Heat Control in Freezer

[mart1058]

I have a chest freezer and the A419 controller that I've used for a lager so far, but now I want to do an ale and I'm wondering how to keep the temp up.

The freezer is in the garage and these days the garage is at about 40 degrees, so I figure I will need to heat the chamber to get to the right temp.

I was thinking I would buy one of those small Lasko MyHeat heaters and plug that into the temp controller and leave the freezer unplugged. Is that what you guys would recommend? Do you think that would keep it at a good temp?

Thanks!

 

[BigFloyd]

Plenty of folks do that. It will work fine so long as you switch modes and don't need the cooling power of the freezer.

Pity you don't have an STC-1000 box. With that, you could plug both cool and heat sources and let the controller decide which one to power up.

 

[mart1058]

I know, I'm sort of kicking myself now with regard to the STC-1000.

 

[Wynne-R]

I’m not sure how useful dual stage is for our purposes. I ferment in a five gallon water bath and using a 50W aquarium heater I get overshoot. That’s with an STC-1000 at .3C (.5F).

I use either the heat or the cold one at a time and it totally works. If I have both plugged in at the same time it’s a little busy. I can imagine a scenario with a vicious cycle developing.

Something to think about. I doubt the OP needs to run a freezer in a Minneapolis garage in the Fall.

 

[davekippen]

I just have a lightbulb from an old lamp running into my chamber. The STC1000 kicks it on when it needs to heat things up. Simple and free

 

[brew_ny]

I just have a lightbulb from an old lamp running into my chamber. The STC1000 kicks it on when it needs to heat things up. Simple and free

light bulb in a paint can

S_M

 

[mart1058]

Thanks all.

I'll probably give it a shot with just the heat and letting the freezer be an insulator. Will report back on if the outside air is enough to bring the temp down if it warms up too much inside.

 

[02fx4dude]

I use a $10 hair dryer for heating inside my chest freezer turned ferment chamber. Works real nice.

On a temp controller of course...

 

[grathan]

Would a 60 watt bulb heat a freezer in 0 degree ambient temps?

 

[worksnorth]

I use a heat pad suspended in the freezer on its lowest setting, and a small circulation fan. Then let the freezer cycle as it usually does via the temp controller. My garage is steady 55 degrees in the winter and the little pad never has a problem heating it up into the mid 60's for my ales. 23cu' freezer

 

[vNmd]

I use the Lasko heater in my fermenter. Mine is a 7CU foot model.

Not too big, not too small. The heater works great. I can take it to work in the colder months if I am not brewing anything.

 

[biestie]

I've got a couple terrarium heaters stuck to the inside of my freezer. I could make a saison @ 0 degrees ambient if i wanted to.

 

[jbf101]

Would a 60 watt bulb heat a freezer in 0 degree ambient temps?

I took a Light bulb, bored a hole in the top of a paint can of the appropriate size for the fixture (A clamp on lamp thing) and stuck it in there. It gets pretty damn hot.

I built a fermentation chamber (Works great right now as it's winter time, will need to figure something out for the summer, cause it only heats.) With OSB and insulation stuff. Thing works great, holds steady at whatever I set my temp controller to. This is mostly due to the low ambient temperature, around 45-50 degrees, in my garage. I have no doubt it would be able to work at near freezing temps as well. Not a concern here though.

 

[davekippen]

Would a 60 watt bulb heat a freezer in 0 degree ambient temps?

Yes. I originally had 2 bulbs but that was overkill. One bulb does the job fine for me. It gets cold here in Michigan and one bulb keeps temps up where needed.