Heating and Cooling in a Refrigerator

[max2584]

I have a ranco temperature controller, and an upright freezer. My ambient temp in the garage is fluctuates a lot. from damn near freezing to 80 degrees F. I need a system that will keep it warm, as well as cold. Any thoughts?

[ajdelange]

Most people use a light bulb as a heat source. Your controller would have to be a model that will handle a heating load or you would have to obtain a separate controller which does if the one you have now does not.

[max2584]

Would there be any way I could put in some kind of reptile heating thing (I'm not very knowledgeable about these things) into the fridge? Has anyone ever tried anything like this? I'm just trying to avoid buying another racor.

[PSUHomebrewer]

Do you want to use a single stage controller to maintain the temp of the beer in the fridge? If that is the case then a heat pad or blanket my be your best option, though it is going to be very difficult to maintain a steady temp. Your fridges internal thermostat will have the fridge run much longer and more often while the heating element will also be competing to keep it warm.

I posted a similar question a while back about using a fridge for a fermentation chamber and got the advice "if you are going to use a fridge to ferment in get the two stage controller." I can say after using it now for almost a year it is definately the way to go.

[San_Diego_Matt]

I struggled for years to maintain my fermentation temps in my chest freezer. I finally broke down and bought a Ranco dual zone temp controller from B3. I plugged my fermwrap into the heating side and the freezer into the cooling side and can maintain near perfect fermentation temps now.

[beerhog]

i use one of these http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/All-purpose- ... 0628773067 in a chest freezer hooked up on the freezer for the cold side and a heat pad for the warm side it works an absolute treat only needing a minimum of wiring to set up. they come from china like everything these days so im sure you could get one over there in the u.s.

[Quin]

Would there be any way I could put in some kind of reptile heating thing (I'm not very knowledgeable about these things) into the fridge? Has anyone ever tried anything like this? I'm just trying to avoid buying another racor.

Yes, that will work. The freezer has enough power to overcome the heater (say 50 watt reptile heater) if you leave it on.

I do the same thing but with a 50 watt drop light, Johnson set to cool, Johnson controlling the refrigerator.

[sharkguy05]

I use a temp controller on the freezer and keep it at 40-42. When i ferment i use flex watt heat tape, its used in reptile aquariums. Get 3 ft that will put out 60 watts which is enough to keep the beer at least 40 deg warmer than the fridge. I use a ranco temp controller for both. You can get the heat tape with connections for like 12$ online. I bought from a reptile place in nc. Cant rember the name