My Son of Fermentation chamber won't work!

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MetalMan2004

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This frustrates me especially because I haven't seen any other people on the internet with problems.

After I built it I tried it out with no fermenter inside and it dropped to 65 really quick so I was excited. Now that I have beer in there it won't get below 75 (almost room temp, which we keep at 78 here in Houston so our electricity bill isn't through the roof) with 2 one gallon jugs of ice in it. It is sealed with weather stripping, so I am not sure how to seal it up any better. Only thing I can think of is to go to 4 jugs of ice, but I am afraid that much weight will break the walls of the unit. Anyone have any good ideas here? This is frustrating the crap out of me.
 
Hello, welcome to HBT. I just need more info as to how you constructed the chamber, is there a fan in there? Wheres the ice go, etc. Are you trying to cool in a better bottle? Keg?
 
When I had one, I had to use 3 containers (96oz OJ containers) to keep temps when fermenting. As the previous poster asked, is your fan working ? Do you have the
thermostat working to control the fan based on the set temp point ?

But for all the effort, using a mini refrigerator is better as who wants to keep swapping out
ice ? And you're still building a box...
 
Mine doesn't cool all that well either. I create a partition using insulation to make a very small space (mine will fit 3 carboys) and put the carboy in there with the ice jugs right next to it. Gets it down about 8-10 degrees below ambient.
 
Fan is working and when I put my hand up to the baffle cool air is blowing, just not cool enough I guess. I have the fan set to come on at 75 and cut off at 70. I don't think it has cut off yet.

I went with this because it was cheap (which helped convince the wife) and was supposed to work good enough. So far it is 't working good enough... I may try 3 jugs and see what happens.
 
I have the fan set to come on at 75 and cut off at 70.
Is your probe measuring wort or ambient temperature?
70-75 degrees ambient (or wort for most yeast) in your chamber is too high.


Not that it makes any difference if the fan is not shutting off,
but if you have luck adding more bottles set the fan in the 64-68 range.

Your wort will be a good 5 degrees higher than ambient.
 
what is the current temperature of the wort and what was the temp when you put it in there?

with two jugs of ice i can keep mine 10-15 below ambient. sealing up everything with foil tape really helped.
 
I may have to go buy some foil tape today. I have the temp probe taped to the fermenter and it reads a pretty constant 75 since I put it in there on Sunday and continually switching out ice jugs. The air temp is probably 5 degrees cooler maybe more, but the wort definitely isn't.
 
I made the smaller SoF: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/smaller-son-fermentation-chiller-79556/ I also used weather stripping; but, my cuts were not very straight. I initially had problems getting it to chill properly too, even with the weather stripping I was getting leaks. I sealed up all the joints with tape; works great now. I swap out 1 gal ice jug every 12 hr. Kept the wort temp at 59° & the fan only runs occasionally. Before the tape it was running constantly.
 
Mine works great. I can hold 60 degrees easily in a 75-80 degree ambient temp.

One question. When you built it did you make the divider between the ice chambers in the back a few inches off the bottom. This allows the warm air to go down one side , over the ice bottles and up the other side then into the chamber.

Another thing. I use the round water bottles that stack. I can stack them 2-3 high on each side If I want it to get really cold. I can almost lager in mine.
 
Well I bought some foil tape to install tonight. We will see if that fixes things.

Beergolf, no hole in the bottom of the baffle yet, but if the tape doesn't solve the problem that will be my next step. I thought about making a 3" square hole in the bottom of the baffle and moving the fan down there to blow the cool air out of the bottom. I am going to hold off though and do one thing at a time.

Thanks for all of the suggestions!
 
Well I bought some foil tape to install tonight. We will see if that fixes things.

Beergolf, no hole in the bottom of the baffle yet, but if the tape doesn't solve the problem that will be my next step. I thought about making a 3" square hole in the bottom of the baffle and moving the fan down there to blow the cool air out of the bottom. I am going to hold off though and do one thing at a time.

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

No that won't work. If you cut a hole in the back wall you lose all control of the temp. Keep the only two holes at the top. You only want cold air to go into the chamber when the fan kicks in. If you cut a hole low in the back wall you have no control and the cold air will always be going into the chamber so the thermostat will do nothing.

You need the back wall of the chamber itself intact except for the two holes at the top. One hole has the fan (I have mine blowing into the chamber.) The back part that holds the ice should be divided into two parts. The divider should be up off the bottom a few inches. The fan then blows the cool air into the chamber and the warmer air is pulled into the ice chambers. Down through the first chamber and up through the next where the fan is. This way the warm air travels over both ice jugs before being pushed into the chamber.
 
Here are a couple of pics to help you understand how it should work.

The first pic shows the main chamber. The main chamber has only two holes. On mine the one on the upper right has the fan that blows the cool air into the chamber. The one on the upper left allows the warm air to go into the ice chamber.

The second pic is of the ice chamber in the back. The ice chamber has a divider in the center. The one on the left has the fan that blows the cool air into the chamber. The one on the right is where the warm air enters the ice chambers. The center divider is held a few inches off the bottom , This allows the warm air to be pulled down across the ice in the right side. When the air reaches the bottom it crosses over to the left side and is drawn up across the ice jug on that side and then pushed out into the main chamber. thus cooling the chamber. You then set your thermostat to the temp you want and it will hold that temp easily.

Also those round water bottles stack very easily. I can stack up to three per side. If I do not need a lot of cooling I still leave a full one on the bottom and stack the frozen one on top. I think this helps with a little more thermal mass. If I want to I can stack three frozen bottles per side and get the chamber down to about 40 degrees in a 75 degree basement.

Hope this helps. When my fermentation fridge is full I use the SOF and I find that it works great.

chamber.jpg


ice.jpg
 
Well mine looks pretty close to yours. He explanation about holes in the bottom being a bad idea does make sense.

When I got home the temp was down to 72 and I hadn't done anything to it since changing the ice this morning. The yeast must be calming down. I think I am going to leave it be until it is time to rack to the secondary. Then I will do the tape thing. Thanks again for all the suggestions!
 
mine is exactly like the one above but my center divider is not off the bottom at all. does that matter?
 
mine is exactly like the one above but my center divider is not off the bottom at all. does that matter?

It does matter because you basically sealed off your return air flow and have two separate chambers; one of which has warm air going in and nowhere else to go.

Looking at it straight on: The fan on the upper right is pulling air from both chambers. Since the warm air is going into the left chamber (through the opening on the top left) and being pulled over the ice, under the divider, over more ice, and back up and through the fan, it has now been cooled. The cooled air blown through the top right fan will sink (because cooler air is more dense) and cool the chamber. Colder air being blown into the fermenting chamber will force the warmer air up and back into the "return" opening on the top left, starting the cycle again.

So yes you do need an opening at the bottom of the divider of the two ice chambers.

I'm certain there are pictures describing this better than me somewhere...

EDIT: beergolf explained it well. My post was redundant.
 
It does matter because you basically sealed off your return air flow and have two separate chambers; one of which has warm air going in and nowhere else to go.

Looking at it straight on: The fan on the upper right is pulling air from both chambers. Since the warm air is going into the left chamber (through the opening on the top left) and being pulled over the ice, under the divider, over more ice, and back up and through the fan, it has now been cooled. The cooled air blown through the top right fan will sink (because cooler air is more dense) and cool the chamber. Colder air being blown into the fermenting chamber will force the warmer air up and back into the "return" opening on the top left, starting the cycle again.

So yes you do need an opening at the bottom of the divider of the two ice chambers.

I'm certain there are pictures describing this better than me somewhere...

EDIT: beergolf explained it well. My post was redundant.
wow, okay. that makes perfect sense. i looked at the original SOFC design and it indicates that this middle piece should be raised. I'll definitely get in there and create some kind of opening.
 
wow, okay. that makes perfect sense. i looked at the original SOFC design and it indicates that this middle piece should be raised. I'll definitely get in there and create some kind of opening.

That's definitely the problem. No way for it to circulate the cold air through the chamber without a void in the bottom of the divider.
 
That's definitely the problem. No way for it to circulate the cold air through the chamber without a void in the bottom of the divider.
well in my case mine actually works pretty well with two fans and ice in both chambers. i can do 55 with ambient in the upper 60s. but hopefully it will now work even better!
 
FRUSTRATED! SomI taped everying up with foil tape AND I added the hole in the bottom for airflow through both cooling chambers. I hit a whopping 70 degrees! The problem has to be the front and top doors. I found one big leak there and added more weather stripping.

I blame it on a mix of my bad workmanship and the materials. Her in Houston no one carries 2" thick foam so I had to buy 4 1/2" boards. I then cut the pieces 4 times and glued them together. The cuts were uneven and didn't work so well.

I am thinking of just starting over with new foam because I know it should work!
 
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