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My new hair dryer rocks!!
I bet that is a subject header never put on a beer forum! 
I just got a new (to me) hair dryer at Saver's for $3.99, and I am using that for the heating element in my ferm chamber. The one I had in there was real loud, (bruguru can attest to that) and the air wasnt that hot. So I returned it today and the replacement one gets real hot real fast, and brought my ferm fridge up from 55 to 68 in about 5 minutes. Now that it is there, it should only have to cycle on for a minute or so to maintain the 2 degree differential.
During the winter months I ferment in my house, I keep the heat at 62, and my kitchen is usually 63-64 ambient, so it is perfect. April through october though my house may heat up to 70-75, so I need steady temp control. With the 2 stage temp controller, I can now hold my fridge temp steady in the garage, even when nights may go down in the 30s, and days up to 80s, (hit 93 last week, and it was 33 2 nights ago). So my next beer will have the pleasure of going in the temp control, and basking in steady 65 luxury.
Last year I used a fermwrap as my heating element, and it worked for the most part, but took a long time to cover the differential, and now I can use it for saisons and other high temp ferments outside the fridge, giving me the ability to ferment always at 2 temp zones.
So anyone using a fermwrap or heating pad or blanket, consider this $3.99 alternative!
Pictures???? How do you have it installed in your ferm chamber to avoid hot spots on your ferementer?
Hopefully, I'll get to see it all hooked up someday.
Sounds like a great project.
Crabnut wrote:
Pictures???? How do you have it installed in your ferm chamber to avoid hot spots on your ferementer?
My fermchamber is a full size fridge, with a wooden platform shelf to level off the bottom, which sits about a foot high. The hairdryer lays underneath this, so when it kicks on it blows the hot air across the bottom of the floor, because heat rises it fills the whole chamber. The turbulence from the fan gives it a nice little circulation as well.
Not the 8th wonder or anything, but it works! 
You should get an award for innovation in brewing... I could use on of those in my ferm chest.. I can keep stuff cold, but if I want a little warmer temp I have to use a brew belt, which bumps it up 75+, which is just too high for most of my brews...
Watch out for to much blowoff. Zap! Capow! Holy Electric Beer Batman!
ID
It looks like it would work nicely, but your competing with me for ghetto. Now I am going to have to post pictures of one of my entire brew days just so you can see all my make due innovations.
I tried the same setup and it worked great except that I kept getting my head stuck when drying my hair.
DC
Crabnut wrote:
Now I am going to have to post pictures of one of my entire brew days just so you can see all my make due innovations.
This is what makes homebrewing so much fun! I have boxes of gadgets I have constructed for process improvements- various sparge arms, kettle screens, hose attachments- all things I thought would improve my process or make better convenience, then 6 mos later I would stumble on a better fix. The nice thing is my "parts graveyard" is so large now, that when I do a small project, I have most of the parts already.
deafcone wrote:
I tried the same setup and it worked great except that I kept getting my head stuck when drying my hair.
DC
Well played my friend, well played
Crabnut wrote:
It looks like it would work nicely, but your competing with me for ghetto. Now I am going to have to post pictures of one of my entire brew days just so you can see all my make due innovations.
I think if you saw my setup, you could re-define the term, ghetto...
So I walk into my garage yesterday to check on my Black Day IPA that is fermenting in my chest freezer and find the temp sitting at 60. Turns out my blow off jug filled with starsan bubbled up, got my heating pad wet and shorted it out. As I paced back and forth trying to decide what to do I saw my old hair dryer sitting on the bench. It had been sitting there since the middle of winter when I used it to thaw the plumbing on my brew magic system. Needless to say I hooked it up and am now back up to reasonable ale temps and luckily the yeast seem to have started working again. Whew! Thank God for the old hair dryer.
And you can feather the ol mullet perfectly!
dc style 
It would be even better if the hair dryer was one of those dome over your hear types that the old women at the salon use.... Just set the dome over the carboy and you're in business.
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