Nucool fermentation chamber with eBay aquarium temperature contoller

I just thought I would share my latest project: my fermentation chamber build. I am using a nucool thermoelectric fridge with an eBay temp controller custom fit into the fridge instead of a project box. I am using the original wiring for the thermister so there was no need to drill a hole in the fridge. I did have to remove the door's inner shelf so that the larger wine brewing buckets would fit, but other than that the project was straight forward. I was certainly surprised to find out the temp controller outputs in Fahrenheit!

Did your temp controller come set to Fahrenheit or did you set it that way?

Can you show a picture of the inside of this unit along with the larger wine bucket inside.

Thanks

I thought about getting one of these, but was discouraged with the thermoelectric limitations. Couple questions for you:

1) Is that the 2.8 CF version, or the 1.7 CF version??

2) I was scared of this one because thermoelectric is dependent on ambiant temperature. Once a temp controller is set up, will this temp maintain a constant temp, even if ambiant temp changes? How low do you find this fridge will go inside, and what temp do you keep your house?

Thanks for the info!

Also where did you you find this? I can't seem to find it on the target website anymore.

I will try and answer everyone's comments.

Unless I accidently set the controller to output in Fahrenheit while playing with it, I did not have to make any adjustments to get it to output that way.

Attached is a pic of the fridge with the door open. It can fit the oversized buckets perfectly. One of the reasons I got this fridge was bc of the lack of the compressor hump which gives it as small of a footprint as possible.

I am not sure the exact capabilities of the unit, but it I keep my basement around 65 in the summer and up to 70 in the winter (furnace heats up the basement). I too was bit concerned about it being thermoelectric, but I figured I could always modify the hot side fans to higher performance fans to increase the heat transfer. I don't think I could lager year round with it, but I rarely make lagers and if I did I could just use my keezer.

I picked this 2.8 unit up off Craigslist for $80. Not sure if you can still get them in stores, I would think you could.

You can certainly pick up a pink one check out the $$

Looks like exactly what I need, but Target does not carry them anymore. I checked Haier's website and they don't have them listed at all.

I guess we will have to find a new cheap fridge that will do the job.

physast said:

Looks like exactly what I need, but Target does not carry them anymore. I checked Haier's website and they don't have them listed at all.

I guess we will have to find a new cheap fridge that will do the job.

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wally world has them online under the black and decker name I saw 1 for $50ish w/ free shipping.
As a side note i just picked up a aquafina beverage cooler off craigslist for 20 bones but the highest temp i can get is 51 degrees and it went down to 34 within 3 hours. Its a QDB dc7 that has a fan running constantly, I may have to look into a temp controller cause I mainly do ales. sorry to sidetrack

I was able to modify the thermostat to raise the operating temp range. If the design is similar to my model all you have to do is add a resistor in parallel to the probe. I went with the eBay controller so that I could have better control over the temperature.

DEWSBREW said:

wally world has them online under the black and decker name I saw 1 for $50ish w/ free shipping.
As a side note i just picked up a aquafina beverage cooler off craigslist for 20 bones but the highest temp i can get is 51 degrees and it went down to 34 within 3 hours. Its a QDB dc7 that has a fan running constantly, I may have to look into a temp controller cause I mainly do ales. sorry to sidetrack

Click to expand...

I checked Walmart and they only have a 1.7 cu ft. Do you have the link for where you saw the 2.8 cu ft?

physast said:

I checked Walmart and they only have a 1.7 cu ft. Do you have the link for where you saw the 2.8 cu ft?

Click to expand...

Found them here_____________


http://www.oneclickmx.com/Haier-C-RNU281VS-NuCool-Coolant-Free-28-Cubic-Ft-Refrigerator_p_3924.html

http://www.hhappliance.com/products/Haier/har/crnu281vs.html

http://kitchenaidrefrigerators.tk/s...Cool-Coolant-Free-2.8-Cubic-Ft.-Refrigerator-...

I have a thermoelectric wine cooler with a digital thermostat and I would like to use an STC-1000 to hijack the stock thermostat.

If I want to replace the stock NTC probe with a resistor, which resistor type should I choose (wattage, material, etc.)?

My plan is to have a 22K ohm resistor wired into the stock thermostat instead of the original NTC thermistor, so it reads low temperature and is in the off state. When the STC-1000 kicks on (using its own probe for the carboy) it opens a circuit with a 4.7K ohm resistor wired in parallel to the 22K ohm one, thus dropping the resistance to ~3.87K ohm, giving a high reading to the stock thermostat and kicking the fridge on.

Is my logic correct? I'd appreciate any comments and suggestions.