heater prob.

[spudbasher]

Hi,question about aquarium type heaters ,I have a 5 gall.beer brew struggling in a cold celler, I remembered that I had an aquarium type heated stowed in the shed ,never used. It is designed for beer or wine and has an adjustable temp control (which wont move, may be seized ,been in shed ten years!).It works ok that is I plugged it in ,the light came on and it got warm,thing is the instructions are basic just saying that the glass must be totally submerged and thats it.
Can it be fully submerged ? Its ok if it cant, as the cable is fed through a drilled bung with another hole for airlock any can be dangled just right , but I just wondered is it critical?
Also, anyone know how hot the brew can get as I don't know if the temp knob is seized on high low or halfway.
I have a brew thermometer so will be checking ,its in a cold cellar so I am hoping even if its stuck on high temp it will be ok ,any thoughts? :

 

[timbim]

If the case is somewhat old and becoming somewhat rusty or otherwise nasty and you don't fancy dunking it in the brew, I'd suggest building a water bath for your fermenter.

Get a large plastic tub/storage crate that will hold water, and ideally is either just over the full height of your fermenter with the air lock installed, or just over half the height. In the latter case, you'l need two boxes.

The technique from there is to insulate the box well, add some water and the fermenter, so that the water comes a fair way, perhaps a third of the way, up the fermenter, but take care to ensure you don't get an overflow, so stand the fermenter in the box and then add the water. Put the heater in the water in the box and plug it in, and it should keep the temperature ideal and stable. The insulation is key for this, celotex, hot water tank lagging, sleeping bags/mats, whatever takes your fancy and you happen to have lying around is best. You'll also want some way of insulating it from the floor, perhaps by making a frame from 2x1 and standing the box on that, with insulation packed into the spaces. The entire arrangement is getting quite heavy at this point, so it needs to be stood on the floor, and the frame would need to support the weight fairly well, especially directly under the fermenter, or you could end up with a significant flood and a brew leaking out across the floor.

BigYin has had success in fitting a heater directly to a fermenter in much the manner you described, but I'd be wary of that, especially with an old/dodgy heater. With this technique, you can easily scale up to two fermenters in the water bath etc, and no risk of contamination from the heater, fewer bits to clean between brews etc.

Others have built cupboards or even modified fridges to do similar things without recourse to a water bath, but if you've already got the heater, a water bath may well be the most sensible way to go.

Tim

 

[spudbasher]

Cheers Tim.
Yes, I've seen the tanks you described on the forums before sound like a good idea,thing is the brew i,ve got going now has been sitting doing nothing for 2 days and I wanted to fire it up before it goes off!
I can lift it off the floor (good idea) and have loads of industrial bubble wrap from work,the heater itself looks like new ,just a stiff temp knob which I dont want to force, just needed to know if it needs the top to be kept out of the brew really,cheers ,Spud. :grin:

 

[timbim]

They're totally submersible.

Just be sure to get a good seal if you do run the cable through the wall of the FV, BigYin did it through a rubber bung of greater diameter than the heater, I think so that the entire assembly could easily be removed for cleaning etc. Thread about it here