keeping swamp coolers cool

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PorterGlenn

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I have decided to try and more actively control my fermentation temps and think the method that will work for my basement space/wallet will be getting the big rope tote buckets and using a fish tank heater and frozen bottles of water.

Seems fine, however I really want my cooling to be more "set it and forget it" is there anything I can get for less than $80ish that will automaticly control the cooling. Like some form of 'reverse fish tank heater'?

I know some icecream shops have cold plates, do they make those in mini size? Theres gotta be something that I want out there but I dont know enough about cooling/refridgeration to even know what options there are?

Thanks!
 
you need something to carry the heat away.

maybe find an old window AC unit or dehumidifyer that you can immerse the cooling coils in the water bath?

or to make it less work make a swamp cooler and the bottles you are freezing have more thermal mass. i have 2 5gal buckets immersed in a 30 gal rectangular plastic storage bin, in my garage. changing a few 2 liters between that and my freezer once a day works keeps it about 45
 
For a while, I used a two-cooler method - one was full of frozen water bottles, and some ice-cold water, the other held the fermenter. A Ranco turned on a pump in the cold-water tank (the sensor was in the Fermenter tank) to send cold water to the fermenter, and a second pump (same size!) turned on in the fermenter to send warmer water back to the cold tank. I would fill it up in the morning with the frozen bottles, and the Ranco kept it all even-temperature, all day.

Next step up is refrigeration of some kind.
I'm using my kegerator to keep 5 gallons of glycol chilled. Same type of system, but the glycol circulates thru a (new) transmission oil cooler submerged in the fermenter bath, on demand. A second pump keeps the water circulated in the fermenter bath to prevent cold spots.
 
I just realized with the fish tank heater in there to keep it from getting below a min temp, theretically you could dump a whole bunch of frozen water bottles in it and not worry about it getting too cold?

This makes it more "set it and forget it" like I was looking for rather than putting new ice bottles in it every day. Is this logic valid or if I threw too many frozen water bottles in there would there be a down side I am not considering?
 
PorterGlenn said:
I just realized with the fish tank heater in there to keep it from getting below a min temp, theretically you could dump a whole bunch of frozen water bottles in it and not worry about it getting too cold?

This makes it more "set it and forget it" like I was looking for rather than putting new ice bottles in it every day. Is this logic valid or if I threw too many frozen water bottles in there would there be a down side I am not considering?
Click to expand...

The water will remain just above 32 until the ice melts. Your best bet is what Hang Glider mentioned. Put the cold water in one vessel and circulate it into the bath.

Or just bite the bullet and find a cheap 5cu ft chest freezer on craigs list and a ranco controller.
 
For what it sounds like you may end up spending on this, you could just about do a Craigslist freezer/fridge and a $19 STC-1000 temp controller.
 
Hang Glider said:
For a while, I used a two-cooler method - one was full of frozen water bottles, and some ice-cold water, the other held the fermenter. A Ranco turned on a pump in the cold-water tank (the sensor was in the Fermenter tank) to send cold water to the fermenter, and a second pump (same size!) turned on in the fermenter to send warmer water back to the cold tank. I would fill it up in the morning with the frozen bottles, and the Ranco kept it all even-temperature, all day.

Next step up is refrigeration of some kind.
I'm using my kegerator to keep 5 gallons of glycol chilled. Same type of system, but the glycol circulates thru a (new) transmission oil cooler submerged in the fermenter bath, on demand. A second pump keeps the water circulated in the fermenter bath to prevent cold spots.
Click to expand...

I do something similar but maybe a little easier. First I built one of those two stage ebay temperature controllers. One side controls an aquarium heater and the other side controls a pump in the water bath. My pump recirculates the water bath water through an immersion cooler sitting in a cooler of ice water. I usually just add a frozen 2L bottle every morning and it's good to go for the day. Not totally hands off but close.....
 
Yeah as much as it pains me I did endup buying a cheap chest freezer. Ill keep you all posted as to how it turns out.
 
PorterGlenn said:
Yeah as much as it pains me I did endup buying a cheap chest freezer. Ill keep you all posted as to how it turns out.
Click to expand...

Congrats. It will be one of the best brewing equipment buys you've ever made.

There are plenty of posts around here about how to set up an STC-1000. Once you do that, you're golden.
 

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