Wash Warming Wands

[MartinP]

I was struggling with keeping my washs warm during the winter months. Various heating pads and blankets may work OK for some but for my 4 @ 25L + 1@60L collection of brew barrels felt some thing different was required. I eventually decided on copper heat exchangers (wash warming wands!) powered with warm water to in directly heat the washs.

Here is the setup.

brew-heating.jpg

From left to right...
* Orange box is a low voltage %v & 12V) power supply for the pump. Home made decades ago.
* Cheap slow cooker as a water heater. 12V immersible pump is inside.
* Dual thermostat. Modules from ebay. The water heater is only turned on if the brew tem goes below 27.5C and heating water is below 32C.
* 4 X 25L brew barrels wrapped in a couple of old doohnas. Each contains 20L wash.

cooker-and-pump.jpg

The water heater and 12v pump. Upper wire is a temperature sensor for the thermostat.

warmer-wand.jpg

rect19.png

Wash warming wands.

[Mr.Roughnutz]

this looks good. i was thinking along the same lines exsept useing wort chillers and a cheap plug in controler witha 1000w elament in a 44.
this looks much cheaper way.
whats the total volum of ur heating water i use the 190ltr olive oil drums half full with fruit and maybe 2/3 with allgrain just so i know its not gunna blow the tops. once biten twice ahy lol

[howard]

seems quite complicated when you can buy a $50 broken 'all fridge' or 'all freezer' on gumtree or faecesbook and use an Inkbird + 30w brew belt.
perfect for winter.

[Wellsy]

I just wrap my 200ltr olive barrell in a couple of blankets and put 3 heat belts on it via a power board connected to a temp controller

[RobMichelle]

I just wrap my 200ltr olive barrell in a couple of blankets and put 3 heat belts on it via a power board connected to a temp controller

Do you just open fermentation Wellsy?

[Wellsy]

I have the lid on mate but it is not air tight. In the warmer weather I have to leave the lid off for the first couple of days or the temp increases to high so I cover the top with fly wire to stop the bugs getting in.