Effectiveness of my swamp cooler?

[mattnaik]

Was wondering if someone with experience using swamp coolers could help me guess the temperature that will be maintained with my method. The plan is to keep the plastic carboy submerged in 6 inches of water with a tshirt or towel submerged and wrapped around the carboy to soak up water. Ambient temperature should be in the high to mid 60’s. Target OG of my next brew will be 1.065 (not sure if that matters).

So do you think I’ll need to keep a fan on it or keep ice in the water (or both)?

Also people mention not getting those stick on thermometers wet, whats the reason behind that? That seems unavoidable when wrapping the carboy in wet cloth.

[flars]

[quote=“mattnaik”]Was wondering if someone with experience using swamp coolers could help me guess the temperature that will be maintained with my method. The plan is to keep the plastic carboy submerged in 6 inches of water with a tshirt or towel submerged and wrapped around the carboy to soak up water. Ambient temperature should be in the high to mid 60’s. Target OG of my next brew will be 1.065 (not sure if that matters).

So do you think I’ll need to keep a fan on it or keep ice in the water (or both)?

Also people mention not getting those stick on thermometers wet, whats the reason behind that? That seems unavoidable when wrapping the carboy in wet cloth.[/quote]

Ambient of mid to upper 60°s and enough yeast for a 1.065 brew. You will be able to hold low 60°s to mid 60°s with a swamp cooler and fan. I would bet on 64°.

The fan is more effective than ice if you are away for half the day each day. The fan works 24 hours. Helps to soak the cotton wrap as much as possible for more evaporation.

Thermostrips don’t stand up to water very well. At the thermostrip, have your cotton wrap open and on the lee side from your fan. The fan will cool the theermostrip and give you incorrect temperatures for the wort. I use paper binding clips to secure the towel back. Like using tie backs for window curtains.

[dannyboy58]

[quote=“mattnaik”]Was wondering if someone with experience using swamp coolers could help me guess the temperature that will be maintained with my method. The plan is to keep the plastic carboy submerged in 6 inches of water with a tshirt or towel submerged and wrapped around the carboy to soak up water. Ambient temperature should be in the high to mid 60’s. Target OG of my next brew will be 1.065 (not sure if that matters).

So do you think I’ll need to keep a fan on it or keep ice in the water (or both)?

Also people mention not getting those stick on thermometers wet, whats the reason behind that? That seems unavoidable when wrapping the carboy in wet cloth.[/quote]

Kind of depends on what your container is. Is it a cooler or just a plastic container. I use a cube cooler with water 7-8 inches up the sides of the carboy. Ambient temp is 68-70. I put 2 frozen water bottles in every morning/evening. With this setup I’m able to keep it in the 62-64 range. After the first couple days I’ll stop putting in the water bottles and let the temp rise naturally.

[mattnaik]

Just a regular plastic container. My concern with using ice is a couple of things, the container is only 6" high so its only covering the bottom part of the fermentor, i didn’t feel like that was enough surface contact to effectively reduce the temperature of the fermentation homogeneously (meaning the bottom 6" will be cold but the top could still be in the mid to upper 70’s).

Also I’m gone from home 10+ hours a day so there would be quite a few temperature fluctuations throughout the day while the ice melts.