Chest Freezer Ferm Chamber (Heat or Cool)

[Sathington Willoby]

Set the Johnson to cool, and then put a heat source in there that's constantly on. The freezer will be fighting the heat source, so it's a bit of a waste of electricity, but at least you'll have a consistent temp. Long term solution: get a two-stage controller.

[Spiderbrewer]

Set the Johnson to cool, and then put a heat source in there that's constantly on. The freezer will be fighting the heat source, so it's a bit of a waste of electricity, but at least you'll have a consistent temp. Long term solution: get a two-stage controller.

Justin would not approve of this careless waste of energy but I think it will work. Thanks. I will probably only need to keep the heater on for a day or so until the fermentation gets going.

[scotchpine]

You could get a heat belt for $25 and second Johnson single stage for $75 to control it. Within 3 degrees up and down should work well. Kinda like puttin a humidifyer in a room with a dehumidifyer and lettin them fight it out!

[NotTechnicallyLegal]

I've got one of these wired up to an outlet in a plastic project box from Radio Shack, with the freezer plugged into the cooling side outlet and a small ceramic space heater in the heat side. Keeps my temps within 0.3C of the settings, and all told I've got about $60 in the controller and the heater.

Similar to this one (not mine but almost identical)

[BruDAD]

Thanks for the posts. I built the paint can heater. Used a 40w bulb, on all the time, and left my frig on the controller. It works great. (bought 8 pack of the bulbs)

[Spiderbrewer]

I've got one of these wired up to an outlet in a plastic project box from Radio Shack, with the freezer plugged into the cooling side outlet and a small ceramic space heater in the heat side. Keeps my temps within 0.3C of the settings, and all told I've got about $60 in the controller and the heater.

Similar to this one (not mine but almost identical)

I like the sounds of this but I am not sure exactly how to put it together. Can you give me a little more detail?

[NotTechnicallyLegal]

Parts List
Electrical Outlet (Lowe's/HD/Hardware store of choice)
Outlet Faceplate (Lowe's/HD/Hardware store of choice)
Electronics Project Box (I got mine at Radio Shack)
Temp Controller (Ebay, link noted before)
14 Gauge Extension Cord (Lowe's/HD/Hardware store of choice)

The controller comes with a temp probe. You basically just cut the receptable end off of the extension cord and use the wiring from it to wire up the controller. I don't have a lot of electrical experience at all and was able to do it in about an hour without much trouble. Just run the extension cord into the bottom of the project box to provide power and then run the temp probe out of the side. Make sure you break the jumper tab off on the outlet (metal tab on the side going between the two outlets), as that lets you switch each outlet indepenently with the controller. This isn't an original design of mine or anything, but the thing works great. Hopefully these extra pics will give you a better idea.

[dogismycopilot]

I use the Johnson controller, and in the colder months, I keep it on the cooling setting for the first day or two. Then if fermentation temp hasn't made cooling necessary, I'll switch it to heating mode. I use a seed-starting heat mat (which can get wet) as the heat source.
Don't underestimate the heat that fermentation can produce...

Cheers