Which Option For Heating Fermenter During Winter?

[litre_o_cola]

I use my Evacool esky with a napi san solution, an aquarium heater, pump to keep it circulating around, a foam lid and a digital thermometer to keep an eye on it.
It works well and keeps an even 18C or what ever set to.

 

[flano]

yesterday my temp started getting pretty low again ..about 12-14 dgrs..so I turned on my heat pad for a few hours.
Then turned it off at 18 dgrs and wrapped a blanket around it overnight.

this morning it is still on 18.

the pad gets it too hot if left on.

does anyone know off the top of their head what the wattage is on those brewcraft heatpads?
I was checking out a dimmer switch to control the heat and it said 300w max.
There is nothing on the box it came in or their website...the pad itself has a big full fermenter on it..don't want to move it.

 

[barls]

im with pete, i just change yeast. my brew room sits at 14 during winter so i just use a yeast in that range ie dennys fav 50, kolsch or cry havoc.

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

My brewery experienced temperature swings yesterday that saw the low at -1degC and the high at 27degC. It gets cold here overnight and the sunny day soon got the building warming up again nicely. (It's a lined, insulated cedar shed with four windows and a skylight.) Inside the fridge, where I have a 40Watt light globe encased in a couple of dog food tins (minus the meat and controlled by a tempmate) even with 90litres of things fermenting, it would otherwise cool too far - probably even for the Coopers Racing Yeast.

 

[KGB]

would a towel do the job...

With the heat generated by the fermentation, wrapping a towel or blanket around is often enough.

I ferment inside a fridge and find that it generally keeps itself warm enough, a hot water bottle early in the morning would be more than enough but I've never had to do that yet.
Before I had the fridge I actually drilled a big hole in the side of my fermenter and used a grommet to insert a fish tank heater (similar to how the airlock wedges in with a grommet). No leaks and no dramas, the heater was set to 20degrees but controlled by a fridgemate as well. Heating directly in the wort worked well for me and now that I've switched methods I just covered the hole with a blanking grommet - again now leaks or dramas for more brews than I remember.

 

[glaab]

does anyone know off the top of their head what the wattage is on those brewcraft heatpads?

theyr'e 50W

 

[Yob]

a simple timer works well for me, also in a fridge but just have 4 settings of 45 min per day set at 4 hour intervals, the cord easily comes out the door ^_^

 

[komodo]

I use a heat pad under the fermenter. Never had issues. Its easy to use with the fleebay temp controller controlling the fridge and heat pad. Doesnt get too warm and in all honesty hardly ever switches on due to the thermal mass in the fermenter!

If i were setting up my fermenting fridge again I'd probably do the same or else use one of those reptile heating cords that come in about 3mtr lengths.

 

[Tony_N]

Before my first AG (read: knowing SFA) I bought an infrared heater (a metal coil jobby used for therapeutic heat on muscles etc) for my fermenting fridge at a blind auction for peanuts. I'm now wondering is this appropriate or safe? it will give out pretty serious heat, but I would use a temperature controller and so it would only operate for short blasts. My setup is on my verandah and it gets to be 3-5 deg C some nights in winter and I brew mostly ales. Or is this overkill when I read that people are using 25 watt globes??? (heater doesn't have a tag to say wattage - but from googling they all seem to be 1500W )

Thanks in advance for any advice...(but writing this out I may have answered my own question)