Heating in a fridge

[Chris P]

I am the proud owner of a new fridge freezer big enough for me to ferment in. The fridge works and the freezer doesn't. I can fit my fermenter in the fridge part so with a stc-1000 I can do the cooling part. I can't find clear info on the BEST heating to get (for someone not doing their own wiring etc as the stc-1000 set up I am looking at getting is plug in and walk away type deal).

I read about heatmats/belts and lamps and even fan heaters of sorts but am not sure which is the way to go.

Any help would be appreciated, 

Chris

[Matt Smith]

I just use an electric blacket wrapped around the fermenter, set to low and with a shirt or something in between to keep the heating gentle. It's connected to the heating outlet of my temp controller so it only comes on when I need it to. It was about $20 from the warehouse from memory. Not sure if its the safest option there is, but I've been taking my chances.

[Smiffy]

I'm using a 60 watt light bulb. I'm currently experimenting with a ferment at 22 C, and its having no problem keeping the fermenter at that temperature despite the cold weather yesterday. A ceiling type lamp fitting screwed into the top corner of the fridge (where it can't be knocked by the fermenter, or have beer spilled on it), wire straight through the side of the fridge to the stc-1000 stuck on top of the fridge.

For heat circulation, having the heat source lower would be better, but then the bulb would be in danger from the legs of my stand when I'm putting the full fermenter into the fridge. The very bottom area would be too much risk of spraying the bulb with hop sludge (like I did a few days ago, opening the tap a bit too quick with a bit too much pressure build up, and the hop residue having formed a bit of a "plug".)

[Tilt]

Currenlty I use two brew heat pads I picked up on Trademe - but previously a cheap and easy option was a $8 breakdown light with a 60W globe from bunnings with the bayonet fitting pushed through the (widened) hole in the bottom of a terracotta flower pot.  This gave of plenty of heat and avoided light exposure affecting the beer as well as protecting the globe.  All connected up to a temp controller it was pretty good - but took up more room than the heat pads do.

[Chris P]

Awesome ideas with the lamps... are there many available prewired or did you guys set up that yourselves?

Not too much of a sparky guru haha! 

I do have an electric blanket but not sure if the wife will forgive me if I take out the house haha!

[Smiffy]

I wired a lamp up myself, but if you're not sure about doing it yourself, you probably know someone who can.

Don't worry about exposing the fermenter to the light, its only UV which affects beer.

[Tilt]

This is the sort of thing I used

No need to wire anything up - just take the cage off with a screwdriver, push the light globe bayonet fitting through a hole in your pot and plug the globe in.  Then plug the cord into a temp controller.  Initially I think i even used it with a timer set to go on for 15minutes every hour.  Took a bit of trial and error to get it right but worked OK as a cheap and quick solution.

[Ralph]

another option which comes up on trademe every so often is old wardrobe heaters. Pretty low wattage and look like a steel bar with a wired plug coming out the end...

I use a 40w foot warmer. It was designed to go under a desk and keep your feet warm... works fine.

Pretty much anything that is a heat source will do the trick!

[Chris P]

Sweet as. Was just wondering why some people dont like the heat pad/belt option...

[Smiffy]

A light bulb is cheaper, and with the fitting fixed inside the fridge it is "fit and forget" and if it ever turned out not to be powerful enough, it would be easy to swap for a higher wattage. The down side is that it will blow at some point, but having fitted low energy "bulbs" in many of the house lamps, I have plenty of spare bulbs.

Its not that I don't like a heat pad/belt.

[Adam Sparks]

heat pad for me..... And it has no problem getting right up into the high twenties for the odd saison.

[Chad Keven]

i use a tiny 20w "cuboard" downlight 12v halogen wired through the de frost drain in the fridge its enough heat to get 50L brew to 25 deg it might go higher but ive never had any reason to go warmer.

these are piss easy to wire 240v in, 12v out i screwed the transformer thing neatly to the back of the fridge, the lamp is screwed to the butter conditioner inside. no worries 

[Liam Callaghan]

Anyone using fans in the fridges?

I use a small pc fan in my biltong cabinet which works a treat, just not sure how they would go in a fridge or freezer.

Go the mighty bulb!  My heating method of choice.