Fish tank heater directly in fv.....pros and cons?

[evanvine]

Good god, some one's agreed with me!
Is this something to do with your santa hat being red and not black Alistair? :whistle:

 

[graysalchemy]

I actually agree with alot of what you say because you are very knowledgeable Jim :thumb: :thumb:

 

[evanvine]

Wot you after?? :twisted:

 

[graysalchemy]

:lol: :lol:

Nowt

 

[boost]

Crikey....didnt mean to start an argument! lol

I'm absolutely sure that the water bath method is probably the best, however I'm still not convinced it is the best solution for my garage. I haven't had a thermometer in there but it really is cold. Will be great in summer though!

The quickest and easiest method for me to try is definitely the heater in FV method, which is why I asked the question originally, to check it really had worked for people. In time I may well switch to the water bath idea, or even build something a bit more trick......I'm an electronics engineer, I just don't have much spare time......or money!

Incidentally, Evanvine, we must nearly be neighbours, I live near kings mill!

 

[evanvine]

Incidentally, Evanvine, we must nearly be neighbours, I live near kings mill!

We must meet up for a pint and a chat about brewing!
I don't seem to be able to find you on the Forum map?

 

[jebrug]

I have been using the FV in a tub with fish tank heater (£8 for a 200w heater)for several years and it is pretty foolproof, especially as the heater normally has its own built in thermostat. So just set it and leave. My outer tub is only 50mm larger all round than the FV so its not a lot of water to heat, and I just cover the whole jobbie with a blanket in very cold weather. It pays to lift the bottom of the FV about 50mm on a couple of blocks to avoid a getting a cold bottom. :-)

 

[winnywood]

I reckon i got the best method i use a electric blanket wired up to a temp controller with the thermocouple directly in the brew.
Get electric double blanket fold in half.
Wrap around fv and sew together.
Wrap silver foil around and hey presto a fv heater works a treat and with my eurotherm controller (pid) i can controll to 0.1 degree.

 

[winnywood]

Looks a bit beat up now but have been using it for 4 years now.

 

[aamcle]

I use a fridge with a heater and a stc1000 but I have used a low wattage fish tank heater. I didn't have any problems with it but it obviously didn't cool so I moved over to a FreeCycle fridge.

If the watt density of the heater is low enough ie the heater is big relative to its power then the risk of burning the wort is minimal.


Atb. Aamcle

 

[Monte Cristo]

I have a tall plastic box bought from Superdrug that doesn't take up that much more space than the FV. The heater and box totalled under £20 and seen as you have a larger family Boost i'm sure you may have a spare single duvet to wrap around to insulate, works a treat mine stays bang on temperature.

 

[oldjiver]

I am doing my 23 litre brew in my shed now. Its in a square plastic drawer water bath (the water not the beer) then the lot is wrapped with a bit of spare bubble wrap. Its a 25watt fish heater and its keeping it at a steady 19.5 deg. (most of the time, it did drop a bit with the sharp frost last night.)

 

[andyakameatloaf]

I bought a kids Flexi-tub (with a horrific "Moshi Monsters" logo on it :sick:) from Asda for £5, 50 watt fish tank heater from eBay for £4.

sit the FV in it, fill with water to about 4/5ths height of the fv, set fish tank heater on 21 degrees, gives a perfect temperature of 18 degrees to my wort. don't even have to insulate. thermostatically controlled so it switches off when temp is reached.

easy as that, all for less than a tenner. Don't have to santise anything extra, wort remains sealed, takes up about 4inch more space in width than the FV would anyway, and I can use the tub for brewing storage when not in use.

I don't see myself switching from this method unless I decide to try to lager (Y)

 

[evanvine]

Its in a square plastic drawer water bath

I use exactly the same method OJ, only with a 150w heater!
It might be worth mentioning here that aquarium glass tube heaters containing both heater and thermostat in the same tube are designed to be used horizontally!

 

[winelight]

I don't see myself switching from this method unless I decide to try to lager (Y)

Last summer when the temperature was 35 it was quite useful to have a brewfridge to keep the wort at 18C...

 

[oldjiver]

Its in a square plastic drawer water bath

I use exactly the same method OJ, only with a 150w heater!
It might be worth mentioning here that aquarium glass tube heaters containing both heater and thermostat in the same tube are designed to be used horizontally!

I never knew that EV, I will stand it up in future. :thumb: I never knew about thermometers getting bubbles if you lay them down either, thought it was just a fault.I've been brewing for 40 years and still learning tricks! :thumb:

 

[boost]

I actually ended up with the fv in a tub after all. The fish tank heater came with a sealed type plug and I didn't have a spare normal plug, so I could cut the plug off to feed it through the lid. I came across a perfectly sized tub in the garage that is just enough wider than the fv to fit the heater in. I've insulated the sides with a camping mat and the top and bottom with some polystyrene. It works amazingly well! First cider is bottled and second is brewing :)

 

[nobyipa]

:thumb:
thats the way to do it
:hat:

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Boost - Coming from a saltwater marine side initially (random i know), immersion heaters were always 'wrapped' in a protective cover to stop fish/coral from burning themselves on the unit - how could you possibly protect yeast from touching the glass and burning themselves to smithereens's??? Wouldn't that then leave you with a perpetual cycle of frazzled yeast as they convected around the vessel and touched the glass?? I would hazard a guess that after a few hours of heating, especially if the outside temp' is cool (therefore the heater is constantly heating), your yeast wouldn't last too long !!

What have you got against putting your FV in a metal bath (like you could buy from a garden centre to bath your dog!!) and putting one or two decent heaters in the water then submerging the FV up to the bottle neck/rim ?? Same effect i would have thought but with a considerably more stable and even heat dispersion.

WW

As a marine reef keeper myself, for the last 19 years (700li sps with fish) I have never had a fish burn itself on a heater. The outside temp of the heater is ...whatever you set it to, try it, touch the heater, it not hot (26oC), it will be warmer than the surrounding water column, but not enough to damage any yeast in a fermenting brew.
P.S. I have often wondered what you would get if you put a protein skimmer in a brew?
I have used a fish tank heater directly into a brew, worked well, but the downside is its a lot of faffing about. Water baths are fine, if you want to go down that route, but very expensive to run (check the core temp of your brew, not the temp of the waterbath/trug.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

I actually ended up with the fv in a tub after all. The fish tank heater came with a sealed type plug and I didn't have a spare normal plug, so I could cut the plug off to feed it through the lid. I came across a perfectly sized tub in the garage that is just enough wider than the fv to fit the heater in. I've insulated the sides with a camping mat and the top and bottom with some polystyrene. It works amazingly well! First cider is bottled and second is brewing :)

Please, please, please used a RCD