DIY Paint Can Heater Question

[JCasey1992]

Hi all!

I'm looking to add a heater to my fermentation chamber so I can improve my warmer fermented beers. I'm thinking of going the basic light bulb in a paint can route for my heat source because I already have the parts but was wondering one thing. How much above ambient room temp can you reach with one of these? I'm looking to make it as high as the low 80's Fahrenheit for some of my beers so I want to be sure that I can generate enough heat this way. My chamber is typically around 70 so I would likely need only 10-15 degrees worth of heat. Does anyone see any problems with this? Thanks in advance!

Cheers!
Casey

 

[slacker190]

Its a slow heat, but you can easily get 10-15 degrees provided you're using an old-style incandescent light bulb. A CFL or LED bulb will do nothing. I use this approach to keep my garage fridge at 40 degrees when ambient is 0F.

 

[Beewrangler63]

For what it's worth I bought a Lasko 101 MyHeat personal heater (200 watts), fits perfect in my 7.2 chest freezer. I tried the paint can and light bulb but the can took up more space than this heater, and for under 25 bucks it does the job very well

 

[Jtk78]

I went with this ceramic heat emitter for my keezer and have been really happy with it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LYXN3T4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Here is a picture of it mounted in my keezer.

20180219_114344

• Jtk78
• Feb 19, 2018

Heat emitter mounted and EvaDry in place.

I do have a fan running all the time to prevent hot spots. Here's a picture of the fan. By using the OEM fan as a reference point you can see how close they are together. This has worked great in my cold garage.

20180213_162451

• Jtk78
• Feb 13, 2018

Fan permanently mounted and caulk applied to hole I cut out. Fan is sucking air from the freezer...