Iceprobe powered fermentation chamber

[WPStrassburg]

Here's the start of my water cooled/heated ferm chamber.

I've been using a Rubbermaid tote filled with water and an aquarium heater to do my fermenting up to this point, but the summer has been too warm for the basement to stay cool. I've got 2 Iceprobe chillers kicking around from my reeftank, so I'm going to add them to my new chamber to add cooling ability.

The new tub that is going inside is a 27 gallon tote, so I'll still have room for 2 6.5 primary carboys, or one of my 17 gallon SS tanks.

Temp control is going to be handled by a Johnson A419 and I'll have to manually toggle between heating and cooling modes until I can pull my 2 stage ranco off the reeftank.

2" R-10 insulation is the start and I'll be filling and foaming in the rest, so I should end up with nearly R-20 on the sides, 15 on the bottom, and 30+ on the top.

I'm still deciding whether to add in circulation with a pump or if the natural convection is going to be sufficient.

I'm looking at this point to keep temps down from 70 in the basement to 60-65 for normal ale fermentation, but once it's done I want to see how low I can push it for lager or maybe just Kolsch fermenting.

 

[NoNothing]

I'd love to see if you can hit lager temps with that thing!

Im dying to build a ferm cabinet, but I need to have at least 2 temps, lagering and ales.

 

[nogoer]

This is interesting, did you ever finish this? Does it work as well as you hoped? You said you had a water bath prior, but was this new setup also meant as a water bath?

I ask because this is exactly the current situation im dealing with. I only have a single iceprobe in my water bath, but in my uninsulated plastic bin the one chiller isnt keeping up with active fermentation and im barely holding 70F in 75F ambient temps.

 

[WPStrassburg]

not yet finished. only got the tub installed, foamed and the outside sheathed.