Temperature control ideas needed

[jamesnsw]

My temp control so far has been basically moving the carboy to colder and warmer places in the house, closer and farther away from the heating vent, and sticking it in a tub of cold water/ice with a fan blowing on it.

This gives me some, but not near enough, control. There are too many variables. If it's cold outside, the heater is warmer, so I need to move the carboys further away. I'll make a slight adjustment before I go to bed, and wake up to it way out of the temperature range. There are too many variables to get this down.

And this morning, we woke up without heat. There goes the d-rest on the maibock. That has pushed me over the edge. I know I need better temperature control.

Here is the criteria-

• Cheap- sub $40 if possible
• Very small footprint - I don't have a lot of space
• Easy to move - we're getting out of this place as soon as our lease is up
• Replaceable - we may move into a space where I can't fit this, and so I'll need to be okay with getting rid of it.
• Very low energy consumption
• Ability to warm up and cool down, although I'd take just warming up for now.

Does it exist? What suggestions do you have?

 

[MrH]

You're going to be hard-pressed to find a heating and cooling solution for $40, but since you need heat now, here's a place to start. I've never used belts or wraps, but I've been considering something like this to keep different beers at different temps for dispensing (keep the fridge @ 39F but use an insulated electric warmer for kegs that are better served at 50F)...

MrH

 

[jamesnsw]

Hmm- the belt looks like it's for Better Bottles only (manufacturer doesn't reccommend using them on glass). Is that true?

And with the wraps- do they work like the Fermometers, where you stick them on to 1 carboy, and it sticks there? I'd like to be able to use it on several different ones.

 

[BargainFittings]

Your best bet will be a square cooler and use ice bottles for cold and either an aquarium heater or warm water bottles to supplement the fermentation heat.

Icecube style square ice chest are around $25-$30 at Walmart last time I looked.

Even putting it in there and adding a bit of water will help smooth out the temperature swings.

 

[Mista_Sparkle]

I use a broken fridge with a lightbulb and fan on a temp controller (aka thermostat+relay) got it all for under $20 Its sitting in the coldest part of my apartment (35º) and averages the power consumption of a 20 watt light bulb

you could go for a garbage can/fishtank heater type thing too, my tank heater goes from 64-88 so something like should be cheap and easy too

 

[jamesnsw]

Ok- so here are the basic components-

• An insulated space- cooler, box, etc
• Heating element- lightbulb, etc.
• cooling method- ice?
• thermostat

The biggest thing on the list is probably the thermostat. I've read you can put a heater or cooler on a timer, and get pretty good control that way, but I think I'd be just as frustrated as I currently am. I probably could find a cooler for cheap or free, and could wire up a lightbulb easily as well.

I'm leaning towards a cooler for versatility- I could use it for warming or cooling, and it's waterproof, so adding some water as a stabilizing buffer is possible.

What's a good place to even start looking for temperature controllers?

 

[Mista_Sparkle]

how electrically inclined are you? theres a nice DIY temp controller thread on here somewhere from an old thermostat

 

[BargainFittings]

Ok- so here are the basic components-

• An insulated space- cooler, box, etc
• Heating element- lightbulb, etc.
• cooling method- ice?
• thermostat

The biggest thing on the list is probably the thermostat. I've read you can put a heater or cooler on a timer, and get pretty good control that way, but I think I'd be just as frustrated as I currently am. I probably could find a cooler for cheap or free, and could wire up a lightbulb easily as well.

I'm leaning towards a cooler for versatility- I could use it for warming or cooling, and it's waterproof, so adding some water as a stabilizing buffer is possible.

What's a good place to even start looking for temperature controllers?

Ebay. Search for "Digital temperature controller"

Things to watch for - AC 110/120 power supplied. Temperature range etc.

Ranco digitals run $60 with shipping.

This one looks like it would work and is $30.00 shipped from china
Aquarium controller - Reads in Celsius.

 

[kornbread]

Man I know what you're going through. Here in NC it's too damn hot in the summer and too damn cold in the winter. (especially this winter... will it ever end???)

I have found that in the winter it's a little easier. I use an aquarium submersible heater in a cooler with water. I think I got it at wal-mart for about $20. It's pretty stable but, you have to play around with it at first to find the temp you want.

In summer, I've built a modified version of the Son of Fermentation chiller. I use the same cooler for both. I just built an extended top to place over the bucket(s). I place two liter bottles of ice in one end and a thermostat (Cheapest one I could find at Lowe's) turns a small computer fan on and off to pull air across the Ice bottles.

I works great. You just have to be careful and not use too much ice and get it too cold. Plus, you have to keep changing out the bottles, so it's a little more trouble than the winter/aquarium heater method.

I've decided that this summer I'm going to be watching Craigslist for a small chest freezer. I'm planning to build something a little more hassle free that I can "set it and forget it".

Good luck

 

[masonsjax]

The DIY house themostat + relay will not let you get down to lager temps. Something to keep in mind if that's something you want, or will want. I have a couple of analog controllers that work very well. One was from chicompany.net for only $36.
For very cheap you can use the tub of water plus ice bottles if needed fo cooling and wrap a blanket or if needed use a shop lamp pointed at the carboy with a black tshirt on it for heating.

 

[Bjornbrewer]

This one looks like it would work and is $30.00 shipped from china
Aquarium controller - Reads in Celsius.

I have that one and it works well on a keggerator. Should fit the bill for a fermentation chamber.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/temp-controller-161493/

 

[android]

The DIY house themostat + relay will not let you get down to lager temps. Something to keep in mind if that's something you want, or will want. I have a couple of analog controllers that work very well. One was from chicompany.net for only $36.
For very cheap you can use the tub of water plus ice bottles if needed fo cooling and wrap a blanket or if needed use a shop lamp pointed at the carboy with a black tshirt on it for heating.

the one i built goes down to 45, but there are other ones that will get into the mid-low 30s.

info on those thermostats can be found here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-temp-controller-build-133364/

 

[ChillyP]

The DIY house themostat + relay will not let you get down to lager temps. Something to keep in mind if that's something you want, or will want. I have a couple of analog controllers that work very well. One was from chicompany.net for only $36.
For very cheap you can use the tub of water plus ice bottles if needed fo cooling and wrap a blanket or if needed use a shop lamp pointed at the carboy with a black tshirt on it for heating.

How much colder do I need to go??? I have no problem lagering with it. Here's my SoF with a digital controller thermostat with an separate temp reader.

 

[Mista_Sparkle]

On my thermostat, it will only go down to 56 in cool, but it will go down to 41 in heat mode. Since its connected to a SPDT relay, if you wanted to use it for compressor control, you could invert it and set it in heat mode so it would be closed (and running) when its above the threshold and open (and off below it) It seems like that should work well for lagering

 

[masonsjax]

That's cool. It looks like there are some that get down to the 30s even. When I was looking, I couldn't find one that would go below 55, some only went down to the low 60s, most didn't publish the exact range. The 55+ range might do for fermenting lagers, but for long term lagering, you probably want to go lower. I let my impatience take over and just bought one.

 

[Bjornbrewer]

The ebay controller will do everything you want with no modification (swapping contacts), added parts (relays, power supplies, etc.), or limitations on temperature.

Not sure why you would even consider something else.

 

[Mista_Sparkle]

why would you even consider brewing your own beer when you could just buy it at the store?

 

[Bjornbrewer]

If you're limited in the design of a temperature controller and you have to spend twice as much to get there...that doesn't make much sense. If the best beer I could make at home was a crappy verison of BL and it costed me twice as much, than I would just buy better stuff at the store.

 

[jamesnsw]

So with the temp control from China, I would still need to buy & wire an outlet, and possibly a GCFI... How much would you guess I would spend on top of the $30 to, say, hook it up to a lightbulb to warm the fermenter up?

I'm beginning to see the benefits of having a thermostat. (Off topic- currently our thermostat in the apartment is broken... the landlord told the kids downstairs to control the temp just by touching and untouching the bare wires. Of course, the kids are never home, so it's either freezing or really really hot. So yes, I am seeing this as a hint to actually get a thermostat.)

 

[Mista_Sparkle]

So with the temp control from China, I would still need to buy & wire an outlet, and possibly a GCFI... How much would you guess I would spend on top of the $30 to, say, hook it up to a light bulb to warm the fermenter up?

That depends on how pretty you want it to be. Depending on what your fermentation chamber is made of, a GCFI might not do anything, The reason they work well and are useful in bathrooms is that there is a path to ground via the water, if your system is isolated (such as in a plastic cooler) a GCFI will only trip if its shorted to ground which your heater doesn't have. If you plan on working with your ferm chamber standing in a puddle, it might work.

What you could do outlet wise which would probably make life easier would be to bet one of those extension cords with the built in GCFI and chop it in half, then wire your controller in the middle. You do need (should use) some sort of project box to hold it. If you want to go a little fancier, you could mount a GCFI in a bell box and use some other cable to make the hop from the controller.

You could just put all your electrical stuff on top where it cant get wet and use a fan to circulate the air or something...

Still... The GCFI cord is a good way to go and would give you some peace of mind and could provide you with your outlet(s) You can find them for around $30. Not sure how much a project box would run you, I usually stick this sort of thing in old network hardware or something. In my fridge I use a cheapie clamp light wrapped in foil so that probably cost all of $3

 

[Mista_Sparkle]

Now that i think about it, I picked up a hair dryer at a garage sale for $1 that has a built in GCFI, a good length cord, and a heating element with a fan... I should have thought of this before

 

[jamesnsw]

Hmmm... So for a heating element, get a cheap Hair Dryer, and hook that up to the temperature controller... That wouldn't be terrible at all.