I'm building a fermentation system out of a a chiller, 10 gallon cornies and internal coils. I'm trying to make a decision on insulation and it looks like most of the homebrew conicals are using 6mm of neoprene. I think I could easily make a few sleeves out of a sheet of it, but I wanted to ask those with conicals if they feel like it is enough insulation.
Neoprene Jackets
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Related question:
I have two conical fermenters with neoprene jackets that I occasionally run in tandem off an SsBrewTech glycol chiller. This time of year (summer) it's sometimes a challenge to crash one while lagering the other, so I'm looking for ways to improve my insulation that's better than blankets or old sleeping bags. The glycol lines also have neoprene sleeves which I wrapped (including the quick disconnects) with heavy duty aluminum foil. I'm thinking about wrapping foil around all the exposed fittings on the conicals that are probably acting like radiators, and wrapping the conicals with a layer of Reflectix on top of the neoprene jackets. Granted, every little bit helps. But would these mitigations give me the extra 3-5 degrees F cooling capacity I'm looking for to get my crash temps below the 30~31F that seems to be my lowest limit?
Running 65% : 35% glycol to distilled water ratio in a 4.5 gallon capacity chiller tank, 26F set point, 70F ambient room temperature, two 7 gallon fermenters.
It would probably help making your chiller run a bit less often but I doubt you'd be able to achieve lower temperatures. For that you'd need to increase the heat exchanger surface are and that would mean moving to a jacketed fermenter. If only those weren't so awfully expensive....
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That's kinda what I was thinking. Sadly, a jacketed fermenter is not in my future as SWMBO'd says I have to fully amortize what I've already got. According to her payment schedule I'll still be working off this "dead horse" well into my 90s!
augiedoggy
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1.5" blue discharge hose wrapped around the outside of the connicals a few times makes a very effective Jacketed fermenter... added a couple layers of bubble wrap insulation. the conical walls got frost on them when I tested empty.. heres where I got the idea, best part is no coils or fittings to clean.
