Heating In Your Brew Fridge

[urbanfeeder]

Ways to heat fridges has been done to death over the years.
The best option is to put a small fan in the fridge. A fan will keep the air moving, stopping thermal layering. Will improve the heat transfer out of the fermenter. Will probably cost less to run than a heater.
In a well insulated box like a fridge it doesn’t take much to keep the temperature up, added to the heat produced by the ferment.
Remember that a 5W fan is a 5W heater.
Mark

Well its all new to me being a newbie on the forum
Thanks for the info - I'll give the fan a go

 

[CapnClunks]

I needed a fridge and temp controller to make my first Ag brew a lager and it's so great to be able to control temps. After my last brew a Irish Red I noticed a bit of fruityness and it was very good but could of been toned down a little bit.
It's amazing how much different flavours you can get out of yeast fermented at different temperatures and now I won't brew without temp control. Unless I have two batches brewing (not enough room in fridge), then I just put the other batch into a Rubbermaid tub with water and a wet towel wrapped around it.
I learnt to put a little pwb in the water also that the fermenter sits in or it goes stinky

 

[Dave70]

I just got a new fridge for my house and so at last the old one is my brew fridge. I popped my current brew into it yesterday, fridge plugged in to my Ink-bird. I didn't expect it to get so cold last night. Dropped to 12c in the fridge, eek! So I had to devise some heating today. I have no car at the moment and so couldn't nip to Bunnings, so I had to think on my feet. Necessity and mother of invention etc… so I brought the temp up gently by placing a pan of hot water in the fv with lid. Then I plugged a samosa maker into the Ink Bird (crappy thing from Target was given to my wife for Christmas, bit like a toastie maker) popped that in there under as far away from the FV as possible - it's a huge fridge room for 2 FVs side by side and space underneath the shelf. Stuck the probe to the side of the FV. 18.5 all day! brilliant! I can't see any issue with this, it seems to do the trick perfectly, it's not stressing the fridge at all. - my question is can anyone see an issue with this? there's nothing hot touching any surface in the fridge and the Ink Bird turns it off if its too hot, there is no fire risk - unless the Ink Bird fails which I doubt. Have I missed anything ?

My setup. Works like a charm. Suppose you could ad a fan if you want to complicate things.
-before anybody panics, this one is from this afternoon and has yet to have the blowoff plugged in and yeast installed -

1 x Inkbird
1 x heating belt
1 x upright fridge / freezer.

Plug the belt into the heating holes, plug the fridge in the cooling holes, set the desired temp. The bird does the rest.
Easy as pissing on the back of your hand.

 

[MHB]

Note that its made with a fan, most morern fridges are.
Mark

 

[Vic]

Probably not.

I use a 4ohm 100watt resistor on a heaatsink and a computer fan wired to a 12V 4amp power supply. This is effectively a 36watt heater. works well.

 

[DU99]

Updated to heat cord..placed a few stick on hooks and draped around the cabinet

 

[fifis101]

1 x Inkbird
1 x heating belt
1 x upright fridge / freezer.

It does not need to be any more complicated than this.
I have a fermzilla and have the heating belt around the stand and not on the fermenter.

 

[Barleycorn Brewer]

I got the Ultra warmer $78 its a 12 volt unit with a fan in it. Fan makes even heat distribution fail safe up to 40 C max STC is easy to program with a long probe cable for optimum positioning. Just stick it inside the fridge or jacket and away you go. Keeps my fermzilla just right. The 12 v power pack is included.

 

[Hangover68]

I usually use a heat belt but i just did a quick experiment with a small fan in my fermenting fridge.
Temp inside the fridge which is sitting outside on my covered deck was 15.3C, ran the fan for 20mins and the temp rose to 17.4C . So even in winter it will be the right temp for ales without needing to use a heat belt, i have another fridge which has a built in temp controller for lagers and pils.

 

[Drewski]

I got the Ultra warmer $78 its a 12 volt unit with a fan in it. Fan makes even heat distribution fail safe up to 40 C max STC is easy to program with a long probe cable for optimum positioning. Just stick it inside the fridge or jacket and away you go. Keeps my fermzilla just right. The 12 v power pack is included.

I just got one and mines a different temp controller built into it as it doesnt say stc1000 like the video and I can set the temperature but can't work out how to set anything else as no instructions. I assume should be a a delay temp for it to turn back on when it drops a degree etc?