Hello everybody! First time poster:Reptile mats

[braesider]

Hi everybody first post on this forum although i have been trawling it a few months its fantstic, can anybody advise on the use of a reptile mat for heating are they any good? and can you put demis and beer buckets directly on top of them without damaging them, thanks in advance for your replies

Brian

 

[timbim]

I've had a demijohn sat in an old propagator with some sand in for a while now, and sand is the way to go. If the mat doesn't have a built in thermostat, then you'll need some way of controlling the temperature. I'd put the mat in the bottom of a shallow box/plant pot tray, cover with a generous helping of playpit sand, and put the demijohns on top of that. I've got mine sat on a couple of bits of wood, and then I can pack the sand in underneath them or remove it to control the heat transfer to the demijohn.

 

[braesider]

nice to meet you timbim, how much sand over the mat do you reckon couple inches ?

 

[timbim]

Sounds about right. The key is to raise the fermenters above the sand with bits of wood etc. Not far, but enough that you can adjust the amount of contact between the sand and fermenter.

 

[stevander74]

Hi Braesider.
I had exactly the same idea as my fv(5 gal) was getting too cold and i had an old heatpad. So ive decided to find out if it works. Ive filled my fv with water and sat it directly onto the heatmat and ill check it regularly to see how hot it gets. i dont expect it to heat up enough to be dangerous but it might rise too high for fermentation.
Im going to put a post in beer discussions with my results so keep an eye on that.
Welcome to the forum by the way :thumb:
Steve

 

[braesider]

Thanks for the advice Timbim and Steve much appreciated