Keeping a ferment at an ideal temperature

bcook608

This is mostly for those of us who are still using relatively small fermenters. I have found this 1500w pool heater:
https://a.co/d/fjiv3GK
When I'm doing a smaller ferment (3 five gallon buckets) I'll plug this into an ink bird with a splitter on the heating side coupled with an aquarium pump to create a super sized hit water bath using my bath tub. When the heater kicks in, so does the pump so the water heats up quicker and I don't have to have the heater on too long. The probe goes in the bucket in the middle (I can line up up to 4 buckets in my tub before it starts getting crowded) so the ink bird reads the actual wash temp instead of just the water temp.
It works amazingly! Heats up super fast
The same thing could be done with a heavy duty tote, but I would wrap some mesh around it to make sure it doesn't melt the sides of the container.
Hope this helps some of you looking for a simple effective solution to fermentation temp.
Edited for safety.Last edited by bcook608 on Tue Nov 01, 2022 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.- New users start here
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squigglefunk

doesn't really look like its meant for things you consume.

squigglefunk

first review at the top: When you pull it out lots of pieces of plastic fall from it, every time. I think it is the cord inside that heats up that is covered in plastic.

squigglefunk

ah I see you're using it to heat a water bath - that seems OK, not using it to directly heat ferments or strike water

bcook608

ah I see you're using it to heat a water bath - that seems OK, not using it to directly heat ferments or strike waterYeah, I haven't used it for strike water yet and now I probably won't.- New users start here
- A message to new users
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buchrob

Saw something interesting in another post. Fill a bottle with water, place the aquarium heater in the middle, seal the top and put that assembly into your fermentation vessel. Buffers the heat so that nothing in the mash will burn and isolates any questionable components.

NZChris

The controller should be controlling the bath temperature.
If the probe is in a cold fermenter, that 1500W heater could push the bath temperature very high before the fermenter temperature reaches the setpoint, then the fermenter temperature keeps rising above the setpoint until the bath cools.  By the time the fermenter has cooled to the setpoint, the bath will be colder than the fermenter.

cob

【Safety Tip】1.Make sure completely immersed in water in working condition. 2.Do not use it for more than 3 hours continuously! 3.Please do not plug the two heaters into the same outlet to avoid fire hazards. 4.Please take out the pool heater before touching the water!
3 hour time limit looks real handy.be water my friend

ThomasBrewer

I use 100W aquarium heaters set a little above my fermentation temperature, and then use an Inkbird seedling heat mat controller with submersible probe to do the fine control exactly where I want it. Should either of the thermostats fail (aquarium bimetallic or the Inkbird digital), the other should keep things from burning.