Aquarium Heater advice

[Cornish Knocker]

Might seem a daft question, but I need to be 100% certain. I'm about to order an aquarium heater on ebay to make a brewtub, but need to find out if there is any liquid whatsoever within the heater?

Reason being, is I'm taking it out of the UK on a plane in my hand luggage, so want to make sure it's not going to be taken off me at security?

Thanks

 

[krazypara3165]

no liquid! In its simplest form it is a glass tube with a plastic cap on top. inside at the bottom of the tube is a coil of wire.

Thats basically it!

 

[oldbloke]

Might look odd on an x-ray, take it in hand luggage (even dump it in the magic tray with your belt and coins...) so it can be easily explained without your main suitcase being removed from the baggage train...

 

[Cornish Knocker]

Thank guys appreciate the info. You know what airlines are like these days and if my aquarium heater was taken my Wherry would have been severely delayed.

 

[ibbo999]

I am brand new to home brew, so new I havent actually started yet, as I am still on with the wine kit I was given for Christmas.
I am more interested in brewing beer and was wondering what size aquarium heater was recommended as getting a consistant temperature with wine was not easy due to tge location.

 

[oldbloke]

Depends...
My 25w one is normally fine, my waterbath only has about 2.5 gallons of water in it when all 4 demijohn positions are filled, and it's well insulated.
But the last few days I've needed to set it to 23 to maintain 20
So, it depends how much water you need to heat and how much loss you're going to get past whatever insulation you have - which of course depends on the ambient temperature.
But it's rare you'd need more than 50w

 

[ibbo999]

Thanks do I take if that you place the fv into a water bath and then use the heater to warm the water

 

[oldbloke]

It's what I do - for one thing I work mostly with demijohns, and one heater in a waterbath can look after 4 at a time.
You can drop a heater straight into your fermenter if you pay careful attention to sanitising it, but a waterbath also spreads the heat out better.

 

[Crastney]

of course, you're not just heating the water in the water bath, you're heating the brew too, so get the total volume of liquid in your container - use this to consider what size heater you need.
I think mine is the smallest you can get, as that's also the cheapest to buy, and run, but I've seen people on here buying 300w heaters, for larger containers with multiple FVs.
my setup was a 1 Gal glass DJ sat on two bricks inside a 25 litre FV, water level just up to the shoulder of the DJ inside and out, heater attached vertically to side of FV. Set at the lowest temp of 18 Deg C, it kept the water bath temp at about 19.

It was protected at the socket with an RCD.

 

[devexwarrior]

Looking on the Tesco direct website and they have a heat for....£37....HOW MUCH?

I got one of these bad boys and it is perfect-keeps my brew fermenting nicely even in the Baltic wastes of my garage in deepest darkest West Wales.

Save yourself 30 quid and hit Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00B ... UTF8&psc=1

 

[OnlyFerment]

25 - 50w should be more than enough - I use a 200w to keep a 400l aquarium at 26c. I have a 50w for £6 that I have used once without problems - will be using in my next brew as the house is cooler now. I have mine directly in the fermenter rather than using a water bath. A higher wattage shouldn't affect running costs as it will be on for a shorter time. It's probably worth adding an STC1000 or similar as the thermostats in aquarium heaters are pretty inaccurate and can have a tendency to fail on and cook the tank/beer.

Dave