woo! fermentaion chamber!

After seeing several threads like this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/upright-freezer-turned-fermentation-chamber-197161/

I picked up an upright 20 cu freezer on craigslist to convert to a heating/cooling fermentation chamber. I decided on the 20 cu upright so I could eventually fit the blichmann 14.5 gal in it...barely, going to have to remove the shelving.

Does anyone have any experience with the Kenmore model 253.21041103?

I have very little electrical experience (I can change one pole switches and outlets...thats it) and ZERO heating and cooling knowledge.

Well there is really no need to alter the wiring of your freezer. You can use a Love dual stage controller and adjust your heat and cooling. Do a HBT search for Love TSS2 build. You'll find all ya need to do to make your controller and it isn't much more involved then wiring a single pole switch or outlet.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/another-tss2-controller-box-build-195713/

This is a pretty cool build.

Diver165 said:

Well there is really no need to alter the wiring of your freezer. You can use a Love dual stage controller and adjust your heat and cooling. Do a HBT search for Love TSS2 build. You'll find all ya need to do to make your controller and it isn't much more involved then wiring a single pole switch or outlet.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/another-tss2-controller-box-build-195713/

This is a pretty cool build.

Click to expand...

The dual stage will let me heat too? I live in the Northeast and from about late October until mid March, it will need to be heated to keep my temps.

Follow that link. It should allow you to do both.

So if I'm following correctly, the only wiring is inside the box (doesnt seem difficult) and to set this thing up, I disconnect the internal temp controller from the freezer and plug the freezer and a heating element into the control box (given the heating element and temp probe for the controller have been run)? If that's the case I'm psyched. Not having to worry about causing a fire is huge.

Any difference between the Love and the ebay aquarium controllers everyone uses? Is Love just a brand name with better quality?

JoeDirte said:

Any difference between the Love and the ebay aquarium controllers everyone uses? Is Love just a brand name with better quality?

Click to expand...

Better quality is not a known factor. Brand name is. The cheap dual temperature controllers on ebay only read in Celsius. There are some single stage that do Fahrenheit.