Temperature controllers for fermentation in fridges .... Feedback wanted

[Max Ballbagz]

Hey guys,

I'm looking to purchase one of the 'turn ya fridge into a fermentation cabinet' controllers that do both heat and cooling and want to know if anyone has invested and whether they are worth it? Whether the results are obvious etc? And feedback good or bad .....

Cheers fellas!

[dean fisher]

you need to put connectors over your cable joins. don't use tape!

[Ben Dean]

I stick it to the side of the fermenter with a piece of foam over the top. The sensor wire is approx 1 metre, too short to use with a thermowell.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

bugger that is short!!

[Craig Howard]

I would urge you to use NZ wiring colors and not the U.S ones as shown in Daves links.

Also ...dont do it if you are not at least a little "electricity competent or have a mate that is.  This is 220 volts and dangerous!  

Earth goes to both out put sockets BTW. (Important)

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

"Daves" links? (daza) hey I think it says on the link the colour code for our system, anyway this one above is same thing, I'm a little "switched on" with electrical work! but still surprised myself how easy it was. (if I can do it anyone can).

[Greg Tarr]

I've made two STC 1000 controllers using this diagram - one for the ferm fridge, and another for a kegorator.

My ferm fridge is heated with a reptile heating cable, see here

[Max Ballbagz]

Good to know, cheers for the info.

[Nicholas Jones]

Not sure if anyone else has had this issue but we've just had 2 fridges die in the space of 2 weeks. First one we thought was bad luck, but then another went and we had a bit of a ponder, coming to the conclusion that perhaps we were trying to run them a bit too low. Our 3rd fridge is a freezer and this thing is still trucking, but we have generally been lagering at 2 degrees when the fridges would probably normally operate around 4 deg, and perhaps this has worked them too hard. Be interesting to hear any others experiences with this?

[Sam DT]

I think constant on-off cycling can burn them out quite quickly, hence the compressor delay on cooling in the stcs. Where / how do you place your thermocouple? If it's in the air it might cause your system to cycle more rapidly?

[Nicholas Jones]

Thanks Sam, yeah thats a possible point as well. I actually just stick the thermocouple in a glass of water inside the fridge to reduce the cycling. It probably isnt ideal as its not recording actual fermentation temps, but the interior temp of the cabinet stays pretty consistent 

[Druid]

If you're worried about cycling, tape a square of foam to the side of the fermenter and slide the thermocouple in between it and the fermenter wall. That way you are measuring the wort temp, not the ambient and It also means rapid cycling is eliminated because the wort simply won't change temp fast enough.

Might not be cause of broken fridges but you'll chill down to your temp faster as the fridge won't be turning off prematurely when the ambient air temp reaches the target temp while the wort is still warmer.

[Nicholas Jones]

Thanks Andrew, hope you're well. I dont find it cycles much at all using the water glass method, so taping to the fermenter wouldnt make much diff to that aspect. Im a bit lazy, hence just monitoring the ambient, Im aiming for consistency temp rather than controlling the absolute temp of the beer, I should try harder... Interestingly we have just been running some tests with a datalogger and it takes about 24hours (plus) to get down to 2 degrees from 25 on a crash cool using our water glass method, so in reality trying to push the beer temp around is pretty hard work on the fridge if you are crash cooling using wort temp as a driver. If anything the way we do it is probably less stress to the fridge by my reckoning?? I actually found the graph from the datalogging, the bottom two are the fridge cycling every 2 hours approx (STC probe was in glass of water, these probes are reading cabinet temp)  and the top two are the actual wort temp and temps inside a plastic thermowell we were testing. I see your point though, basically it would remover the flatter sections from our pink curve giving a lot quicker crash. I should log that too. Me thinks brew day next weekend..