Heat Pads

[MVZOOM]

HI All,

Going to chuck a heat pad in the fermenting fridge as I'm about to do an APA with US51 yeast (min temp 17deg).

Any recommendations etc?

Cheers - Mike

 

[Hubby]

All I'd suggest is some form temp controller to turn off at the max temp you are aiming at - they have a constant output and inside a fridge the temp will continue to rise. Otherwise a timer and close monitoring might get you by.

 

[MVZOOM]

All I'd suggest is some form temp controller to turn off at the max temp you are aiming at - they have a constant output and inside a fridge the temp will continue to rise. Otherwise a timer and close monitoring might get you by.

[post="120846"][/post]​

Thanks mate - it would seem that my fridge in the garage is dropping a few deg with ambiant temp so low at the moment - psuedo winter nights - hense the requirement for a bit of augmentation.

That being said, I can most probably pop a normal lamp in there tonight, on a timer to compensate for 3deg C or so.

Cheers - Mike

 

[Linz]

Ive got a heater pad from a water bed.......controlable from the factory!! off ebay, its cheaper than the heaters from a HBS


dips me lid to HBWorld.com for the pointer....

 

[Doc]

I have the same problem in my fermenting freezer over winter. The ambient is lower that ale fermentation temps.
I use one of the Brewcraft (i think) red heat mats inside my freezer over winter. At the begining of winter it is on a timer to only come on at night. In the deep of winter it is on all the time (except when I have 2+ fermenters in their frist week of fermentation or the stir plates going as they both generate enough heat).

Beers,
Doc

 

[MVZOOM]

Thanks Guys.

Doc - any idea how much for the red mat?

Cheers - Mike

 

[Doc]

No sorry Mike.
Bought it years ago in my kit days.
Bought it from Whats Brewing (brewshop) in Kogarah Sydney.

Doc

 

[Doc]

Actually I think it is probably this one for $49.90.
Looks like Dave's Homebrew has them too.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

Ive got a heater pad from a water bed.......controlable from the factory!! off ebay, its cheaper than the heaters from a HBS

Picking mine up locally tomorrow.

$20 including thermostat.

The seller withdrew the item from eBay as the brand was recalled.........the serial number is about 1000 away from the # range recalled (did serious research) so all is good :beerbang:

Question time:
Do you guys who use these hang them against the walls of your box, or do you sit the fermenter/s right on top of them?
Is the weight of a fermenter sitting on top of it going to pose any problems?

PZ.

 

[Beer bum]

Put the fermenter on top of the pad as this will be more effective in heat transfer. Water bed heat pads are designed to have the water bladder covering them and draw the heat away from the pad therefore not allowing the pad to get hotter in one part. Having it hang may cause it to overheat.

They are much higher wattage than is required so you will find that you need some form of temp control.

Also you will find that your fridge will need to be set a bit colder as the heat pad is larger than the fermenter so the part of the pad not under the fermenter base will heat up the fridge space. Obviously not an issue if no fridge.

I use a 27 watt 300mm x 300mm heat pad for my brewing. I control it with a temp probe in the fermenter which connects back to a digital temp controller which in turn switches the heat pad on and off according to the temp of the wort. This works fine.

Once I have bottled then I put the bottles on a water bed heat pad in a box for a few weeks to carbonate. I use a real cheapo room thermostat to control the temp of the box.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

 

[mika]

I've just got a heater band that wraps around the outside of the fermenter. Think it was only ~$30 (maybe less) and supposedly you can control the temp of the brew (at least to some degree) by how high up the fermenter you position it.
Just another option, get's cold enough in my brewhaus that I haven't worried about trying to electronically control the heater... just as long as it's on and the brew is bubbling works for me

 

[Hogan]

I use a 27 watt 300mm x 300mm heat pad for my brewing. I control it with a temp probe in the fermenter which connects back to a digital temp controller which in turn switches the heat pad on and off according to the temp of the wort. This works fine.

[post="123415"][/post]​

Hey Beer Bum - I use the same setup. Can you tell me what your temp rise is in the fermenter between the heat temp controller turning on and switching off. I have about 2.c rise from switch on to switch off.

Cheers, Hogan.

 

[jimmybee]

When you guys talk about temp control (ie digital controllers...?) where do you get these from... do they cost a fortune?

I have a heat pad which needs controling during winter aswell but not sure where to start looking for these...

Jimmy

 

[Hogan]

Hi Jimmybee

Welcome to the forum.

Just search <growarm> in the search facility of this site and you will get heaps of info.

Cheers, Hogan.

 

[Beer bum]

Hogan,

The temp difference (hysteresis) from switch on to switch off is not detectable on my controller display as it only reads in 1C increments.

I have a proportional switch time of 20secs on and 20secs off. Once the set point has been reached then the heat pad stays off until the brew temp drops under the set point, then it goes on/off again in 20sec intervals until the brew temp goes over the set point.
The heater pad I use is for use under a fish tank. It's carbon ribbon so it switchs off immediately and doesn't have any residual heat still going into the fermenter.
I had a temp probe made which goes through the rubber stopper in the lid and reaches to the centre of the wort.

Digital controller $60 delivered off ebay, thermocouple $35, heater pad off ebay $40, box and thermocouple plugs etc approx $30, perfect temp control $priceless!

Cheers

 

[Hogan]

I have a proportional switch time of 20secs on and 20secs off. Once the set point has been reached then the heat pad stays off until the brew temp drops under the set point, then it goes on/off again in 20sec intervals until the brew temp goes over the set point. I had a temp probe made which goes through the rubber stopper in the lid and reaches to the centre of the wort.

[post="123439"][/post]​

Thanks BB.

I have a Adloheat capilary thermostat with a ss temp probe. I have used the Adloheat Growarm cooling type unit with great success over summer in the freezer and decided to give the warming unit a go.

I too have the probe going through a rubber bung into the wort and I also have a digital thermometer probe attached to the side of the fermenter.

When I got the unit to did some experimenting with straight water in the fermenter sitting on the HB type heating mat (27 watts). I found that if the wort temp starts off above the set point - the heat will come on when the temp of the wort cools to that point. I was curious to find out how long the temp controller would maintain heat before shutting off and letting the wort cool to the set point (thereby starting off the whole process again).

My digital theremometer keeps a record of the highest and lowest temps recorded and over night I found that with the set point at 18c the highest temp it reached was 20c. So it would appear that there is a varience of 2c between the start and stop times of the unit. This I believe, would be an acceptable range and the fermenter was sitting on the bench in my garage. I have not tried it in the confines of my warming cabinet yet but I would assume that in a confined space the heat generated into the ambient air around the fermeter would keep the wort temp around 19c for a fair length fo time.


Cheers, Hogan.

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

I've just got a heater band that wraps around the outside of the fermenter. Think it was only ~$30 (maybe less) and supposedly you can control the temp of the brew (at least to some degree) by how high up the fermenter you position it.

Ive got one of those too, but there are a couple of issues:
a- It only heats a single fermenterI have four fermenters.
b- Controlling heat by sliding it up and down the fermenter is crap, Ive used a timer, but its still not that good.

I use a 27 watt 300mm x 300mm heat pad for my brewing. I control it with a temp probe in the fermenter which connects back to a digital temp controller which in turn switches the heat pad on and off according to the temp of the wort. This works fine.

The waterbed one I picked up today is 400w and 280mm x 1100mm and has a temp controller with copper probe, so Ill assume that using it in a similar fashion to yours will work fine.

Also, the temp controller runs inline with a normal power point outlet, so I could also use it for controlling a light bulb or other heat source such as the afore-mentioned heat belt if the heat pad dies :beerbang:

PZ.

 

[DrewCarey82]

HI All,

Going to chuck a heat pad in the fermenting fridge as I'm about to do an APA with US51 yeast (min temp 17deg).

Any recommendations etc?

Cheers - Mike

[post="120845"][/post]​

Hey Matt.

Notice your a sydney sider dont put it in the fridge at all currently I have two brews sitting comfortable at 18 degrees just at room temperature.

Cheers.

 

[BrissyBrew]

For temperature control of your fridge or your heating pad try FridgeMate

Have you also thought about hanging a 15W -100W (or smaller) light bulb or something inside the fridge/freezer, and use this to heat.

If it is really cold you could just use the light bulbs heat to heat the fermentation.

 

[jimmybee]

Found this on ebay - so i nabbed one - looks like it will do everything I need it to (control heating pad)...

40 bucks... its looks like the business to me... mind you I just getting back into all of this... what do people think...


Ebay Fridgemate

Jimmy

:super: