Fermentor cooler

[Alelover]

Just wondered if anyone had any input into a project I want to start.
I have an idea to make a FV cooler. The FV is made from stainless steel keg with a stainless cone on the bottom. My plan is to use a fridge compressor and heat exchanger, but replace what would be the coils inside the fridge with copper tubing which will be wrapped tightly around the FV and refilled with refridgerant. The whole FV would then be wrapped in insulating material. A temp probe / switching box would power up the compressor when the temperature inside the FV rose above what was required.
Has anyone seen or tried anything like this before?

[denimglen]

I dunno about a complete tear-down and rebuild but I have seen a guy in the US that dismantled a small fridge, kept everything intact and managed to reshape it to his liking. I'll see if I can find it for you.

I'd also look at something to heat it as well.

This is what I use as a thermostat as temp control, highly recommended.

To be completely honest I'd say what you're thinking of is a bit excessive, most people, myself included, are just using a fridge/freezer with temp control and it works completely fine and keeps within 0.5C depending on temp controller. But hey, if you wanna build, I say go for it, nothing better than the satisfaction of making something yourself.

[Mike Neilson]

Wow, that seems complicated!! Gett a little chest freezer hook at tempmate up with a heat pad a wala temp controled fermentation. As Denim said it keeps it within .5 of a degree and can brew any beer and step ferment what more do you want?

[Alelover]

Thanks for the replies, this is my first set up so I suppose it would pay to go with what is tried and tested. Does it have to be a heater pad or will a belt do the trick?

[denimglen]

I can't see any reason why a belt wouldn't work.