Heating idea for chronical fermenter.

[Coffeeuk]

Has anyone used anything similar to this to heat a ss conical fermenter ?

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 0838699420



Obviously I'd get one that fits around the base of the cone, the above link is just an example.

I'm currently using some of the heated cable from Bulgaria attached to a STC-1000 and it works brilliantly wrapped around the bottom of the cone and costs less than 15p a week to run.

Problem is, it's a bugger to keep in place.

My figuring is that this could be just clamped on which would be a much neater solution.

What's people's thoughts ?

[Fil]

way to harsh a heating solution.. why not fix the cable your using already inside the insulation jacket? if your not using an insulation jacket why not?

[Coffeeuk]

way to harsh a heating solution.. why not fix the cable your using already inside the insulation jacket? if your not using an insulation jacket why not?

Should have said, it's inside a larder fridge.

Suppose I could put some kind of jacket around the bottom where the cable is though.

[roscoe]

pick the right wattage <150w and figure a way to control the temp could be okay... but not sure the very bottom of the cone is right place especially once the yeast drops into the cone...

since its a metal/conductive FV I would consider controlling surface temp maybe doing something complex and if you have an internal temp do a deadband control say 0.25oC, but set heater surface at max +5oC above setpoint

I'm doing a trial with 1kw clamped around a hop rocket doing its bit as a CFC CIP system, could get 2kw on it to have a bash as a RIMs on mash ? ..... interesting

[BenB]

I thought about using one of those on the tube out of my mash tun to compensate for temperature losses during the mash. The copper manifold would make a nice radiator to heat the mash...

I'd make a foil bubble wrap retaining sleeve to retain the heating wire if I were you. Some velcro straps round the outside and voila.

[setmash]

Hi guys I got chance to test my ebay pipe clip heater http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191025434773? ... EBIDX%3AIT at the weekend. I have to say I’m pretty impressed with the results and I think it will do away with the need for tube heaters when heating FV coils as much smaller, cheaper and easier to implement. This was a bargain £3.30 delivered from China. It took a couple of weeks to come. Its 200W and clips on to the outside of a copper pipe and connects directly to 240V mains – easy to control from an STC or the like. Mine is 30mm and once fully tightened fits a little loosely around 28mm copper – so I wrapped some tin foil around the 28mm pipe to increase the girth so the clip fits snuggly. So my basic construction is a short piece of 28mm copper with the clip fastened around it. I then reduce the copper down to a more useful diameter and connect to piping.

I did a couple of tests. I wanted to see how gentle the heat was and I also wanted to see if it could raise 40 liters of water (wort) in temperature at a nice slow rate through my intended FV system – a Maxi 310 reservoir bath. So the first test involved pumping water through the 28mm copper and recirculating in to a bucket. I wanted to measure the temperature differences between the inlet and outlet which would give me an idea of just how gentle the heating was. I had 7 liters of water in the bucket.

Results:
Inlet temp 20.8 oC
Outlet temp 21.3 oC – a nice 0.5 oC differential
Raise 7 liters of water by 1 degree in 7.2 mins
Flow rate 3 liters per minute

In order to raise 7 liters by 1 degree you need (7*4186) = 29302 Joules. It took us 7.2 mins or 432 seconds. Therefore input heat is 29302 / 432 = 68 Joules per second = 68 W. The heater uses 200W which means our system is 34% efficient. That’s not bad given I didn’t insulate the pipes etc and the clip itself radiates a lot of heat (more on that later).

The second test was my real world test. My FV coil will be cooled by a Maxi 310 and heated by the pipe clip. The python pump inside the Maxi will be on constantly to equalize the temperature of the coil/reservoir and wort in the FV. It’s a simple circuit , liquid from the Maxi reservoir bath will be pumped via the python through the pipe clip heater around the coil and back in to the reservoir. The Maxi will chill, when needed, and the pipe clip will heat ,when needed. Because of the size of the reservoir it will be done very gently. So I connected up the Maxi 310 in series and used an immersion chiller coil in 40 liters of water.

Results:
Initial temp = 10.8 oC
Volume = 40 liters
Time to raise by 1 degree = 30 mins
Temp change rate = 0.1 degrees every 3 mins

In order to raise 40 liters by 1 degree we need (40*4186)=167440 Joules , it takes 30 mins so 1800 seconds 167440/1800 = 93W so our efficiency went up to 46%

One point to note is that the pipe clip gets very hot. Don’t touch it, insulate it or place it anywhere near anything flammable etc. I have a red mark on mine as it touched some insulation and burnt the plastic off (you can see on the pic) !!

Overall I’m really impressed with this £3.30 device. It is perfect as an FV coil heater and does away with the need, cost and complexity of a pipe tube heater. Hope you found the above useful.

Pipe clip in place on copper pipe (nice plastic red burn mark)



First test heating water



Second test heating 40 liters in the real system

[roscoe]

another use for a band heater is for CIP using hop rocket to clean, hot rinse chiller device
the band heater is about 1kw and you could fit 2 I reckon if you wanted to do some rims type stuff

kinda had the HR and it saves buying and making more stuff, my BK is now not tied up to clean a small CFC and less cleaning chemicals are used. Oh, I don't heat sanitise during boiling cos I tend to use pellets and that usually blinds/blocks the takeoff filter if I were to do a 15m heat recirc