Ah. Hard to wrap anything around a cone shaped tank with an unattached stand. In contact, the heating pad would have a much better heat transfer, especially on a stainless steel fermenter. I haven’t graduated to a stainless fermenter yet. They’re a bit pricey for my skill level. Plastic tank might actually do better with air flow all around. The heater has a little klixon overtemp switch too, so should protect the element from damage. I will probably limit chamber temperature to about 80F and use the batch temperature to switch from cooling to heat.
Saved for a future reference. I’m a little nervous about adding a thermowell to the FF7.9, mostly because I don’t see many that are bulkhead style wells. Last thing I need to do is create a leak and kill my fermenter, but yeah, I’ll look into that too. Gotta be something our there. Strangely enough, I’ve seen those used in newer high voltage switches (much larger of course) to make it easier to maintain or replace defective heating elements without shutting down the power. I’ll give air temperature control a go first. I don’t anticipate needing much heat in a chamber this small. The yeast partying down will probably be plenty.
Added to my cart. Thanks. Just haven’t had time to look for it yet.
I use these two items. never had a leak just keep it above the liquid line for safety sake lol
I take it you're threading the CGB into the stainless bulkhead fitting. Surely someone's got a weldless 6mm ID thermowell. That can't leak except around the gasket on the bulkhead, and would be relatively smooth inside to make clean-up easier. I Like that bulkhead fitting for addition of valves, though. More links to the collection, LOL.
This looks more like what I need, but now, I'm trying to figure out WHY I need it. I'm sure I said why, somewhere, but the FF7.9 already has a thermowell in it. Gotta go back and read this discussion now, LOL.
This is what I use
Think some of ya missed the point that the fermenter already has a thermowell in it. It’s sized for the thermometer, which looks to be 1/4” or 8 mm. Haven’t measured the temperature gauge insert yet.
looks like that will work. how many watts is that?
300W. Not as hot as you might think, though. Would probably be hotter if I forced all the air from the fan through it. A considerable amount goes around the heater. That was a little more elaborate than wanted to attempt. It was warm enough to tell it was on, and too hot to touch the heater directly. Fan pulls air into the bottom of the plenum and blows on the heater to prevent heating the fan. The heater came with its own m little overtemp switch, so I skipped the additional thermostat.
unless it is outside when it is cold 300W is enough. I had a 300W element in the fermentor and it was too much. over shot on the PID constantly
It will be in my tractor shed this winter. Otherwise I don’t think the heater will ever come on. Mostly to keep the yeast from freezing in winter, and we don’t get much hard freeze here. Mine is going to warm the air around the fermenter, no direct contact. I may rarely use it to bump finishing temps. Perhaps more when I know more about what I’m doing. Once I get an idea about the effects of temperature control, I may buy a Tilt for real-time monitoring/trending so I can see when the yeast flatlines. I’m not smart enough for that much info yet.
