Upright Freezer Turned Fermentation Chamber

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reeyawd

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Just wanted to share my upright freezer to fermentation chamber conversion. To kick it off, the all important links that helped me immensely through this project.

The Wiring Diagram and Programing Info for the love controller:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/love-temp-controller-series-ts-wiring-diagram-2008-a-88369/

More Programing Help (ClaudiusB is the man):
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/love-tss2-2100-programming-help-112303/

Boerderij_Kabouter's side by side:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/side-side-fermentation-chamber-build-105054/

Grabbed up this upright freezer from a local reconditioning guy here in Brooklyn for $150. I went with the TSS2-2100 with the TS-1 probe (I order the TS-21 probe but was on back order). Like Boerderij_Kabouter, I picked up a small space heater from HD. I decided to wire in an extension cord for the heater so I can remove it for cleaning.

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The wiring diagram (thanks to Boerderij_Kabouter)
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Thermostat
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Dissembled Thermostat
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The evaporator, fan and wiring was conveniently located all together.
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The Power (blue) and the Switch Wire (red) to the compressor
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Used a dremel
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If you notice the black charred connector. I definitely learned how not to measure Amperage with my multimeter.
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The work space. Got my imperial stout (11%) and my safety glasses on top of the chamber.
 
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Black wire is taking the hot from the thermostat (freezer blue), white wire (freezer red)is the switch that turns on the cooling section
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Distributed the black power connections with a wire nut. Ran the system neutral, the compressor switch wire and the heater extension cord switch with white.
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Used a wire nut to tie into the freezer's neutral. Ran one to the love controller, connected one neutral to the heater's extension cord.
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The deactivated, reinstalled thermostat. I cut a small groove to run the wires out.
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Everything put back together and wires cleaned up. You can see the mini heater that I picked up from HD down bellow the bucket and the prob wire running to the side of the fermener.
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Little update: After about 2 weeks of operations I came in to see that the love controller had no power (display was off). After some trouble shooting with the multimeter I found that no power was getting to where I tapped in at the thermostat. Digging around led me to the overload located down in compressor area. Thinking I would need to replace it I saw that there was what looked to be a reset. One turn of the screw and power was back. Not sure what tripped it or if it will happen again...but things seem to back to normal. Got my Belgian Strong fermenting away.
 
Coming in the next morning after reseting the Overload the controller again had no power. I posted a thread up here

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/fermentation-chamber-help-199686/#post2325296

Thanks to DrawTap88 I did some snooping and found that you want to make sure to have an anti-short cycle time programed in.

"Short cycling a compressor will damage it. 2-3 seconds as in your case may not damage it, but only a few minutes between cycles is not good. Be careful with your controller. Allow 5-10 minutes between shutdown and the start of another cycle."

I dug through my love controller's manual and found the c0 perameter:

c0 = Minimum relay stop time. Minimum relay time from disconnection of a relay till it can be switched on again.

As per the note a found on another forum, I set this for 10min...figure safer is better. Hopefully that will solve the issue.
 
Thanks for the thread. I referenced this thread (and others - thank god for HBT!!!) in converting my CL find upright freezer to a ferm chamber. Mine was smaller so I needed to remove the molded-in shelving. Thought I would post a few build photos here rather than starting my own thread.

Sorry for the somewhat random order of the shots.

I used the STC-1000 instead of the Love, as many others have. I found it straightforward.

Hope this helps!

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Nobody noted that freezers likenthisnhavr defrost timers. You can bypass the thermostat or switch incoming power all you want, but the defrost timer will eventually inhibit the compressor on its own schedule. Either remove/bypass it, or just live with it (as I do).

Also, make sure the temp probe is in a bottle of water or sunk to your fermenter to prevent short cycling the compressor.
 
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