Brew chamber tube heater problems

[Markg1968]

I’ve been brewing for a couple of years with a brewing chamber in my garage constructed from an old fridge, a temperature controller and a 60 W tube heater. I seem to get intermittent problems with the tube heater that seems to suddenly cut out without notice but then starts to work again after a period of time. I’ve had the same problems with a previous tube heater in the past that I replaced. On both occasions it seemed to be when the ambient temperature is low so I don’t know if there is some kind of safety cut out on these that switches off the heater for a period of time? It happened last night and I couldn’t get the heater to switch on when connected directly to the mains. I came down this morning and the chamber temperature had fallen overnight to 17 c ( set value =18 C +/- 0.3 C) but the heater had kicked in. Has anyone else had similar problems? Anyone got a more reliable safe alternative to a tube heater?

 

[Gerryjo]

Possibly the thermal cutout kicking in and takes a while to reset. I use one of these and no issues whatsoever over 2 years.