Water heaters

GHW · Oct 21, 2015

I'm thinking of getting a water heater; fish tank style or otherwise to keep my fvs warm under the stairs. It gets a bit chilly in winter.

Anyone got a recommendation? There's loads on Amazon from ÃÂ£6 upward.

I've got one of these the fv can sit in, but I've no idea how powerful I'd need it to be.
http://www.diy.com/departments/active-black-plastic-40-l-multi-purpose-bucket/35496_BQ.prd

Leon103 · Oct 21, 2015

I have both a 25 and 50 watt heater both work the same. The more wattage is needed to heat bugger volumes of water.

TheRedDarren · Oct 21, 2015

I would honestly recommend building a fermentation fridge, you could do it for ÃÂ£50 and it's very straight forward mate.

GHW · Oct 21, 2015

Leon103 said:
I have both a 25 and 50 watt heater both work the same. The more wattage is needed to heat bugger volumes of water.

How much is a bugger volume? Joking. I'll probably get a 25w then.

@ reddarren. I'd love a brew fridge, nowhere to keep one though.

Berty · Oct 21, 2015

It depends how much water you are going to put in it. With that size if you are using a 25l f.v a 25w heater should do. I just went through all the research whilst setting mine up. From what I got from it a 25w will heat up up to 25-30litres of water whilst a 50w will obviously heat more. If the ambiant room temp is really low then go for the higher option but if indoors like mine then a 25w should cope. I used a 69litre tuff tub. Measured a line in there where 25l rose too, emptied water- put in my f.v and filled bk up to the marked line so i knew that it was exactly right. My heater is set at 25c, water bath is reading 22c and my f.v. reading 20c. Hope this helps, i'm new to this myself so been scouring web and forum last few weeks

GHW · Oct 21, 2015

Cheers berty, def only a 25w needed then, there won't be that much space for water round the fv, so I won't be heating tens of litres. Suspect I'll need to do a fair bit of calibration rather than trust the temp setting on the heater. Will order something off amazon that gets good reviews

Leon103 · Oct 21, 2015

Berty said:
It depends how much water you are going to put in it. With that size if you are using a 25l f.v a 25w heater should do. I just went through all the research whilst setting mine up. From what I got from it a 25w will heat up up to 25-30litres of water whilst a 50w will obviously heat more. If the ambiant room temp is really low then go for the higher option but if indoors like mine then a 25w should cope. I used a 69litre tuff tub. Measured a line in there where 25l rose too, emptied water- put in my f.v and filled bk up to the marked line so i knew that it was exactly right. My heater is set at 25c, water bath is reading 22c and my f.v. reading 20c. Hope this helps, i'm new to this myself so been scouring web and forum last few weeks

How much of your FV is covered?

Racinsnake · Oct 22, 2015

Hi I use a 50w interpret in a builders trug covered by a towel in the garage, it is a good idea to check temps with a thermometer as my heater is 1 degree out, other than that the set ups spot on.

Berty · Oct 22, 2015

Only a third of my f.v is submerged in water. It has kept it a constant 20c in my f.v. The size of waterbath maybe excessive but it was strong and circular to give an even heat around as opposed to rectangle ones so i've read. Another reason I used a tuff tub is that I keep my f.v upstairs in spare room, if there was to be a problem or a leak from f.v (tap version) it wouldn't be able to over flow and come through the ceiling! Doubt my girlfriend would be too impressed if that did happen.

Leon103 · Oct 22, 2015

Will try it with my next brew in a trub rather than putting the heater straight in the fv

Berty · Oct 22, 2015

My girlfriends dad has just gone with the heater straight into the f.v. method. It will be interesting to see the differences

Leon103 · Oct 22, 2015

I haven't had an issue. People say they are hard to clean but I find then ok. I can pull the dial apart to make sure it's all sterile

Revsevs · Oct 22, 2015

I would use a strap on heater as the fish tank heater suffers from hot spots and is more expensive to run. If you do use the ftank heater dont fully immerse it in the water, leave the temp control out of the water! Under the stairs i have a used a small oil filled radiator with a built in thermo and that worked well. Happy brewing

Leon103 · Oct 23, 2015

I thought the instructions said to fuller immerse them

Berty · Oct 23, 2015

Mine did too. It also said not to have the heater vertically or horizontally either but set it on diagonal. Don't know why that is?

Bevvied · Oct 23, 2015

Berty said:
Mine did too. It also said not to have the heater vertically or horizontally either but set it on diagonal. Don't know why that is?

This is quite common for aquarium heaters. It's because (obviously) heat rises. With the heater at a diagonal, the thermostat at the top reacts more evenly, more uniform. Generally, if the heater is horizontal, water temp will be a little higher than temperature selected, if it's vertical, water temp will be a little lower. It's all down to the thermostat reading (and reacting to) the heated water that rises you see. In an aquarium the difference is often minimal as water is constantly being pumped around, but in static water like a trug/water bath etc, I'd follow manufacturers placement recommendations to the letter.

timcunnell · Oct 23, 2015

TheRedDarren said:
I would honestly recommend building a fermentation fridge, you could do it for Ã¯Â¿Â½ÃÂ£50 and it's very straight forward mate.

+1 to the brew fridge plan. This really is the only sure-fire way of getting your fermenting beer to remain stable at the temp you want. The good thing with a brew fridge is that it works all year round, so very useful in the summer too when it gets too warm. And means you can do proper lagering with a cold ferment at 12c or whatever too.

I know a lot of people are turned off to the idea of a brew fridge because they think they are expensive and you've basically got to be an electrician to make one. But neither of these are the case. I got a fridge for free (and if you look on Gumtree you can get fridges for free, or very close to free). Then all you need is a temp controller from eBay for less than a tenner, and a heater (mine cost ÃÂ£12).

On YouTube there are tons of videos of people fully explaining how to set one of. The wiring is really no harder than wiring a plug.

Berty · Oct 23, 2015

That makes sense about the positioning about aquarium heater

elderberry · Oct 23, 2015

i am a 25w man for 1 gallons and 5 gallons and i fully submerge the aquarium heater in either

GHW · Oct 23, 2015

timcunnell said:
+1 to the brew fridge plan. This really is the only sure-fire way of getting your fermenting beer to remain stable at the temp you want. The good thing with a brew fridge is that it works all year round, so very useful in the summer too when it gets too warm. And means you can do proper lagering with a cold ferment at 12c or whatever too.

I know a lot of people are turned off to the idea of a brew fridge because they think they are expensive and you've basically got to be an electrician to make one. But neither of these are the case. I got a fridge for free (and if you look on Gumtree you can get fridges for free, or very close to free). Then all you need is a temp controller from eBay for less than a tenner, and a heater (mine cost Ã¯Â¿Â½ÃÂ£12).

On YouTube there are tons of videos of people fully explaining how to set one of. The wiring is really no harder than wiring a plug.

NSFFF

Which I believe is the commonly accepted online forum abbreviation for 'no space for a flippin fridge'.

I would like a fridge, don't get me wrong, and while space is the main problem, I only really need heating. If I brewed all year round I'd have about 20x more beer than I can drink, so my main concern is maintaining a decent temp when the house gets cold overnight in deep midwinter

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