FISH TANK HEATER

[barry]

hi looking at my brew next to the fish tank i thought if i could put a fish tank heater in my fermenting bucket to keep it at the same temp has anyone tried this or just me the nutty proffessor

[kenny850]

Apparently this is common practise,you can even buy dedicated homebrew heaters that operate in a similar way, needs to be correctly regulated of course

[Ditch]

Peco Services Ltd. (The people that produce the Electrim Bin) can do ye a 'dedicated' one for about twenty pounds. I just got one from my local pet supplier for 20 euros. It's a belter and has a sliding temperature setting guage so I just dial it down to 19c and get on with my life. No more of this giving the knob a tweak and peering at the thermometer an hour later to see what it's doing.

[BrewBob]

I have one of the Electrim ones, they seem to be exactly the same as the fish tank heaters except the cable is threaded through a rubber bung. The bung also has another hole in it to stick you air lock in.
The dial at the top on mine is quite hard to turn, I stuck it in a demi john of water and turned the dial a little at a time until it kept the water at the temp I wanted. Once its set to the temp you want you just pop it in your brew and plug it in.

Hop and Grape sell them and have a picture:
IMMERSION THERMOSTATIC HEATER
http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/catalog/de ... SYP2147475

[Russ]

I use a 50 or a 100w Visitherm aquarium heaters. I got my recent ones off e bay, -there great, very durable and reliable , some of my origional ones must be over 10 years old (used for fish keeping previously )

I stick the cable through a cable gland (B&Q) which gives an air tight seal.

I've been wondering if it would be better (easier and more hyginic) to stand the FV in a large container of water (trug or similar?) and stick the heater in that (I do this with demijohns) If you do this you don't have to worry about sanitising the heater....

[BigStripeyCat]

I bought one of these immersion heaters from ebay, it seems to work for me, not that I used it in the winter yet.

[StrangeBrew]

I have three old Boots immersion heaters, one I bought new years ago and the other two second hand off of eBay for a few quid each. They have no tempreture adjustment and all very slightly differ in their set temp but still within an acceptable level. One thing it does say in the instructions is that to work efficiently at the desired temp the ambient temp needs to be above 10c, this may be the same for all makes of immersion heater and this should be considered if fermenting in the garage or shed where temps in winter drop lower than this.

[BrewBob]

I've been wondering if it would be better (easier and more hyginic) to stand the FV in a large container of water (trug or similar?) and stick the heater in that (I do this with demijohns) If you do this you don't have to worry about sanitising the heater....

A couple of times half way through fermenting I have put my fermenter in a baby bath, then filled the bath with water an places the heater in the bath. This has worked well. I have also done the same with the baby bath, but then wicked tea towels up the fermenter for cooling.

[alefric]

Fertilebert bought one of these heaters on fleabay and it's perfect.......Same as my Electrim but a quarter of the price.

[Ditch]

Alefric; Ye've just about quoted, there, what I lamented to my visiting mate this evening.

Damn " Electrim " can't do what my OLD " Bruheat " used to do ~ i.e. Hold a steady 20c . But my 'fish tank heater' can.

F*ck it! I could have had another FV, another FTH and another bloody Keg; All for the money I'd have saved by Not going for the " Electrim " as a FV!

Never mind. 'The Dark Side' and 'Shiny' is bound to catch up with me at some stage again. Then I'll have, at least, the thermo nulclear water boiler to hand