Questions using a water bath and an aquarium heater

[sillyblue]

Our house is poorly insulated and has wide temp swings, low 60's to low 70's in the winter.

I was reading about using an aquarium heater in a water bath to keep the fermenter at a constant temp. I was going to put everything in the garage where the temp could go down to the mid 40's at night. However I have some questions about this.

When should I put the fermenter in the container, right away or once fermentation has slowed?

Will the aquarium heater be able to keep the temp at 68 or so?

Should I wrap some sort of insulator around the Rubbermaid container? Perhaps a sleeping bag?

Or should I take my chances and stick the fermenter in a closet in the house with the wide temp swing?

Thanks!!

 

[Booshman]

I use to work for a petstore years ago, and yes there are heaters that can keep up temperatures in climates like that. What you should look into is a Tropical Fish tank heater preferably with a digital or at least a set temp swith...some just come with high med and low settings and it would be a pain to try and set it exactly where you want it with one of those. I would look into one made for a 100gal aquarium regardless of the amount of water that you have in the bath...simply because then you know it wont fail on you if the temps do drop below 40 deg.

 

[Andromedoh]

I use a 100w aquarium heater in the fermenter bucket with the beer and then wrap the bucket with a blanket.

 

[Booshman]

This is probably at the least the best bet.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DCCSV4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[beergolf]

I use a big cooler for the water and use this heater. So, yes I would recommend some kind of way to insulate your container. It will help with temp swings. If you are going to have those big swings i would also figure out a way to make an insulted lid also.

http://www.aqueonproducts.com/download/?asset=/assets/015/27972.jpg&name=06107.jpg

It has a big temp range and holds temp to +/- 1/2 degree. Works great. I even brew saisons in the winter when my basement is about 56-58 degrees and can get it up to close to 90 if I want.

 

[Booshman]

^^^THAT is probably a even better idea.

 

[beergolf]

I was thinking something like this...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0017N8W90/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 t

to monitor temps . That way you would not have take off the top to monitor temps. It is what I use in mine.

in something like this

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/swamp-cooler-199965/index3.html

My basement does not get that cold so I did not insulate the top on mine.