Heating In Fridges

[sinkas]

Hi All,
I was wondering how you all raise the temp of your brew fridges,
I have been using a 25 watt globe worry light, but there are issue with, longevity of the globe, lightstricke, and melting the fridge inner.
I am using a themostat, to control the temp, but would like to know what is deemed best practice for cheaply and easily adding heat to the inside of the brew fridge, particularly in these winter months.

I am sure this has been talked about before, but I am buggered if I can find anything about it with the search engine

Cheers

 

[johnno]

Hi sinkas,
I am using a brewbelt. I dont have it wrapped around the fermenter, it is just hanging of the top rack.

I only just strted doing this so I am not too sure how it will go.

cheers
johhno

 

[KoNG]

Hi Sinkas,
probably not what you are looking for... but i use the oh so bogan method of hot water bottles (2 litre juice bottles). depending on what i need to do, just one or two of those with 'hot' water in them. I brew ales at 18*C in winter with 1 bottle changed daily.
Obviously you would have more control with other methods if you already have a Tstat... but you did ask for the 'cheapest'

 

[peas_and_corn]

I have a heating pad. When the fridge has taken the beer a tad too cold, I have turned it on within the fermentation freezer

 

[AUHEAMIC]

This may not be the cheapest set up, it cost me about $50.00 including the thermostat. The tin came for a coopers kit. The light globe is mounted in frame from an old desk lamp which, as luck would have, was just the right size to fit into the top of the empty tin. I drilled some holes around the base of the tin for air flow. The outside of the tin only gets warm. I have also wired it so that, at the flick of a switch, I can go from heat (light globe) to cool (fridge). I also have a switch between the fridge thermostat and my fermentation thermostat so I can use it as a normal fridge.

Although the cost of the parts was quite low I would recommend having it wired up by someone who is qualified in such things.

 

[SJW]

Would'nt this end up being a very expensive way to ferment? Unless I am missing something if you are sticking a light globe in the fridge and turning it on would'nt the fridge end up running 24/7 ie. fighting the light globe to get the temp down? Why not just buy a temp controler?

Steve

 

[floppinab]

I use an el cheapo hair dryer set on it's lowest blow setting connected into the thermostat, works a treat.

I hate this time of year. The ambient in my garage is sitting aroudn 15 deg. too warm for lagers and too cold for ales so the hair dryer is currently doing around 19 deg. for a Bavarian Lager diacetyl rest as we speak after having the fridge down to around 10 deg. for the main ferment.

 

[xtrabyte]

I have a chest freezer and put a 150 W fish tank heater in a 10 lt bucket of water and set this to 20C. My Fridgemate is set at 18C I can get any temp I want very accurately by changing the warming or cooling set point.

 

[AUHEAMIC]

Would'nt this end up being a very expensive way to ferment? Unless I am missing something if you are sticking a light globe in the fridge and turning it on would'nt the fridge end up running 24/7 ie. fighting the light globe to get the temp down? Why not just buy a temp controler?

Steve

When the switch is set to heat it switches the fridge out of the circuit completely so the fridge doesnt come on at all.

 

[Jye]

I have been using a 25 watt globe worry light, but there are issue with, longevity of the globe, lightstricke, and melting the fridge inner.

I do the same thing but wrap the lamp head in aluminium foil to stop lightstrike. The lamp only gets warm and if the temp gets to high the fridge can easily over power it and cool the fermenter. I dont think it puts any more stress on the fridge than when it runs through summer.

 

[Andyd]

I've got a small fan heater in the fridge when in heating mode. It runs for about 20 seconds about 8 times a day (I'm going to measure the power consumption once I get hold of a power meter).

Andy

 

[Asher]

I use an electric blanket wrapped around the fermenter to raise temps for rests etc. during winter.

 

[lokpikn]

I was thinking of using my brewmaster temp controller and just change the setting from fridge to heat and use a heat pad or brew belt.

 

[reVoxAHB]

Take a look at my thread on light striking here. I know what you mean about the search feature :angry:

Very similar thread to what you're asking, including my heating solution which has served me very well.

If I had to do it all over again, I would probably just follow Warren's advice and grab a reptile bulb/assembly from the local pet store but I'm sorted.

FWIW, I tried wrapping my bulb in foil, and the (new) bulb burned out almost immediately. I have settled on 40W in the terracotta.

edit: not sure if i pointed it out in the other thread, but i'm using a FridgeMate in heating mode to automatically control the bulb's operational mode.

good luck,
reVox

 

[SJW]

So what are these Fridgemate things? Where do I get one? And how much?
Also SWMBO would still require the full use of the freezer section of the fridge so not knowing how the electronics of a fridge works could I use a Fridgemate and lightglobe setup in the fridge and still use the freezer to freeze?

Steve

 

[jkeysers]

I've just aquired a large chest freezer, and plan on using it to put 2 or 3 fermenters in. So this heating issue is one that interests me. I'm looking at getting a Fridgemate for the chest freezer. Is it possible to run heating (ie. a couple of 25 light globes) and cooling (ie. the freezer thermostat) off the same Fridgemate? Seems too be to good to be true, but thought it would be a great solution. Set the Fridgemate at 18 degrees and the light globes kick in when it needs to heat, with the freezer kicking in when it needs to cool.

 

[lokpikn]

So what are these Fridgemate things? Where do I get one? And how much?
Also SWMBO would still require the full use of the freezer section of the fridge so not knowing how the electronics of a fridge works could I use a Fridgemate and lightglobe setup in the fridge and still use the freezer to freeze?

Steve

Go to the add at the top of the page MASHMASTER or CRAFTBREWER for the temp controller.

I dont think SHWBO will not be able to use the frezzer. If you were using the controller for a heating source the fridge would need to be turn off compltely and if you are to use them foe temp controll of a cooling source EG fridge or frezzer it turns the power off all together.

It seems about time you might need to look for a brew fridge.

 

[lokpikn]

I've just aquired a large chest freezer, and plan on using it to put 2 or 3 fermenters in. So this heating issue is one that interests me. I'm looking at getting a Fridgemate for the chest freezer. Is it possible to run heating (ie. a couple of 25 light globes) and cooling (ie. the freezer thermostat) off the same Fridgemate? Seems too be to good to be true, but thought it would be a great solution. Set the Fridgemate at 18 degrees and the light globes kick in when it needs to heat, with the freezer kicking in when it needs to cool.

You can use it to heat and cool but not at the same time.
It is either in cooling mode or heat mode have a look at mashmaster web site and there are some instruction there which should clear some of it up. I think.

 

[SJW]

I dont understand why u would need to put a heat source in the fridge though? The way I understand it is u turn your fridge onto the coldest setting then hook up the Fridgemate with the probe in the wort or somewhere in the fridge and when the probe detects temps warmer than the set temp the fridge kicks in? I would onlt want it for fermenting as my fridge keeps everthing a bit to cold. I would like to be ablt to hold it at 10 Deg C up to 18 Deg C. Thats why I dont understand why u need a light globe in the fridge. Wont the fridgemate just keep the fridge off until it reaches 9, 10 or whatever temp is set?

 

[Andyd]

SJW... here's the explanation...

A fridge has two separate properties:

* Firstly the ability to chill the air contained in the fridge.
* Secondly it insulates the environment inside the fridge from the environment outside it.

Many people use a fridge as a temperature control environment because of the second property. The obvious case is that we want the interior to be cooler than the external environment. In this case we run it as a fridge, with the Mashmaster (or other temp controller) managing the temperature for us.

When we want the temperature to be higher than the outside environment, we deactivate the chilller and run a heat source instead.

Some controllers (not the mashmaster) have a dual cycle mode, which allow the heater and chiller to be managed entirely by the control unit. Most of the time people need to decide ahead of time whether they want to keep the fridge temp higher or lower than the ambient temperature and change the controller manually

Andy.