vinylrooster
Well-Known Member
Hey guys,
I finally have built a fermentation mini fridge hooked up to an STC-1000 with heating and cooling controls. Obviously, I will draw the cooling side from the fridge, but I have a question about the safety of the heating side. I have done a ton of research on this and honestly, the 'paintcan lightbulb', 'space heater inside fridge', 'reptile heat lamp', 'reptile heating pad', 'seedling heat pad', and 'reptile heating cable' options that I have found by searching these and other forums are just too unsafe and too much of a fire hazard for me. I simply couldn't live with myself if something went wrong and I ended up BBQing my dog while I'm out of the house.
So, I THINK I have come up with a potentially safer system. What I would like to do is to take a page from the 'swamp cooler' people. I plan put a small swamp cooler INSIDE my fridge and use a submersible aquarium heater as my heat source (see image). Essentially, I am making a double boiler for my fermentation chamber inside of my fridge. I think this should be more safe, because in the event that the aquarium heater goes haywire, the worst thing that can happen is that my water gets overheated and my beer is ruined......this seems to me to be much better than burning my house down (in the event that one of the other heat sources above malfunctions).
I would love to hear other peoples input on the safety and efficacy of this proposed build.
Cheers!
NOTE: The image was borrowed from http://chibebrau.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-eve-and-boxing-day-brew-day.html
I finally have built a fermentation mini fridge hooked up to an STC-1000 with heating and cooling controls. Obviously, I will draw the cooling side from the fridge, but I have a question about the safety of the heating side. I have done a ton of research on this and honestly, the 'paintcan lightbulb', 'space heater inside fridge', 'reptile heat lamp', 'reptile heating pad', 'seedling heat pad', and 'reptile heating cable' options that I have found by searching these and other forums are just too unsafe and too much of a fire hazard for me. I simply couldn't live with myself if something went wrong and I ended up BBQing my dog while I'm out of the house.
So, I THINK I have come up with a potentially safer system. What I would like to do is to take a page from the 'swamp cooler' people. I plan put a small swamp cooler INSIDE my fridge and use a submersible aquarium heater as my heat source (see image). Essentially, I am making a double boiler for my fermentation chamber inside of my fridge. I think this should be more safe, because in the event that the aquarium heater goes haywire, the worst thing that can happen is that my water gets overheated and my beer is ruined......this seems to me to be much better than burning my house down (in the event that one of the other heat sources above malfunctions).
I would love to hear other peoples input on the safety and efficacy of this proposed build.
Cheers!
NOTE: The image was borrowed from http://chibebrau.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-eve-and-boxing-day-brew-day.html