Sticky Foil Stuff to go into fermentation chamber?

[Homercidal]

Hey, I am building a fermentation chamber from an old control cabinet, and I want to insulate with some foam stuff. What's the best type to use, and does anyone know where to get some of that foil stuff that I see in pictures all the time? You know the stuff that looks like it's sticky backed and you just stick it all over the inside of the chamber?

 

[Budzu]

You can get the tape at about any hardware store, look for "foil tape" or "aluminum foil tape". It's good for sealing cracks.

As for insulation you have some choices, but alot of folks end up going with 2" thick foam board insulation. It does well for beer temps. You could probably do ok with going smaller too, depending how cold it needs to be in the chamber.

 

[HBHoss]

Most lumber yards or building supply centers carry rigid foam insulation that is foil backed. It comes in all sorts of thicknesses which equate to their "R" value.

 

[Homercidal]

I was thinking of what seems to be "foil backed bubble wrap", not the little stuff, but large sheets of it. But now I think I might use foil backed rigid foam and the foil tape to seal the seams. The other stuff looked pretty pricey for as much as I would need.

I plan on just making it cold enough to ferment in, like 60-75F, and whatever temps lagers require, which I don't know because I never had an interest in lagering before.

 

[wyzazz]

You're talking about Reflectix.

 

[diatonic]

Reflectix is good for ad-hoc insulation of stuff that's not flat. I wouldn't use it to insulate a fermentation chamber, because there is rigid foam insulation that has a much higher R value, and can be easily cut to size.

 

[Homercidal]

Reflectix is good for ad-hoc insulation of stuff that's not flat. I wouldn't use it to insulate a fermentation chamber, because there is rigid foam insulation that has a much higher R value, and can be easily cut to size.

My plan was to use rigid foam of some type and cover it all with this, to make it look uniform. I might actually get some fiberboard or something waterproof and glue up over the rigid foam. I don't know. I want it to look sort of nice, but I don't want to spend a ton of time or money.