I use an electric blanket rounf the outside of the drum in winter time. But will be building a heated cabinet for my now extended family of washes/mashes.
I just use a small spare bedroom, close the door and use one of those $20 ceramic heaters. Works like a charm. Can keep my mash's from 68(room temp) to over 100F if I really wanted to.
rap mine with a sleeping bag and put an aquarium heater in it. take the top off when its 30deg outside and steam comes off the 70deg mash. sorta funny.
I bought a 50 watt submersible aquarium heater, drilled a hole in the top of my fermenter and siliconed it in. Working like a champ. Maintaining a 76 degree temp.
Joe if I understand you correctly you have a heater directly submerged in your mashing vessel? If so this is a bad Idea, I did this and eventually the alcohol ate through the plastic and burned the heater, could have started a fire.
I would go with a bucket in bucket type system if your going to use an aquarium heater, theyre designed just for water. Sorry if I misunderstood.
africaunite how long did it take to do this? i have been using mine for just over a year. the plastic is on the ends and the middle is glass. it may be time to replace. havent thought of that.
Probably about 3 months of continuous use, my mashs at the time were high alcohol turbo yeast sugar mash's, usualy around 15-17%. That plays a big role too, either way it will never sit well with me and I have to warn you its not a good idea.
my mashes never go much over 10%. i will defineantly be checking mine. thanks for the advice. i would have never thought of that. even though the should be designed to blow a fuse if they leak since they are to be used in a dwelling.
AU, thanks for the info. I got the idea for an earlier post for Uncle Jesse. It sounded like a solid idea. But now that you mention it, that could be a concern.
Link up the post to UJ, I dont want to double cross him. I was in the other room when it happened, there was a loud pop and then a bit of black smoke. Your probably right about the fuse, thats probably what saved me. Im no electrician though.
Sometimes you just to have to get practical. You and your wife snuggle up to it, hug it loveingly, with a great big warm hug, and it will perform like..... nuf said.
> "You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event - it is a
>habit" Aristotle
I found one of the posts by UJ and he dosent mention putting the heater directly in the wash I would take it to be a double boiler type set up, large rubbermaid container 1/2 full of water with an aquarium heater then put your fermentation bucket in the tub of heated water. I dont want to put words in his mouth though.
Thats an easy and effective solution to keep your mash warm, so for me it dosent make sense to risk putting the heater directly in the mash.
I built a frame 14" square from 2x6 lumber. Mounted 2 light bulb sockets on the inside and use 2-100 watt light bulbs. Both are wired to a dimmer switch which allows me to keep the heat regulated. Have 3-30 gallon fermenters set up this way. Works great.
Moving to Florida or Aussie isn't an option. Here in the beautiful Ozarks it is 32 at night and 50's to 60's in the day time. I can't afford to keep the house at 80. But, I do like some of the ideas here.
