Haier NuCool for fermentation

I've had my 5 gallon glass carboy in there and it fits fine, maybe an inch or two clearance with a three piece airlock.

But I'm very curious as to if/how a 6.5 gallon glass carboy fits.

Munsoned said:

Thanks for that. I know a lot of people have been asking about the capacity for different sized containers, and my glass carboy is "with pellicle" at the moment, so I can't really move it to check myself. What do you have brewing in there? Looks good...

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Yeah, I think the only vessel we haven't had confirmation on is a 6.5 gallon carboy. Everything else has worked fine so far.

Currently fermenting is a Belgian Dubbel. I just snagged this recipe from Northern Brewer and so far it's looking really nice.

Mine is still holding 50* very consistently for my Oktoberfest. I've never seen it at 49* or 51* for nearly two weeks now. Wish my keezer were that consistent...

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I also have really good consistency holding temps, especially when I resist opening the door to take a peek.

Crash cooling on the other hand is not this fridge's forte. I started at 78F and set the controller to 35F. It took 24 hours to get to 52F (not too shabby) and then it took 48 hours to get to 40F and would NOT go any lower. Ambient temperature was 78F. It'll probably do a bit better in a cooler room but if you're looking to quickly crash a batch to near freezing, this isn't the fridge for you.

I'm thinking about this as the cooler for my poor-man's 'glycol' chiller. Since my kegerator is set at 48F, I'd like to have a lower-temp unit to provide temp control for my fermentation cabinet.

I figure loaded with six gallons of glycol, an aquarium pump, and filling the extra space with thermal mass (maybe metal or ceramic?) this thing should be able to keep my two well-insulated fermentation chambers at target temps.

Has anyone tried upgrading the hot-side heat exchanger to increase the dT? If you could get it below 32F you could leave ice jugs in there to serve as thermal mass to handle swings in demand for cooling.

Red Clay said:

I'm thinking about this as the cooler for my poor-man's 'glycol' chiller. Since my kegerator is set at 48F, I'd like to have a lower-temp unit to provide temp control for my fermentation cabinet.

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Keep in mind, the NuCool is energy inefficient...Especially at lower temperatures.

Good point. These things require about three times the energy that they move, right? At least I think I read that somewhere. So I guess that is worse than the freon cycle.

Has anyone tried reversing the polarity to use it as both a heater and cooler to maintain a target temp? Just curious, as that is one of the benefits of the Peltier effect, iirc.

EvilGnome6 said:

Just as an update. The 5 and 6 gallon Better Bottles fit perfectly using a stopper and 3 piece airlock. It leaves 2 inches of clearance:



Oh, yeah. Both the 5 gallon and 6 gallon Better Bottles require the shelves to be cut out.

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Thanks a lot for the info and the pics! I will definitely be picking up one now!

Eric

Red Clay said:

Has anyone tried reversing the polarity to use it as both a heater and cooler to maintain a target temp? Just curious, as that is one of the benefits of the Peltier effect, iirc.

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Yes, I experimented with that concept on a converted wine cooler a while back. It works but, in my early testing, I fried the OEM peltier device switching from cooling to heating too fast. Adding a 5 minute delay resolved the thermo-expansion issue.

Bottom line for me - thermoelectric cooling is inefficient and doesn't come close to meeting my cooling needs in the Texas heat. It can work in cooler climates but it's still not nearly as efficient as compressor cooling.

How are these working out for you guys that have them?

I am considering picking one up due to my space constraints. I wish I had room for a bigger fridge/freezer but I need something fairly small.

garbs said:

How are these working out for you guys that have them?

I am considering picking one up due to my space constraints. I wish I had room for a bigger fridge/freezer but I need something fairly small.

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I am too looking for an update. Target has it on sale for $100, but not too sure if I should by this or build the ferm cabinet out of insulation. Would like to lager some day, but not sure which way to go currently.

I decided against it due to all the negative reviews on Target.com. There are way too many people saying that the thing just stopped working all together after a period of a few months.

I just picked up a free mini fridge that is almost big enough to fit my better bottle. I plan on adding a small collar (5 inches) so that everything will fit.

Thanks for the help. Beginning to think that may be the best option.

I picked one of these up in August based on this thread. It's worked extremely well for me. I've done two lagers in it no problem, and it will even take a beer down to 35. This is in my basement at 65-70F ambient. I actually think it's better suited to homebrewing purposes than as a fridge, as you don't need to run it near as often. So as long as you keep this somewhere the ambient doesn't get too high, I think it works very well.

These fridges holding up for people? Also, anyone know where to get one nowadays? it looks like target doesn't have them anymore. I love the fact that it is so small and won't take up much room.

gnatp2 said:

These fridges holding up for people? Also, anyone know where to get one nowadays? it looks like target doesn't have them anymore. I love the fact that it is so small and won't take up much room.

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I have 4 of them now and they're all holding up OK. Perhaps a little noisier than when they were now but I should probably blow the dust out of the fans one of these days.

Try Craigs List, especially if you're in a college town.

what love controller setup (model/probe) is everyone using with this fridge, and is it different wiring it up compared to a regular compressor fridge?

I'm using a Love TS2-010 with a TS-5 probe. It's mounted in a small project enclosure. The back of the enclosure has an IEC socket with a computer power cord to the mains and a regular socket to plug the fridge into. The probe gets taped to the fermenter.

EvilGnome6 said:

I'm using a Love TS2-010 with a TS-5 probe. It's mounted in a small project enclosure. The back of the enclosure has an IEC socket with a computer power cord to the mains and a regular socket to plug the fridge into. The probe gets taped to the fermenter.

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oh ok cool. thanks! so it's basically acting as a switch between the main power supply; giving power to the fridge until it reaches the desired temp? not like a complete thermostat hack? do you just keep the main thermostat inside the fridge at the coldest setting and then adjust the love controller to the temp you want for this? i got a thermoelectric fridge that is similar to the haier (2.5 cu ft. so its about inch smaller in width, height, and depth) coming and want to get an idea how im gonna control temps inside it.

Exactly. The controller turns the fridge on and off as needed and the thermostat in the fridge is set to the coldest setting.