brewmaster89

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Some place on eBay. I don't remember the name of the seller.

Huaco

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Placed my ebay order yesterday... Thinking about running with two receptacles... I want to run a small fan to keep stratification at bay...

zachattack

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Mine came in the mail yesterday (USPS), ordered May 2nd. Less than 2 weeks.

DrewBrew08

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Hey Guys!
I believe that I might a need a little help with mine. I built one of these about 3 or 4 weeks ago. A few days ago I put a half cup of water in my little beer fridge (wife doesn't like me keeping all my beer in our kitchen fridge). Anyway, I let it sit there so that there would be a steady temperature and wanted to test how accurate this thing is before i buy my chest freezer for fermenting this weekend. This morning, i put the sensor wire in the water, then put a digital thermometer i brew with in the water. Left for work! Got home and decided it was time to check it and i was shocked to see that the two were about 25 degrees different from each other. I figured that this couldn't be right, so i filled the cup up full, and let it sit for about an hour. (cooking thermometer sensor is a little longer)

First picture shows the difference in the temps. (yes my fridge is a little cooler that this, but this is after i filled the cup all the way)

The second picture is the back of my temp controller. I followed android's wiring that can be found on the first page. The only thing i can think of is the 3 / 4 slots on the controller which is my question. What does it actually mean on the 4th one with the special symbol? If i look at the sensor wire, there is one with writing and there is one without writing. The one with writing is going to the 3 slot. Is this correct?

If it is, this worries me because that means it is very possible my cooking thermometer is off and that sucks because i just used it to brew a few weeks ago

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

cranium213

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Actually the STC-1000 displays temperature in celcius so 7.2 Celsius is actually 45 degrees Fahrenheit, so your difference is about 12 degrees. I would recommend doing this test in a glass of ice water to verify which is actually closer, and if you find the STC-1000 is in fact off by 12 degrees you can set that in the variance (I think it's the F3 function when you're in the settings menu...hold down the 'S' button for 3 seconds to bring that up).

DrewBrew08

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Thanks Cranium and i will try the ice water. Yes i know that now it is 12 degrees off, but i didnt let them sit there as long as i did today when i took the picture. Right now its showing about a 14 degree difference. Seems like the longer it sits, the more difference I see. I'll try the ice water method soon! Thanks again.

P.S. I knew that one read in C and the other in F, but I made the assumption that you guys would know that lol

seanoj

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I would get an old school analog thermometer to check the temp of the water. I have had very bad errors from those cooking thermometers, especially under 150 degrees F.

Other things to think about for the future:
1) Your photo appears to show the fridge not plugged into the controller.
2) Is the controller showing the temp or the target?
3) Is your fridge able to get the temp down to your desired temp. You may need to disable the internal thermostat to get it down to tems lower than 45deg.

-Sean

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http://www.losangelesbrewers.com/

DrewBrew08

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Hey Sean,

This is just a fridge i keep in the guest bedroom and stock with beer. I won't be using this particular one for fermenting. I just want to test out how accurate the temp sensor is. The temp on the controller in the picture is the temp of the cup of water that is inside the fridge.

Czm

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On the sensor does it matter what lead goes into the controller? I haven't powered on yet but was wondering on pin 3 and 4. Currently the side that has lettering on the shielding is on 4...

onthedot

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