Heat pad help

[Daddynoob]

Am thinking of buying this
Will it get me up to temperature for lager or will I need to buy a thermostat
Or just get a brew belt
Want to keep it at temperature in the shed

 

[Gerryjo]

Am thinking of buying this
Will it get me up to temperature for lager or will I need to buy a thermostat
Or just get a brew belt
Want to keep it at temperature in the shed

You'll hardly need one for a lager but certainly for ale and they are fine in an enclosed insulated cupboard or a fermentation chamber which is a fridge with a hot/cold controller as I use one myself.

 

[Daddynoob]

Shed will be really cold though
So I just need a temperature controller

 

[spike210957]

I'm in the same boat. I want to do my next fermentation in the garden shed which is getting as low as 4.3C at night. Would one of these under a 25L bin be up to the job? I could insulate the bin with something....

 

[terrym]

Recent similar thread here
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/temp-control-in-a-shed-in-winter.91016

 

[Daddynoob]

Will a reptile thermostat be ok to use with this
Was going to see if I could fit 2 fvs on it

 

[lupinehorror]

i use a plastic 25L, plonk it on a £12 heat pad, insulate it with industrial bubble wrap (including the lid) and it keeps 20C going with ambient of 5C

could set the precision closer if i wanted on the inkbird but 1C variance ish is ok for me.
not a lager but the same principle applies.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Remember to put a bit of insulation (e.g. old blanket) between the heat pad and the FV to avoid local overheating

 

[Daddynoob]

Thanks for that

 

[Ezza]

I got one of these for my shed brew bath,20 quid on Amazon and no fiddly diy wiring unlike my Inkbird.

 

[Daddynoob]

Was thinking of a brew bath
Got a heat thing with a job lot I just bought
But I think it’s a fish tank type which is ok
But want to try and do a couple tv together on one pad if possible

 

[Daddynoob]

If I used a large vivarium heat pad could I attach a thermostat and place 2 fvs on it at the same time ?

 

[lupinehorror]

If I used a large vivarium heat pad could I attach a thermostat and place 2 fvs on it at the same time ?

i've used two smaller FV on a single heatpad with a single temp sensor and it worked fine. just make sure they're using the same amount of area on the pad.

 

[Sandozer]

Been using a standard aquarium heater/thermostat, works well. (60W)

 

[Daddynoob]

Would this be ok to use with a thermostat
I might get 2 fvs on

 

[Daddynoob]

Was also looking at these

 

[HarryFlatters]

I use an Inkbird 308 to control either a heat pad (a seed germination one) or a heat belt.

Or I use an Inkbird to control both, if I'm using Kveik

 

[Daddynoob]

Really wanted to do a couple of fvs at the same time

 

[Chippy_Tea]

A member posted this back in 2014 -

Also see Terrys version here - How to Set up a Water Bath for your FV

A good and cheap solution to setup is a storage container, from Wilkos or Ikea etc, to stand the FV in, add some water to create a water bath and heat that water bath using a 100watt Aquarium heater.

The aquarium heater can be set using the dial to hold a given temp, I have 2 of these setups in my garage and they work really well at heating above ambient (cool) temperature and holding a brew at a constant temp (20°C or whatever) during fermentation.

A few things to point out:
1. You need a FV without a tap - just a bucket type.
2. Make sure you syphon out the water bath before syphoning your beer out of the FV, otherwise as you syphon the beer the FV floats and tips over.
3. You only need around 200mm deep of water in the bath - no need to completely submerge the FV in deep water.

Storage container will be £6 or £8 and about the same for the aquarium heater off Ebay.

Here is my setup in the garage - I have covered the water bath to get a bit better power efficiency but no need to do that really in a spare room (my garage gets very cool in the winter).

 

[Daddynoob]

Was tempted to do the bath method
But was also told the heaters use a lot of electricity
Wanted a large pad similar to the one above so I can fit 2 fvs on and heat together using a thermostat