Fridges And Aquarium Heaters

[Alby]

Having just decided on buying a 2nd hand fridge and a fridgemate for cooling my fermentation down, a new suggestion has been offered which involves running a standard fridge on its warmest setting (ie no fridgemate, thus allowing use of the freezer compartment of a fridge freezer combo ) and immersing an aquarium heater in the fermenter. A couple of questions about this set-up

- how and where do you put the heater through the lid of the fermenter?/ drill a cut-out hole and backfill with blu-tac?

- do aquarium heaters run cool enough for ideal fermentation (aiming for 17-19C)

- does this method create warm pockets within the wort...ie a kind of thermocline below the heater unit? do you need to stir the wort regularly to prevent this ?

look forward to your advice..info on here so far has been brilliant!!!

 

[Bribie G]

Sounds a bit like riding a bike with the brakes on, if you follow me, wouldn't it chew up huge amounts of electricity?

 

[raven19]

Sounds a bit like riding a bike with the brakes on, if you follow me, wouldn't it chew up huge amounts of electricity?

+1.

Stick with the Fridgemate, otherwise you are asking the fridge to run just about 100% of the time to counter the effects of the heater.

And I wouldn't be putting an aquarium heater in my good wort, but thats just me - sanitiation issues, etc, and yep hotter around the element and cooler elsewhere in the fermentor...

 

[The Big Burper]

Hello dere,

I've used one for yonks, well, since the bears were bad. :blink:

There is an Aussie company that makes immersion heaters especially
for home brew, it is fully submersible and comes with a rubber bung which
plugs up the 'ole that you drill in the the lid. The lead runs through the rubber bung and is competely sealed.

I had no trouble with hot spots, all you gotta do is remember to turn it off before you
take it out of the wort when finished.

Easy as, and fool proof, (I used them).

Of course, don't leave in the fridge.
I thought the latest fridgemates had a heating function, a bulb in a box would be
a cheaper option.
cheers
Dave

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

To heat I just use your LHB store brew belt's. It will heat the fermenter (50L) up to 18c in just a few hours.I use it for diactyle rests.You may be able to wire direct to a twin hot/cold temp controller.Easy.
GB

 

[j1gsaw]

eeeek! even the thought of using an aquarium heater in the wort makes me gag... I had enough fish croak over the years from them f*uckin up.
nasty nasty

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Having just decided on buying a 2nd hand fridge and a fridgemate for cooling my fermentation down, a new suggestion has been offered which involves running a standard fridge on its warmest setting (ie no fridgemate, thus allowing use of the freezer compartment of a fridge freezer combo ) and immersing an aquarium heater in the fermenter. A couple of questions about this set-up

- how and where do you put the heater through the lid of the fermenter?/ drill a cut-out hole and backfill with blu-tac?

- do aquarium heaters run cool enough for ideal fermentation (aiming for 17-19C)

- does this method create warm pockets within the wort...ie a kind of thermocline below the heater unit? do you need to stir the wort regularly to prevent this ?

look forward to your advice..info on here so far has been brilliant!!!

I do exactly this and have done for years - you will use a bit more electricity than just running the fridge, but not nearly as much as people will try to tell you. The key - and it really really is key - is to have your fermenter insulated to the right degree. Too little insulation and the heat exchange is high - it works' but the fridge runs a lot more than it needs to. Too much insulation and the fridge can't take out enough heat when the fermentation is running at its peak and your beer will get too hot.

Luckily - the perfect amount of insulation seems to be one layer of good old camping mat around the middle of the fermenter. None on the bottom & none on the top.

I dont "seal' my fermenters - so the heater just goes in over the edge and the lidscrewed down loosely with the cord in a gap - or mostly I use gladwrap and a big rubber band.

Do they control in the right temperature range?? Sort of. Mine control from 18-30C and thats fine for most ales in my book. I know that its possible to buy heaters that control down to 12ish or even less - but they were expensive, more expensive than my solution which is to run them via a fridgemate when I want lower temperatures. Heater on flat out - temperature controlled by the fridgemate in Heating Mode.

I personally use this solution rather than controlling the whole fridge - because it evens out highs and lows in Melbourne's variable whether, it allows me to use the freezer section of the fridge as a freezer still, I can do a lager and an ale in the same fridge at the same time and I use the fridge as an extra keggerator - with an ale fermenting in there and a lager pouring out.

As you can see in the picture ... an ale brewing on the bottom, a lager brewing on the top (controlled) and a bunch of case swap beers all chilling. Hops etc frozen in the top section (note - I didn't have insulation on the fermenters in this instance, and the fridge worked like a bastard, never since)



Not the solution for everybody - but it works and works well, with certain advantages.

Thirsty

 

[justsomeguy]

+1 for aquarium heater in the wort.

My old Coopers fermenters have holes drilled in the top for the heater to poke through. One of the heaters I bought had a bung already attached to the heater cord, the others I added a bung to.

No problems so far. I usually have the heaters turned up to their hottest setting on a digital controller that ensures that the temp doesn't go crazy. This setup has been working for me for several years now with no problems.

I wouldn't be getting worried about thermal layers in the wort either. The little yeasties doing their thing is going to create enough turbulence to ensure that you don't have any hotspots.

gary

 

[mercle]

I have been using 2 heaters from here for years-

http://www.burker.com.au/

It says ideal for brewing on their site also

They work great, easy to clean and adjust too

I just drilled holes in the lid using a cheap hole saw and it seals fine

 

[Alby]

Thanks everyone...ThirstyBoy, when you run the heater via a fridgemate on heat mode, where do you put the temp probe? I assume you only want to heat the wort and not the whole frisdge...do you immerse the probe in the wort or just tape it to the fermenter?

Ta

Al

 

[Thirsty Boy]

to the fermenter under a little extra bit of camping mat - under the insulation layer.

 

[Alby]

think Im gonna give this a try as I dont have the patience to wait for my fridgemate to arrive...also want to keep the freezer functional.

I have an old submersible heater which I have dragged out of storage (formerly used in aquarium!) and scrubbed the sh!t out of it with heaps of detergent then soaked in very strong bleacg solution for 12 hours...hopefully that will kill any bugs!...the heater goes as low as 20C so will put down an ale over the weekend...fridgemate will arrive next week and if the aq heater goes ok will use this with the fridgemate on heat mode to get the wort down further for the next brew...or maybe even go down to 12 and put in a lager.

hope the old heater doesnt give me an infection!...bleach kills everything right?

 

[Fermented]

A 5% solution of bleach will do the business.

Just try to make sure it doesn't have any bleach scent left as if there is enough residual bleach on the heater, it may go into solution and it may kill the yeast. After all, bleach destroys DNA rather nicely so it can't be too good for yeast.

Aquarium heaters are obviously submersible (and certainly go 'pop' when run without being submerged) and are reasonably accurate once you figure out what temperature they are really running compared to what they are marked at. I would suggest staying at the low end of the power range - something like a 50W - 100W. A 300W big mutha for a huge aquarium runs hot and fast and overshoots to buggery. In 500 litres of water it's not a lot but in 20 litres of wort that's not so good.

Sounds like a worthy hack. Love to know your results.

Cheers - Fermented.

 

[RdeVjun]

think Im gonna give this a try as I dont have the patience to wait for my fridgemate to arrive...also want to keep the freezer functional.

I have an old submersible heater which I have dragged out of storage (formerly used in aquarium!) and scrubbed the sh!t out of it with heaps of detergent then soaked in very strong bleacg solution for 12 hours...hopefully that will kill any bugs!...the heater goes as low as 20C so will put down an ale over the weekend...fridgemate will arrive next week and if the aq heater goes ok will use this with the fridgemate on heat mode to get the wort down further for the next brew...or maybe even go down to 12 and put in a lager.

hope the old heater doesnt give me an infection!...bleach kills everything right?

Hey Alby,
go for it if you like, but I gotta say, FWIW, even with the fridge you just got (unplugged- both the fridge/freezer and the heater), that for ales at least, the two & three litre milk bottles full of frozen water keep things well under control, with a bit less energy (earth hour is coming!) and infection risk too (from fish poop and pesky algae). I've been doing this for a while and its really not that hard to swap one in & out once, or maybe twice a day where you are.
But, if you're busting a gut to get that bubbler working/ clingfilm bulging, then nothing, I say nothing will stand in your way!!! Nor should it!

 

[pdilley]

FWIW bleach is deactivated by heat. That's why 10ml per 5l + same white vinegar works well. A hot water rinse deactivates the bleach and nixes the chlorine smell/taste.

 

[Alby]

[email protected] wrote a long and witty reply to say thanks, but it didnt post here...must have been operator error!

 

[RdeVjun]

[email protected] wrote a long and witty reply to say thanks, but it didnt post here...must have been operator error!

I was wondering Alby. Where'd it end up? Bit bucket maybe? Damn, doesn't that give you the complete & utters? :angry:

 

[Wolfy]

I just brought a brand new 25W submersible aquarium heater (adjustable from 18-30degC) for $13 from ebay - it should work fine, if it does not I can retire the fermenter and use it to breed baby fish. I did look at a few (cheap) brewing mats/belts but they seemed to have only one temp setting and it was too warm for what I wanted.

A few weeks ago I struggled with outside temps of 30-40, now it seems it's not warm enough to even get up to 18 ... bloody Melbourne weather!