Keezer ice inside burning hot outside

I just finished building my 8 tap keezer and it's been up and running for about two days. The taps are installed and I've got six cornies of beer chilling down in it right now, but I haven't installed the gas manifolds or hooked up the gas and the beer lines yet. That's all that's left to do.

I'm using a 2008+ Love TS-13010 to control the temp. I have my set point at 37 degrees. During the first day it was running, the temp would swing between 43 and 69 degrees. It never got down near my SP. Then early this morning I put the TS temp probe in a container of water and set it on top of an empty plastic container on the floor of the keezer. The temp plunged steadily over the next several hours down to 37 degrees, and has gone from 37 to 41 (my hysteresis is set to 3 degrees) since then.

What has me concerned is that when the compressor is on, which seems to be most of the time or at least whenever I'm checking on it, the outside of the freezer is HOT. I mean, REAL HOT, not just warm. If you put your hand on it, you'll snatch it back in about a second. At the same time, there is a thin layer of ice buildup on the walls inside the keezer.

I don't feel any air leaks anywhere. The collar is a little cool, but not cold to the touch. The gaskets are all sealing well.

The extremely hot exterior walls of the keezer is what worries me the most. I have another larger chest freezer that I use for food. When the compressor is on the outside walls get pretty hot, but the compressor isn't on that much. The compressor on my new keezer seems to be on a lot more than it is off.

What is a normal percentage of time for the compressor to be on, is the extreme heat outside and ice inside normal, and if not, what could be the problem?

billtzk said:

(my hysteresis is set to 3 degrees)

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Might bump that up to 5 degrees, it shouldn't have much effect on the large volume of cool liquid, but the air temp drops quicker. This will help it not cycle so often. I can't coment too much on the hot walls, except that is what its supposed to do right?

Maybe they(cooling lines) are staying warmer and getting hot because you are cycling too often?

I don't really want the temp going over 40, so that's why I set the hysteresis to 3 degrees.

Since I first posted, the temp hit 36, the compressor went off, and the outside wall cooled considerably. I'm watching to see when it kicks back on. Should be at 40 degrees.

I am none to certain what some of the Love programmable settings mean. Perhaps someone can tell me if any of these need to be tweaked.

SP = 37 - Set Point. (variable from r1 to r2)
r0 = 3 - Differential or hysteresis
r1 = 37 - Lower value for SP
r2 = 40 - Higher value for SP
d0 = Co (cooling) - Cooling or Heating control
d2 = 0 - Defrosting duration (no defrosting is done if d2=0)
d8 = 24 - Number of hours between defrost cycles
c0 = 40 - Minimum stopping time of the load
c1 = 0 - Cool cycle duration
c2 = 5 - ON time of fault cycle, when ambient probe is broken
c3 = 5 - OFF time of fault cycle, when ambient probe is broken
P1 = 0 - Ambient probe adjustment
H5 = 0 = Access code
t0 = 50 - Maximum temp displayed during defrosting and during the next hour to defrosting

What is the purpose of r1 and r2 upper and lower values for SP. Isn't this just another way of specifying the hysteresis?

I've changed c0 from 40 to 10 minutes. I'm not sure I understand what the setting is for, but it only seems to come into play when you lose power (or unplug). When power is restored, the Love waits for the value of c0 minutes before kicking on the compressor again.

Do you have ice buildup inside the freezer where the coil is? You could maybe benefit from a fan in there to stir the air. Also, where is you temp probe located?

Just guessing, but if you loaded six warm cornies into a freezer, it will take a lot of work to bring them into the mid thirties. Once the kegs are cool, the keezer should not have to work nearly as hard to chill them. Just guessing again, but I would spread the differential temps as to when the unit kicks on. Even w/ a five degree diffferential, the kegs won't fluctuate much at all. From what little I know and understand, better to have the unit run longer less frequently, rather than kicking on often.

Yes, the ice builds up where the coils are. There's also melt water accumulating in the bottom, so I'll need to get some Damp Rid or a dehumidifier to deal with that.

I mounted a 110 volt muffin fan, approximately 5 inch diameter, on the underside of the lid right in the middle. I wired it so that it runs continuously, and it moves a lot of air.

The temp probe is in a container of water about 6 inches off the bottom, right in the middle.

I do think adding the six warm kegs all at once had a lot to do with the compressor running continuously for quite a long time. It has stabilized now, and is cycling on and off several times an hour. I would like it to cycle less frequently, so I will likely change the hysteresis to 5 degrees as a couple of you suggested.

With the set point at 37 and a 3 degree hysteresis, the temp is fluctuating from 36 to 40 degrees. I need to stick a temp probe in one of the kegs to see how much the beer temp is actually changing -- or just draw some and take the temp at various points in the cycle. If the temp of the beer in the keg doesn't change much, then a 5 degree hysteresis will probably do fine.