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Salvaging an aquarium heater thermostat for use with a brew mat.

rubadub · 2013-05-22 13:03:24

DISCLAIMER- do NOT try this unless you are competent with the dangerous electrics & current calculations involved. I will not go into any more electrical details. I have gone through many aquarium heaters over the years. I have a brew mat which has no control. I used to put it on a timer, say 15mins on 1 hour off, but this…

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22-05-2013 2:03pm

#1

rubadub

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DISCLAIMER- do NOT try this unless you are competent with the dangerous electrics & current calculations involved. I will not go into any more electrical details.

I have gone through many aquarium heaters over the years. I have a brew mat which has no control. I used to put it on a timer, say 15mins on 1 hour off, but this involved testing it and monitoring. I also used a dimmer switch with the same issue.

I took apart my aquarium heater and connected the brew mat wires to where the element usually is. I have 2 fermenters which can sit inside each other with a gap of maybe 50mm. I have the aquarium heater in the empty bottom fermenter which is on the brew mat and the fermenter with liquid slots into this bottom fermenter.

This means when the enclosed area with the aquarium heater reaches 25C or whatever, it will turn off the brew mat. It also means there is less fluctuation in the top bucket as there is a delay in heating

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