Tubular heater

[bquiggerz]

Hello everyone, I'm just wondering where to get the tube heater for my brewfridge from?

Thanks,

Ben.

[coops]

Got mine from ebay 60w 1ft tube heater

[gobuchul]

I got a heater from Toolstation for my first build but then got a heating cable from Ebay much cheaper at about £8. 40w is more than enough to do the job.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Complete-Flex ... 3f2119179a

[simon12]

Out of interest do you know how often if ever the heat comes on as I would think fermentation would keep the heat high enough.

[bquiggerz]

It depends how cold it is, I'm not expecting to use the heat much if at all, but as they say, I'd rather have it and not need it....

[Jocky]

Out of interest do you know how often if ever the heat comes on as I would think fermentation would keep the heat high enough.

Not a lot. Fridges are very well insulated so a little heat goes a long way.

And you don't have to use a tube heater - I use a soil heating cable which I had spare. I've heard others use a light bulb in a paint can.

[jmc]

Out of interest do you know how often if ever the heat comes on as I would think fermentation would keep the heat high enough.

It depends on where the fridge is located.

Mine's in an unheated garage so the heaters go on a lot in winter.

I've tried light bulbs and the tubular heaters, and prefer the heaters for reliability and they are neat, fitting at the base easily.
Light bulbs never seemed to last long. Having said that I've binned 2 Toolstation heaters in the past 4 years as they died.

In my kegerator I use a heat lamp (as used in reptile cages) as it takes less space and no chance of light-strike for beers stored in there.
It meant I could fit in an extra 1/2 corny.
This did cause 1 cock up.
Last year the lamp moved to rest on a gas line

.

Result leak and loss of pub cylinder of Co2

[BluePanda]

Got mine from Toolstation too. About £16.
In winter, in an unheated garage, mine comes on roughly every 4 hours or so for about 20 mins.

My brewfridge made such a difference to my brewing.

[bquiggerz]

I'm hoping to get the heater this month it won't be to bad as its going in the spare room

[lord groan]

I've used the silicon covered heat cable shown in gobuchul's post, a few tiny cable ties and I had a loop running around the underside of a wire shelf, the shelf helps dissipate the heat pretty evenly, for the most part you don't even know it's there it's so unobtrusive

[JonoT]

I also bought my off ebay for about £12, never had a problem with after about 50 brews.

[BenB]

I like those heating cables. Wish I'd thought of them myself they get hot but watts per mm3 they win!

[jmc]

How hot to the touch do the silicon coated heat cables get?

I once used a brew-belt near some plastic-coated instulation (as used around copper hot water tanks) and the brew belt melted the plastic. It put be off heating cables.

[lord groan]

@jmc

I've just tested mine and it gets to 80c. I'm told the tube heaters surface gets to similar temps. I definitely wouldnt leave either in direct contact with the plastic inside the fridge. 80c doesn't seem to be harming the plastic coating on the wire rack though.
hth

[ciderhead]

I have a 12V computer fan placed to one side of my tube heater and it transfers the heat efficiently and quickly around the chamber and doesn't allow the tube to get too hot