Guide to set internal chest freezer thermostat to >32F; Eliminate external control

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?Love this thread. Spent 4 hours trying to find an extrenal controller after buying a chest freezer. Wish I had seen this earlier. Working on getting the range down. I believe I had to turn my screws out. The screw was under a flap ontop on the control. I just bent it back until the top was open.

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After reading all of these threads is this going to be possible to hold it around 65 to 70 for fermenting or am I going to have to buy a temp controller?
 
Thank you for the ideas and info.

Took me about 10 minutes to locate and adjust the wide range set screw on my new kezzer. Cranked it all the way up, and turned the narrow range all the way up and I am now sitting at 37F. Slightly colder then I would like, but for $60 less then an external temp control who cares.
 
Okay my question, I had a mini fridge and it quit working, couldn't I just replace the freezer sensor with the fridge one? I can't seem to get this adjustment screw thing to work!
 
alright, my new holiday 7cf freezer was delivered today (i'm at work right now) but going to give this a shot tonight/tomorrow.
The tech said to wait 24 hours before i do anything. so i may have to wait unfortunately until tomorrow to do anything.
 
took me a few minutes, but i was finally able to locate the set screw (i said screw it, if im' going to do this, may as well within the first few days)
turned it all the way in and set the main dial to 4.
have a keg full of water with a thermometer in there to see where this gets. from reading this thread with other people with holiday freezers, they are having the same success with around 38ish. here is to crossing fingers!
 
yep! screwed it all the way in, set the dial to 4, after about 3-4 hours or so, it's holding in the high 30s (right around 38 or so).
This is one of the coolest ideas ever!

And for the holiday, once you take the panel off. there will be the rear end with white tape going over 3 sides, if you look at the middle portion of where the tape is, rub your finger hard and you'll find the hole where the screw is.
it was a pretty tiny screw too.

Hope that helps! and best of luck!
 
well i take it back... haha just a bit though! the compressor turned off at 36*. so thats good enough for the chicks i dig!
 
well i checked it again while grabbing another pint... it's now at 33*. i turned it to 1 and the set screw is all the way in, so this may not work for holidays unforunately, i'll let it sit another day and see but i may need to buy a controller for it :(
 
I recently did this to my Whirlpool chest freezer (the 8.9 cu ft model) and the temperature swing (measuring ambient temp with a min/max/average thermometer) is REALLY wide. I'm looking at a temp swing from 34 to 43. The average is hanging right in the middle of those (as you would expect) around 38-39, which is what I want. Now that I have the average dialed in, I'm going to try putting the probe in a gallon of water and see what the min/max/average is on that. If that swing is less than 2-3 degrees, I'll be happy.

I already have this on a Ranco so freeing that up to put on my second fermenting fridge will be very nice!
 
Rivenin said:
well i checked it again while grabbing another pint... it's now at 33*. i turned it to 1 and the set screw is all the way in, so this may not work for holidays unforunately, i'll let it sit another day and see but i may need to buy a controller for it :(
Click to expand...

Got up this morning... its now at 20, Damn... gotta run to the brew shop later today, may as well pick up my faucet while I'm there! Lol
 
well i did have to pick up the controller. wouldn't go up any higher.
but here it is!

IMAG0672.jpg
 
Does this look familiar to anyone? The screw is the only likely suspect I could find on my frig thermostat. I wanted to play around with it, but I don't have a six prong screw tip small enough to fit it.

SNC00995.jpg
 
I bought a 12.9 CF Kenmore freezer with the same thermostat controller in your picture. I turned the screw in and hit 40F measuring with a glass full of water and a thermometer. What i noticed is with a ditigal themometer the freezer goes up and down between 10F and 40F although the glass of water did not freeze. should i be concerned with putting my kegs of valuable beer inside?
 
jwyz1960 said:
I bought a 12.9 CF Kenmore freezer with the same thermostat controller in your picture. I turned the screw in and hit 40F measuring with a glass full of water and a thermometer. What i noticed is with a ditigal themometer the freezer goes up and down between 10F and 40F although the glass of water did not freeze. should i be concerned with putting my kegs of valuable beer inside?
Click to expand...

Maybe your digital probe is too close to the fan blowing cold air in from the freezer. If water doesn't freeze, you should have no problem with beer.
 
A friend of mine gave me a Kenmore side by side he wasn't using so that I could do turn it into a fermentation chamber. I was looking into the ebay temp controllers and stumbled on this thread. I applied this technique. After a few days and some tweaking of the freezer thermostat, the freezer side is staying right around 34F and the fridge side at 50F. I've been randomly checking the temps the last couple days and haven't seen it fluctuate more than a couple degrees.
 
Rivenin said:
Got up this morning... its now at 20, Damn... gotta run to the brew shop later today, may as well pick up my faucet while I'm there! Lol
Click to expand...

I bought the Holiday 5 cuft freezer a couple of days ago and switched it on yesterday after turning the adjuster screw all the way clockwise and I have the same as you - 20 degrees. It was really easy to make the adjustments, pity I couldn't get anywhere close to 35-40 degrees. I am pretty sure that further adjustment will only make the temp colder, or in the case of the outside control knob, perhaps a tiny bit warmer but not enough. I'll try though.
 
I've just bought a semi-ancient Kenmore 23 cubic foot chest freezer, with the intention of turning it into a keezer. Opened up the compresser panel, and I'm at a loss to find this coarse adjustment screw. Seems like it would be connected to the exterior temperature control dial, but I see no screw there. Found a wiring diagram, which doesn't mention thermostat or anything related. Any suggestions, other than going out and buying a controller?
 
Picked up a new Kenmore 7.2 cubic ft. Been messing with the screw for past 2 days and I think i got it. I believe it is turned CW all the way in, then I backed it off 4 full rotations, and the dial is set in the middle. (Which was my goal incase if I have to turn it higher/lower) Have a couple containers of water, my co2 and an empty keg in there and its sitting at 38 for past 12 hours.
 
Just Bought the 5 ft^3 Holiday chest freezer. Currently taking air and water temps. I just bought this from Lowes on Monday for the birthday. Will report back if my new Holiday model is having issues w/ coarse adjustment screew not being warm enough. I found the coarse screw under the white tape that covers three sides of the thermostat on the bottom. Cheers!
 
Adjusted the set screw on my 5 cf GE, then plugged it in for the first time. First step on my road to keezerhood.
 
Set my 5 cf GE yesterday to the lowest setting and turned the set screw all the way in. Still registers at about 30 degrees. I'll have to explore other options. It was worth a shot.
 
ChshreCat said:
I gave up on mine. Was never able to get it stable at fermentation temps.
Click to expand...

I actually had mine in the sweet spot for several months, until one day I peeked inside and a growler I had in there was exploded and frozen beer everywhere.

After I cleaned up I put a temp controller on it, don't need any more accidents.
 
Just put a 10$ timer on mine, going to cycle it on for a half hour every two or three hours depending on outside temp(freezer is in garage)
 
After reading through 28 pages, I'm not sure this has been asked (though one post seemed to allude to it). When I turn the set screw in all the way, clockwise, there's a point in which the compressor kicks off. I've been doing this unplugged; so, I'll turn the screw in half a turn or so, plug it in to see if the compressor starts to kick on, and then unplug it, repeat, until this magical turn when the compressor stops kicking on. It will go from 33f to 60f, after that magical point.

So my question is this: am I hitting some kind of stopping point for the thermometer? I can still turn the screw after this magical point, but the compressor won't kick on. Other people in this thread seem to have been able to turn it all the way in without any problems.

If it helps, I have a Kenmore 15cu freezer. (Finishing the chalkboard paint today, then installing 8 taps over the weekend!)
 
Also, I've seen people saying that it will take 2 or 3 hours for the temp to stabilize, and others who will wait for 24+ hours before trying to tweak the freezer. What do you guys think? I've been letting my sit anywhere from 2 to 12 hours before tweaking it again.
 
Ulixes said:
After reading through 28 pages, I'm not sure this has been asked (though one post seemed to allude to it). When I turn the set screw in all the way, clockwise, there's a point in which the compressor kicks off. I've been doing this unplugged; so, I'll turn the screw in half a turn or so, plug it in to see if the compressor starts to kick on, and then unplug it, repeat, until this magical turn when the compressor stops kicking on. It will go from 33f to 60f, after that magical point.

So my question is this: am I hitting some kind of stopping point for the thermometer? I can still turn the screw after this magical point, but the compressor won't kick on. Other people in this thread seem to have been able to turn it all the way in without any problems.

If it helps, I have a Kenmore 15cu freezer. (Finishing the chalkboard paint today, then installing 8 taps over the weekend!)
Click to expand...

I had the same problem, either 55F or 36F liquid temp. I used 36F for quite a while, but prefer beer served in the 30s so I got an external controller. I usually waited overnight as it seemed to take quite a while to stabilize a 15 Cu. Ft freezer with 5 kegs.
 
I bit the bullet and, though I don't suggest it, decided to try adjusting the set screw with the power on. I think I hit pretty close to that weird magical point, and we'll see how it goes tomorrow. My worry is that it'll kick on too often; I'll probably end up getting an external controller, but it's so frustrating feeling that I'm really close to a cheaper, easier solution.

Oh well. What sort of external controller did you get, and how difficult was it to wire in?
 
Has anyone had luck with a 5 cu ft Holiday Chest freezer? I found the screw and everything and screwed it in all the way with the temperature setting to 1 and the temperature seems to stay at 20F.

I'm close to giving up and buying a temperature control, but want to make sure it doesn't work on this model.

Any success stories would be great!
 
Rassisland said:
Has anyone had luck with a 5 cu ft Holiday Chest freezer? I found the screw and everything and screwed it in all the way with the temperature setting to 1 and the temperature seems to stay at 20F.

I'm close to giving up and buying a temperature control, but want to make sure it doesn't work on this model.

Any success stories would be great!
Click to expand...

I did the same exact thing with the coarse screw on my 5 cu ft holiday freezer and it worked. Why don't you try turning it the other way to see if that makes any difference?
 
Well, at least I know it's possible! So you turned the screw all the way in clockwise? and had the setting at 1? Hmmm, is there anything else you did? What temperature is your fridge at with these settings?

I'll try turning it out CCW.

If you can remember any other little things you did, that would be helpful. How old is your freezer? I think mine is from 2008.
 
Rassisland said:
Well, at least I know it's possible! So you turned the screw all the way in clockwise? and had the setting at 1? Hmmm, is there anything else you did? What temperature is your fridge at with these settings?

I'll try turning it out CCW.

If you can remember any other little things you did, that would be helpful. How old is your freezer? I think mine is from 2008.
Click to expand...

Yes, all the way in clockwise. Setting at 1. After about 20 hours temp was 38-40. I have turned the setting higher to 4 since then.

I did not do anything else. I bought my freezer in January of this year. Did all the tweaks right away.
 

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