Heat Pad - basic beginner questions

[mrtona]

Hi
I've been given a plug in heat pad, I've never used one before.
I usually have my fermenter in a kitchen cupboard, covered with a blanket; I live in Canberra and temps in the house drop to 5C in the early morning.
Do I just sit the fermenter on the pad?
Can I still have the fermenter in the cupboard or would it need air flow?
Do I leave the heat pad on all the time or do I have to continually turn it on/off?
I'm at work from 7 till 5 so the house gets cold during the day.
Thanks for your help.

 

[GalBrew]

You need to plug the head pad into some sort of temperature controller. This will allow you to set a temp and the controller will switch the pad on and off as the temp fluctuates around the set point. Most people use an STC-1000, although there are many other controllers available.

 

[spog]

Hi
I've been given a plug in heat pad, I've never used one before.
I usually have my fermenter in a kitchen cupboard, covered with a blanket; I live in Canberra and temps in the house drop to 5C in the early morning.
Do I just sit the fermenter on the pad?
Can I still have the fermenter in the cupboard or would it need air flow?
Do I leave the heat pad on all the time or do I have to continually turn it on/off?
I'm at work from 7 till 5 so the house gets cold during the day.
Thanks for your help.[/quote

Do I just sit the fermenter on the pad ?, Yes it's a simple as that.
Can I still have fermenter in the cupboard or would I need air flow ?..cupboard is your choice although having some kind of insulation on the fermenter certainly helps,air flow would be the enemy of trying to maintain a constant temperature.
Do I leave the heat pad on all the time.... Yes.
At work .....The heat pad is exactly that ,a heat pad.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Many people prefer to not sit the fermenter on the pad but actually sit the pad near the fermenter so that it is not applying direct heat to the vessel. Obviously this will only work if the vessel is in a fairly well sealed environment and is not venting too much heat away. Try a few different setups and see what works best. +1 on the STC-1000 controller - it's not mandatory but very useful. A cheap chinese knockoff can be had on ebay for under $10 these days and they're well worth the investment.

 

[pcmfisher]

Many people prefer to not sit the fermenter on the pad but actually sit the pad near the fermenter so that it is not applying direct heat to the vessel. Obviously this will only work if the vessel is in a fairly well sealed environment and is not venting too much heat away. Try a few different setups and see what works best. +1 on the STC-1000 controller - it's not mandatory but very useful. A cheap chinese knockoff can be had on ebay for under $10 these days and they're well worth the investment.

A cheaper chinese knockoff of a cheap chinese knockoff....

 

[spog]

The heat pad was made for a specific purpose.
It was designed so a fermentor/ fermenter sits on top of it and it gently heats the contents of the fermenter .
Putting the heat pad " near " the fermenter or the fermenter " near "the heat pad is next to useless, akin to putting a fireplace outside then sitting in the lounge room wrapped in a blanket !.
Don't bother with an STC -1000 for this basic application as it would be next to useless.
Position the heat pad,sit the fermenter on it and yes if you want insulate the fermenter then let it do its thing.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

The heat pad was made for a specific purpose.
It was designed so a fermentor/ fermenter sits on top of it and it gently heats the contents of the fermenter .
Putting the heat pad " near " the fermenter or the fermenter " near "the heat pad is next to useless, akin to putting a fireplace outside then sitting in the lounge room wrapped in a blanket !.
Don't bother with an STC -1000 for this basic application as it would be next to useless.
Position the heat pad,sit the fermenter on it and yes if you want insulate the fermenter then let it do its thing.

All in your opinion of course.

Just because something has been designed for a function doesn't necessarily make it the best option for that function. As I said, many people prefer not to apply direct heat to the base of the fermentor as most prefer to control the ambient temperature rather than heat the wort. This is a widely accepted process so referring to it as "next to useless" is not accurate, nor is your analogy.