Heater/Chiller units

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

shroppie

Active Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2010
Messages
22
Reaction score
1
Hello All,

Does anyone know anything about the chiller/heater units on the MoreBeer conical fermenters? Or something similar that a Ranco or Johnson controller can run attached to the vessel?

Thanks
 
IIRC the Morebeer conicals are cooled and heated using Peltier coolers, Which to really do the job properly draw quite a bit of current (read expensive DC Supplies). . . . I think they are a great solution . . . but a simple heating belt and python chiller is much simpler to set up and control.

Peltier coolers can be had quite cheaply something like around 30 dollars . . . but the DC supplies are much more expensive . . . . and you have to remove the heat from the hot junction as well. . . . I've played around with Peltier cooling in PC's (Super cooling the refrigerant in the water cooling loop) and ended up with 1KW DC power supplies to drive the Peltier arrays . . . . Was totally insane but then I was over clocking a 2.4GHz processor at 5GHz and hitting CPU temps of under 50C at full load.
 
I am not an engineer so some of your reply is over my head. So, in straight forward language, what would I need to build a similar unit to the Morebeer conical which is temp. controlled?
I already have a Minibrew conical.
Thanks, s
 
I've got a peltier cooler I've been playing with making into an fan cooler type thing. I've been fighting to get a PC power supply to work to give it power with very little luck so far. If I can get it to work I was considering doing the same thing to cool my fermenter....
Peltier coolers are things you run a lot of current through, one side gets hot and the other gets cold. You stick a load of heat sinks on the hot side and put the cold side onto whatever you want to cool down.
 
shroppie said:
I am not an engineer so some of your reply is over my head. So, in straight forward language, what would I need to build a similar unit to the Morebeer conical which is temp. controlled?
I already have a Minibrew conical.
Thanks, s
In that case look at a much simpler solution . . . Larder fridge with a tube heater in, controlled with One of These . . The Johnson/Ranco units you hear about are predominantly used in the US
 

Latest posts

Back
Top