ingchr1

Recipes 

It may be too low, depending upon how cold it gets where you have your chamber. The flexwatt that I'm using is 40 watts. I have my chamber in the garage where the temp drops to the mid 40's.

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Chris

Carlscan26

Recipes 

I agree. Any reason you can't use a wrap style heater?

dunrooz

Recipes 

Okay, possible stupid question. If you are using a temp controller, why is it necessary to bypass the fridge's thermostat? Isn't that what a temp controller is all about? I am guessing that is becuase the wine fridge has a lower limit so that wine folks don't freeze their wine. I plugged my Ranco temp controller in and the lowest it would go is the 50 degrees that it already could go when I had it on setting 7. Thanks for the help...(I am still a little wary of messing with the wiring)

Daver77

Recipes 

OK what about the 24 watt? that's what I'm getting. My basement is cool and dry with the de humidifier on I think it will work.

TonyR

Recipes 

Bypassing the thermostat causes the fridge to cool whenever it has power. Using the external temp controller, the fridge will run as long as you want allowing it to cool below 50.

Horseflesh

Recipes 

I finished my build today. Thanks again for everyone's pics and comments.

Only one thing seems odd: the light inside the fridge doesn't turn on, though the compressor runs whenever the fridge is plugged in thanks to the thermostat bypass.

Edit: forgot a couple of things that might help other builders.

- I used a 6x6x4 junction box.

- There was no room for a blue outlet enclosure inside this size box, but I did not miss it.

- The outlet's two screws bit just fine in the grey plastic, once I gave them a pilot hole.

- I suggest using spade terminals for easier connections at the outlet. Note that you cannot use ring terminals because the screws on an outlet are captive.

- I used 16 ga. stranded copper wire for the interior wiring. At 110V, it should carry 13A--and the supply is fused at 10A, and the cooler draws less than that anyway, so there should be adequate current capacity for the heat/cool hookups. (There is a stranded wire current capacity chart on this page: http://www.rowand.net/Shop/Tech/WireCapacityChart.htm)

ingchr1

Recipes 

By bypassing the thermostat from outside the fridge the light also gets bypassed.

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Chris

Horseflesh

Recipes 

Thanks. Good to know I did not mess that up.

Say, what are you folks using for the precision parameter? The default of 0.5C seems like it might cycle the compressor quite a bit, even with that configurable delay.

ingchr1

Recipes 

I use 0.4C, cycling doesn't seam to be a problem.

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Chris

divrguy

Recipes 

I was about to asked the same thing. I actually have the same setup. I just plugged the fridge into the temp controller as well as my heating pad because I don't lager. At least I don't lager yet ( as soon as I find a lager I like, I may try to make one) I leave my fridge on 6 and its gets plenty cold enough for my ales. One thing I did notice about this unit in the summer though is that the outside can get very hot if you are in a garage or area that the ambient temp is pretty warm like say 90-100 for a time. Here in Northern California, I had to take it out of commission for a while and switch to a temp controlled freezer because I was worried this unit would overheat. Great build by the way and the one thing I love about this unit is being able to see through the amber glass in front to check on my fermentation.

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