing tragedies when people forget to adjust the temp controller or just don't plug the freezer in to the controller or whatever and end up with an ice cube fermenter. It would be bad news if that happened with a hair dryer and it ended up melting and starting on fire some how. Have to account for possible failure of each device.
 
kenan said:
I just wanted to chime in and say that you can easily get dual-stage temp controllers for heating and cooling of a single chamber. Some of the posts sounded like people might not be aware of these.. The Love dual-stage model (series TSS2) is just $69 versus the regular $50 TS2:

Of course you still need to decide on the heat source, but this allows you to have the whole chamber rigged for fool-proof temp control all year.
Click to expand...

You can get a dual stage temp controller on ebay for $23.99 with free shipping. I have one and just ordered a second to make a temp controller for a friend. Just search STC-1000. It works great.
 
Flex-Watt Heat Tape

Benefits over all others because there's less fire hazard (almost none), there's less electricity consumption, it doesn't take any valuable space in your chamber to heat it evenly from the bottom or sides, it's darn cheap, and finally, it keeps my ferm chamber at 70* with ambient temps in the 15* range in my garage. I use 5 feet of 11 inch flexwatt. It's hooked to my love controller and after I set it up I've never had to think about it again. Just taped it to the walls of my chamber.
 
I have, what may be a really stupid question. I just built the paint can lamp. Very easy. I have a Ranco controller. I have no problem keeping a carboy set at 50 or so degrees. Now I have plugged in my lamp to the Ranco and turned the refrigerater temp all the way up. I would like to get to 64-68 degrees. Is that what you guys do or should I turn my 'fridge off? It seems that if I turn it off it would get funky in there but I don't know. Will the temp get up to that range if the refrigerater is on but set high? Thanks.
 
rustym said:
I have, what may be a really stupid question. I just built the paint can lamp. Very easy. I have a Ranco controller. I have no problem keeping a carboy set at 50 or so degrees. Now I have plugged in my lamp to the Ranco and turned the refrigerater temp all the way up. I would like to get to 64-68 degrees. Is that what you guys do or should I turn my 'fridge off? It seems that if I turn it off it would get funky in there but I don't know. Will the temp get up to that range if the refrigerater is on but set high? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Depends on whether your ranco controller is single stage or dual stage. If it's dual stage plug both the heater and fridge into the controller, program your set points, and forget about it. If it's a single stage, you'll have to switch between heating and cooling modes as needed. When ambient temps are lower than desired ferm temp, you'll set it to heat mode, plug the heater into the controller, and leave the fridge unplugged. When ambient temps are higher, you'll set it to cool mode, plug the fridge into the controller, and leave the heater unplugged.

If you have the heater turned on while the fridge is plugged into the wall, the fridge and heater will be working against each other, and you'll likely kill the compressor in your fridge pretty quickly.
 
Thanks, Juan. That's kind of what I thought. It's only a single stage so I'll have to juggle between heating and cooling.

I do like the idea of some kind of fan to keep the air moving around though.
 

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