drsmurto
Well-Known Member
I recently posed the question on another thread about the possibility of using a reptile heating pad instead of a brew pad.
Not much of a response so i decided to bite the bullet and be the guinea pig.
Standard brewing heat pads go for around $60 and are rated at 20-25W.
I bought a 20W reptile heat pad off ebay (see image below) for $30 plus postage - Link
I currently have a standard brewing heatpad running in a fridge out in the shed trying to germinate seeds. It is capable of holding a temp of 20-22C even with the night-time temp dropping to 0C. So i put the reptile heatpad to work in another fridge set to the same temp and let it equilibrate over a few days.
This morning both fridges read 21C.
Now i should add a few bits of information about this heatpad and also add i dont sell them and have no financial incentive for spruiking them other than to share what i think is a cheaper alternative.
The reptile heat pad is flimsy. The first thing i thought of when i unwrapped it was a medical xray. Similar material, flexible and not the hard plastic that brewing heat pads are made from. Which means they aren't likely to be water proof but then i dont sit fermenters on heatpads anyway, i use them to heat the air in the fridge.
As an aside, another test i have running is how hot a liquid gets when it is sat on top of a heatpad with no external thermostat control. Small scale test but a 250mL flask sitting on a standard 25W brewing heatpad with no insulation (ie not in a fridge but exposed to the night time temp) this morning read 28C - not the sort of temp you want to expose most beers to. I realise this is not representative of 20+L of wort in a plastic fermenter but it does give you an idea of the possibility of localised hot spots. I will up the scale to a 5L demi job and see what the actual temperature of the liquid gets to.
Hope that information is of some use to people....
Cheers
DrSmurto
Not much of a response so i decided to bite the bullet and be the guinea pig.
Standard brewing heat pads go for around $60 and are rated at 20-25W.
I bought a 20W reptile heat pad off ebay (see image below) for $30 plus postage - Link
I currently have a standard brewing heatpad running in a fridge out in the shed trying to germinate seeds. It is capable of holding a temp of 20-22C even with the night-time temp dropping to 0C. So i put the reptile heatpad to work in another fridge set to the same temp and let it equilibrate over a few days.
This morning both fridges read 21C.
Now i should add a few bits of information about this heatpad and also add i dont sell them and have no financial incentive for spruiking them other than to share what i think is a cheaper alternative.
The reptile heat pad is flimsy. The first thing i thought of when i unwrapped it was a medical xray. Similar material, flexible and not the hard plastic that brewing heat pads are made from. Which means they aren't likely to be water proof but then i dont sit fermenters on heatpads anyway, i use them to heat the air in the fridge.
As an aside, another test i have running is how hot a liquid gets when it is sat on top of a heatpad with no external thermostat control. Small scale test but a 250mL flask sitting on a standard 25W brewing heatpad with no insulation (ie not in a fridge but exposed to the night time temp) this morning read 28C - not the sort of temp you want to expose most beers to. I realise this is not representative of 20+L of wort in a plastic fermenter but it does give you an idea of the possibility of localised hot spots. I will up the scale to a 5L demi job and see what the actual temperature of the liquid gets to.
Hope that information is of some use to people....
Cheers
DrSmurto