A little advice

Jason Pickford · Apr 12, 2019

hi all need a bit of advice on the mangrove jacks heat pad is it possible to glue to inside of a fridge to use as heating source or just keep it under the fermentation bucket/car boy

Thanks for any info on this

Jason

Chippy_Tea · Apr 12, 2019

I use a heat pad and i don't think it would heat a space well as its not designed to do that you are better off putting your bucket/carboy on it.

Jason Pickford · Apr 12, 2019

thanks chippy

-Bezza- · Apr 12, 2019

If you're wanting to heat inside a fridge, a 50w greenhouse heater plugged into an Inkbird ITC-308 is ideal.

Jason Pickford · Apr 12, 2019

I thought I could use the pad as I had one spare, will look into that though

Thanks bezza

Chippy_Tea · Apr 12, 2019

I don't have a fermenting fridge so i may be wrong but i don't think the pad would heat up quickly enough to keep a constant temperature, the 30cm - 60w heaters are popular with members that have made them.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tubular-...30b3:m:mQId5tH0X5Z14R9dy7crMdg&frcectupt=true

divrack · Apr 13, 2019

Jason Pickford said:
hi all need a bit of advice on the mangrove jacks heat pad is it possible to glue to inside of a fridge to use as heating source or just keep it under the fermentation bucket/car boy

Thanks for any info on this

Jason

I'm pretty sure you'd be fine with a heat pad. I've never used one personally but really any energy source is fine. I use An old toasty machine at the moment, used to use a lamp with a tin can on it until the bulb went.
Heat is heat. Fridges have good insulation. The only problem from a physics perspective is having too large a thermal mass so you overshoot the desired temperature and get big fluctuations of cooling and heating, wasting energy, but I would imagine you won't have this problem with a heat Mat. As I guess the mass is relatively small and the heating is gentle. You can find out how powerful it is by looking at the power rating, but really anything should be fine. As I say, I've used a 40watt bulb and a hundreds of watt toaster, so...

An Ankoù · Apr 13, 2019

I used to use a 40 watt (old style incandescent) light bulb. The door will close and seal quite nicely over the wire. I didn't have a thermostat so I used an old school timer, the sort where there's a dial with a load of lugs you can pull out when you want it on, and push in when you want it off. Worked fine for me.

Smileyr8 · Apr 13, 2019

If you have a fermentation fridge, there's no harm in giving it a go, I can't see any good reason why this would not work.
I am guessing the heating pad brings the base of your fermentation bucket up to fermentation temperatures then cuts out, based on those assumptions I see no reason why it wouldn't be worth giving it a try.
Personally I wouldn't glue it in place, what do you gain from doing so?

kelper · Apr 13, 2019

Mangrove Jacks heat pad "provides a constant heat" ie it has no thermostat. They do sell a temp controller for it.

Chippy_Tea · Apr 13, 2019

kelper said:
Mangrove Jacks heat pad "provides a constant heat" ie it has no thermostat. They do sell a temp controller for it.

I have a Wilko one and it also doesn't have a thermostat in winter it never gets above 28c even if left on 24 hours a day.

Chippy_Tea · Apr 13, 2019

divrack said:
I'm pretty sure you'd be fine with a heat pad. I've never used one personally but really any energy source is fine

Using a heat pad will work if the FV is stood on it as that is what its designed for but the question in the OP is will it also work if stuck to the wall of the fridge i have one and it doesn't put out much heat and i am sure it would never get the interior of a fridge to 20c.

divrack · Apr 13, 2019

That's not really how thermodynamics work. Heat is heat. If it's in an insulated box, ie fridge, the total heat of the system is the same wherever it is located. It might not be brilliant for bringing a cold bucket of wort up to temperature, but it will quickly bring the ambient temperature to a level, which is what a temperature controlled chamber is.
Or to think of it another way, it can easily keep the whole bucket of wort at a temperature, so keeping a fridge full of air warm is child's play.
If it's not possible to set the thermostat very high it wouldn't be very quick heating the wort, but then how often would you want to do that? In general most temperature rises can be maintained by the free rise thermal output of the yeast

Chippy_Tea · Apr 13, 2019

That's not really how thermodynamics work. Heat is heat.

I bow to your superior knowledge of thermodynamics but in my view too little heat is too little heat for the reasons i have already given and this is borne out by the fact most members use a 60w tube heater not a 25w pad or tube heater.

GerritT · Apr 13, 2019

Brewfriend of mine, whose attic had to be redone after a brewfridge malfunction, stopped using bulbs and pads and only uses tube heaters.
I have no brewfridge at all so these aren't even MY 2 cts.

An Ankoù · Apr 13, 2019

How about a compromise?
Stick the pad in the fridge to maintain the temperature. Warm it (the fridge) up to start with, with 3 or 4 PETS full of boiling water. Stick the beer in, turn the pad on, and when fermentation gets going (which is exothermic anyway, as has been mentioned above) stop putting bottles of hot water in.
Et voilà, le tour est joué and Fanny's your aunt as we say at the Old Dog's Bolllocks down in sunny Brittany.

divrack · Apr 13, 2019

Chippy_Tea said:
I bow to your superior knowledge of thermodynamics but in my view too little heat is too little heat for the reasons i have already given and this is borne out by the fact most members use a 60w tube heater not a 25w pad or tube heater.

I'm not saying it's the best possible option by any means but if it can provide enough heat to an object in the open environment it stands to reason it will certainly do the same to same object in a very efficiently sealed and insulated box.

kelper · Apr 13, 2019

Chippy_Tea said:
I bow to your superior knowledge of thermodynamics but in my view too little heat is too little heat for the reasons i have already given and this is borne out by the fact most members use a 60w tube heater not a 25w pad or tube heater.

I think it will come down to the desired temperature in the fridge and its ambient surroundings; If the fridge is indoors and the ambient is 16 or 18 C it's going to need very little energy (heat) to maintain 20 to 30 C. But if it's in a cold shed or garage in cold weather then the heat pad might not be enough. I guess most greenhouse heaters as used my members have a thermostat and are cycling on and off or are being controlled externally. In such cases, 60 Watts is ample and less might work equally well.

An Ankoù · Apr 13, 2019

Essentially, at the end of the debate, and when all's said and done, the science doesn't matter, the technique doesn't matter, purity of heart and intention don't matter.
The only thing that matters is whether or not it effin' works!

GerritT · Apr 13, 2019

An Ankoù said:
The only thing that matters is whether or not it effin' works!

Call me triggered, but having the better half of the year no use of your attic because of some stupid heating thing touching some stupid plastic thing is ANOTHER thing that matters.
Keep it safe folks! Penny wise, pound foolish etc.

A little advice

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

New Member

Administrator.

New Member

Landlord.

New Member

Administrator.

Regular.

Landlord.

Impressive Member

Old Salt

Administrator.

Administrator.

Regular.

Administrator.

Landlord.

Landlord.

Regular.

Old Salt

Landlord.

Landlord.

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!