Aquarium Heater

[simonlpearce]

Will this do the job to keep my brews at the right temp?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aquarium-Subm ... 2577c93e80

 

[PD]

yep...or a 100Watt one.

 

[oz11]

Possibly!

I cannot see from that what the minimum temperature is. Some heaters start at 20 celsius, but much better is one that starts at 18 celsius.

 

[simonlpearce]

According to the advert it goes from 17-35 Celsius so should do just fine. It also says the 50w is suitable for 96 litres(24 Gallons) so would 100w not be a little overkill?

Im assuming this just get sterilised and chucked directly into the FV, perhaps via a bung?

 

[LeedsBrewer]

Possibly!

I cannot see from that what the minimum temperature is. Some heaters start at 20 celsius, but much better is one that starts at 18 celsius.

:thumb:
mine says it starts at 20C but is a bit pants cos it wont actually go lower than 22C!

You can sterilise and stick it straight in the brew but then you have one more possible source of infection and one more thing to sterilize. I would buy a plastic storage box. A couple of quid from wilcos and put the water and heater in that, then put your FV in the water. That way you don't have to sterilize the heater for every brew.

 

[wezil]

The higher wattage is better, it has to do less work to get upto temp. They have bimetallic switches and the smaller wattage will be on for longer and probably burn out quicker (I speak from experience :cry: (lost a lot of fish in a cold spell)! If you can find an external thermostat to control the heater these allow far better control and a longer heater life (and no hands in the brew)!! (or the big bitey fish tank)! not sure where to get them anymore, mine was second hand. But I know reptile keepers use them (ps if using one dont forget turn the heater full up so it only the external stat that is in control).

 

[simonlpearce]

Now there's a clever idea!

Have ordered the heater and will go pick up a plastic box big enough for the FV on my way home from work.

 

[oz11]

According to the advert it goes from 17-35 Celsius so should do just fine.

Indeed, good spot! I didn't look at all the pictures! :whistle:

 

[simonlpearce]

Indeed, good spot! I didn't look at all the pictures! :whistle:

Too much :drink: :drunk: :grin:

 

[hoofy]

Now there's a clever idea!

Have ordered the heater and will go pick up a plastic box big enough for the FV on my way home from work.

I think these are perfect.

I paid £3.50 for one at Tesco.

 

[dynamicbrewer]

Hi,

Just wondering if this method of putting the FV in a bucket and surrounding with water has been successful for you as I'd like to try the same set up. Is the idea to preheat the water you put into the storage bin? If it was cold water would it lower the beer temp too much?

Thanks

Ben

 

[pittsy]

i do this method and you can get perfect temp control , what i do is also add digital thermometer probe (fish tank type £4) into my brew as inside temp will be different to outside water temp because of yeast action , this way you can adjust if and when you like ( heater won't be the most accurate of things best to trust probe thermometer)

 

[dynamicbrewer]

Nice one,

Just order a 100Watt heater through that link so I'll grab a thermometer too and give it a go. The temp of where I am planning to brew should be within the parameters suggested but I was worried about fluctuation so hopefully this will sort that out.

Ben

 

[marksa222]

Now there's a clever idea!

Have ordered the heater and will go pick up a plastic box big enough for the FV on my way home from work.

I think these are perfect.

I paid £3.50 for one at Tesco.

Hi, I'm sorry to recycle old posts, I was just wondering, I have this exact same bucket. My FV will fit in, but with only a an inch or 2 of space between the edge of the bucket and the edge of the FV. I just wondered, if the heater is touching either of these when it is on, is it at all dangerous? Do you get some kind of cradle to sit it in when using it? Thanks

 

[PD]

usually 2 rubber suckers that can be stuck on the fv,a couple of inches space all round is fine.

 

[marksa222]

usually 2 rubber suckers that can be stuck on the fv,a couple of inches space all round is fine.

Sorry, I should have explained better. My concern is the heater with the holder may be touching the fv, if not very close to touching it.

 

[pittsy]

what i do is place something next to the heater and fv to make sure you haven't got a hot spot , a slip of wood or something will do .

 

[Fil]

its worth while investing the extra in a builders heavy duty trub, especially if your ferminting in the corner of a carpeted room. storage boxes can get very brittle with just a small amount of UV.. fyi i left one in the north facing window of the garage over winter, it disintegrated when i tried humping it aside the other day!!!

to solve the tight fit issue get a couple of bricks and sit the F vessel on them with the heater underneath in the void...

its best to ensure that the heater is not touching anything, they can overheat!!

I used a 25w heater in a trub with warm water covering the bottom 6 inches of the fermentation bucket. the only problem was it made the taps on my FV s redundant

 

[marksa222]

its worth while investing the extra in a builders heavy duty trub, especially if your ferminting in the corner of a carpeted room. storage boxes can get very brittle with just a small amount of UV.. fyi i left one in the north facing window of the garage over winter, it disintegrated when i tried humping it aside the other day!!!

to solve the tight fit issue get a couple of bricks and sit the F vessel on them with the heater underneath in the void...

its best to ensure that the heater is not touching anything, they can overheat!!

I used a 25w heater in a trub with warm water covering the bottom 6 inches of the fermentation bucket. the only problem was it made the taps on my FV s redundant

Ahh bricks... genius!
The tub I have is really flexible so I'll put them at the side and stretch it out a bit to leave more of a gap between the bucket and the fv. It'll also allow more water so reduce the chances of overheating. Would a tap cause too many issues do you think? I will have to buy a new FV and a syphon if it will complicate things

 

[Fil]

as long as the tap fits in it wont stop you using a bath, but using the tap could be tricky so a syphon may be the answer.