Exercise Mats from Lidl ...

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Dutto

Dutto

Landlord.
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... are 10mm thick, made from a dense foam and make excellent insulated covers for fermentation vessels; and are dead easy to cut and fit with a pair of scissors.

I use a Heat Pad and have so far covered the FV with an old lifejacket and a couple of duvet covers; all held in place with bungee cord and string.

It looked a complete mess, even though it did the job, and the new cover looks a lot neater and is probably better insulation as well.

My wife got quite excited when I purchase the exercise mat in Lidl this afternoon, but gave the usual long drawn out sigh when she discovered what it would be used for brewing! :whistle: :whistle:

The mats will probably be taken off the shelves before the end of the week so if you need one I suggest that you hurry down to your local Lidl. :thumb: :thumb:
 
Nice one I'll get down there when I get up later...reading the paper in work last night I noticed they have some thick fleece lined shirts in too...ideal for when hiding in my brew shed! Anyhow...why are you still up at stupid o'clock? That time I was like dawn of the dead in the chair watching the stuff we make going by....zzzzzzzzzzz.....

Cheers

Clint
 
I thought I would show you a photograph or three of what 20 minutes work can achieve! :thumb:

I doubled up the thickness on the circular insert to the lid and it will all come off to allow the FV to be sanitised.

The last photograph is what the new insulation will replace! :whistle:

Exercise Mat1.jpg


Exercise Mat2.jpg


Exercise Mat No!.jpg
 
BeerCat said:
Cool post Dutto mate, you always make me laugh. Is this suitable to put on my boil kettle? Its very thin and i am losing a heck of a lot of heat from the sides.
Click to expand...

I don't see why not if it is an electric boiler because most polyurethane foams have a melting point well above 100 degrees.

I have a strip of mat left so I intend to test it by boiling an off-cut just to make sure that it won't melt at 100 degrees and then fit it high up on my own boiler which is a standard gas boiler.

This is the burner I use ...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/6041755117/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It's a bit underpowered (especially in winter) but as the boiler covers the burner completely, I'm hoping (praying?) that the mat will be well away from any naked flames and therefore won't melt.

Here's hoping! :thumb:

BTW Lidl also have a variety of tapes on sale at the moment and I can recommend them; especially the aluminium one.

New Boiler.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Very neat! Do you think the foam mat offers the same amount of insulation as your original method? Was there much left over..perhaps you could double up?

Cheers

Clint
 
I hope that it will be better than the lifejacket and duvet covers because there were so many gaps in the system.

I've boiled up a piece of the mat and the only thing that happened was that it bent towards the black side. I think that this was caused because there is more air in the grey bit and when it expanded it caused the slight bending.

When I removed the bit of mat there was absolutely no water inside so it's a sealed system. I have started putting together a wrap for the boiler as well to prevent heat loss when boiling. :thumb:
 
..we make pu from scratch in work both film and expanded foam...it's made from pretty dangerous stuff....dimethyl formamide (dmf ) and iso cyanate as a curing agent,amongst other things.The product becomes fairly inert and stable post manufacture with most voc gasses driven our. ..I'm not too sure what happens if you reheat or burn though...a bit of research i recon incase you fill your room with toxic fumes...

Cheers

Clint
 
Clint said:
..we make pu from scratch in work both film and expanded foam...it's made from pretty dangerous stuff....dimethyl formamide (dmf ) and iso cyanate as a curing agent,amongst other things.The product becomes fairly inert and stable post manufacture with most voc gasses driven our. ..I'm not too sure what happens if you reheat or burn though...a bit of research i recon incase you fill your room with toxic fumes...

Cheers

Clint
Click to expand...

I always brew outside and have no intention of melting, never mind burning, the stuff.

I agree that the products of combustion are probably (like 99.9% probably) highly toxic and therefore to be avoided at all costs.

It's a sad fact that, in most house fires, anyone who dies is almost always killed by the toxic fumes that are generated by the fire rather than by the fire itself.

BTW, I doubled up on the insulation on the lid on the basis that heat rises and the lid can therefore account for a major loss of heat. :thumb:
 
Lidl have different products on offer at different shops at different times Check the website for your local one. My local one always ised to have stuff a week after the one near my work.
 
Here's the jacket that will hopefully reduce the time it takes to bring the wort to the boil in winter.

I have laced it in place because:

1. I don't want it to slip down and get melted or burned by the gas burner.

2. It has to go either over the tap at the bottom or over the handles at the top to clean the outside of the boiler.

3. I will probably remove it when the wort gets up to the "rolling boil" stage.

I'm now wondering what to do with the handkerchief sized bit of exercise mat that I have left! :whistle: :whistle:

Boiler Jacket1.jpg


Boiler Jacket2.jpg
 

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