Vissani Fermentation Chamber

Just wanted to share my Vissani fermentation chamber build with the forum. It’s the 52 bottle model MVW52B. The nice thing about this wine fridge is that you don’t have to modify the interior to fit a bucket or carboy. And at times HD has these on sale for around $150.

Here are the parts I used to make an EBay aquarium controller. The electrical parts cost $20, the controller was $23 shipped and the flex-watt heat tape was $16 shipped (Flexwatt Heat Tape). The extension cord was extra I had from my keezer build, so I just needed to put a plug on the end.



Using a Dremel I cut out the plastic:



Wired it up:





For the fridge I bypassed the thermostat by splicing the brown and red wires together. The wiring is behind the white plastic cover:





I attached the 11” wide 2’ long heat tape to the wall using industrial strength Velcro:

And here is the finished project:

These fridges seam to work fine for a fermentation chamber. Right now I have Belgium Golden Ale going where over a week I have ramped up the temperature from 68 to 72F. I also tested the cooling by running it down to 35F, with the chamber empty. With out the temperature controller the fridge only went down to between 45 and 50F with it set on the coldest setting. These are in my garage where the temperature is currently between 45 and 50F.

Chris,

Your build has motivated me! I had already bought the same controller and heat tape and have been trying to find a used cooler on craigslist. HD has these at $148 right now, so I went over and bought one. I'll need it for summer ale brewing.

Can you tell me where you got the project box?

Can you share an idiots guide to wiring the power in there?

What are you using up against the sensor?

John

dyneq said:

Chris,

Your build has motivated me! I had already bought the same controller and heat tape and have been trying to find a used cooler on craigslist. HD has these at $148 right now, so I went over and bought one. I'll need it for summer ale brewing.

Can you tell me where you got the project box?

Can you share an idiots guide to wiring the power in there?

What are you using up against the sensor?

John

Click to expand...

John,

I got the project box from Lowes, they are over in electrical PVC conduit fittings section. Junction Box

For the sensor I'm just using a piece of foam pipe insulation. Pipe Insulation

For the wiring there is a lot of good information over in this thread:Ebay Aquarium Controller Thread

Do you really need to modify the controller to use this for ales?

FantasticBastard said:

Do you really need to modify the controller to use this for ales?

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I don't know. I guess it would all depend upon the room temperature where the fridge is at and what the highest temperature it can maintain. For example the highest it can maintain may only be in the 50's possibly low 60's, I didn't really check that out before modifying it. I have these in my garage where temperature is anywhere from 40F to 80F, so I have to have both heating and cooling with a controller.

Great build! Have you tried any lagers with his set up? I see you ran the temp down to the 40's. Just wondering how well it held over a few weeks and if these wine coolers have the cooling capacity and insulation to hold cold temps in the 40's. It seems like it should work after bypassing the thermostat.

I currently have a lager going right now. I fermented at 54F but since my garage is colder than that (around 50F); the chamber really only heated. I also brought it up to 66F for a d-rest. I'm currenty bringing it down to a lager temp of 36F. I'll post up how it goes, but no issues so far.

Hey Chris,

Just got my controller built this weekend and wanted to ask:

1. Once you bypass the t-stat, if you were to plug it into the wall without the controller, would it just run all the time and never stop? I'm planning on just using it for fermenting ales, so if I just crank the built-in temp control dial all the way up, I should be OK, right?

2. Did you do anything special to pass the heater power cable and temp sensor into the fridge, or did you just let the seal close on top of them?

Thanks,
John

nice build! and thanks for wearing pants!

dyneq said:

Hey Chris,

Just got my controller built this weekend and wanted to ask:

1. Once you bypass the t-stat, if you were to plug it into the wall without the controller, would it just run all the time and never stop? I'm planning on just using it for fermenting ales, so if I just crank the built-in temp control dial all the way up, I should be OK, right?

2. Did you do anything special to pass the heater power cable and temp sensor into the fridge, or did you just let the seal close on top of them?

Thanks,
John

Click to expand...

1. Yes, once bypassed the fridge would run all the time if plugged straight into the wall.

2. I didn't do anything special for the heat or sensor wires.

ingchr1 said:

I currently have a lager going right now. I fermented at 54F but since my garage is colder than that (around 50F); the chamber really only heated. I also brought it up to 66F for a d-rest. I'm currenty bringing it down to a lager temp of 36F. I'll post up how it goes, but no issues so far.

Click to expand...

As an update the fridge maintained just fine at lager temp. Enjoying one of those lagers right now.

Awesome build! Any idea if you can fit a 6.5 gallon glass carboy in there? If so I might pick a couple of these up.

jborgy said:

Awesome build! Any idea if you can fit a 6.5 gallon glass carboy in there? If so I might pick a couple of these up.

Click to expand...

I would think so, I know a 6 gallon one fits with three piece airlock.

It's funny this thread came back to life today because I'm doing my first fermentation with it (brewed on Sunday) even though I've had it for a while. I'm using the ebay aquarium controller and it's been working great.

Until now, I was using it to chill my finished brews. I had it on the max setting (7 I think) and set the controller. When I had it on 7 and it was operating more than it is now, it would occasionally make a loud thwack sound. Anyone else heard this fridge do that?

That is awesome!
I ordered my controller. I have this same exact fridge, and I'm going to copy this to the T.

Care to post a diagram of the wiring or would I be able to figure this out?

You should be able to figure it out, but if not there are plenty of threads on how to wire the Ebay controller.

Thanks for the idea. I pretty much copied it and since I have a Vissani cooler just like that I will proceed with bypassing the thermostat on that thing and use the controller.



My wiring Not the neatest but it's good.


Front


Back

This is the diagram I used (from Brew Magazine)

Guys who have built these... It looks like the controller completely moderates power to the fridge--so either the fridge is energized and the compressor is running, or the fridge is totally powerless, with no light or temp display active. Correct?

Thanks to everyone for the great pics and details. This is exactly the kind of thing I need to better enable my 5 gal bucket habit.

Horseflesh said:

Guys who have built these... It looks like the controller completely moderates power to the fridge--so either the fridge is energized and the compressor is running, or the fridge is totally powerless, with no light or temp display active. Correct?

Thanks to everyone for the great pics and details. This is exactly the kind of thing I need to better enable my 5 gal bucket habit.

Click to expand...

That is correct

If you want to copy his build to a T, you can get the temp conversion table for the controller here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/eb...roller-build-163849/index187.html#post3330382

Would it be possible to use a Ranco Two Stage Controller to achieve the same results. I don't really trust myself electrically but like the idea of the wine fridge.

Also, where can I learn more about bypassing the thermostat?

What do I need to do to splice the wires and reconnect them?

dunrooz said:

Would it be possible to use a Ranco Two Stage Controller to achieve the same results.

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I don't see why not.

dunrooz said:

What do I need to do to splice the wires and reconnect them?

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Cut the two wires, strip them, splice them together using a wire nut and cover in electrical tape as shown in the photo. Nothing needs to be done with the other end of the wires that go into the fridge to the thermostat. I would just cover the ends of those with electrical tape.

I also recently completed an ebay temp controller, but also made a thermowell out of a corny dip tube. Cut the tube in half, crimped one end with a hammer and used a vise to crimp tight, followed by rolling the steel over three times with pliers. This seals the dip tube up without the need for glue or soldering. I don't think I would have done the thermowell with glue/solder.

Now with the ebay temp controller and thermowell, reading from the center of the carboy has provided much better temp control than my Johnson A419 with the probe stuck to the side of the carboy. I think it is also better because in my chambers, the fan blows air that seems to trick the surface temp controller even with a medium covering the actual probe.

Would a reptile "under tank heating pad work?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002AQCLO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Daver77 said:

Would a reptile "under tank heating pad work?

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiTherm®-Under-Heater/dp/B0002AQCLO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1350244722&sr=8-2&keywords=heat+pad+reptile

Click to expand...

It should, what I'm using is a reptile heater.

Daver77 said:

Would a reptile "under tank heating pad work?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002AQCLO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Click to expand...

How many watts is it?

Carlscan26 said:

How many watts is it?

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16 watts what do you think?

Daver77 said:

16 watts what do you think?

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It may be too low, depending upon how cold it gets where you have your chamber. The flexwatt that I'm using is 40 watts. I have my chamber in the garage where the temp drops to the mid 40's.

ingchr1 said:

It may be too low, depending upon how cold it gets where you have your chamber. The flexwatt that I'm using is 40 watts. I have my chamber in the garage where the temp drops to the mid 40's.

Click to expand...

I agree. Any reason you can't use a wrap style heater?

Okay, possible stupid question. If you are using a temp controller, why is it necessary to bypass the fridge's thermostat? Isn't that what a temp controller is all about? I am guessing that is becuase the wine fridge has a lower limit so that wine folks don't freeze their wine. I plugged my Ranco temp controller in and the lowest it would go is the 50 degrees that it already could go when I had it on setting 7. Thanks for the help...(I am still a little wary of messing with the wiring)

OK what about the 24 watt? that's what I'm getting. My basement is cool and dry with the de humidifier on I think it will work.

dunrooz said:

Okay, possible stupid question. If you are using a temp controller, why is it necessary to bypass the fridge's thermostat? Isn't that what a temp controller is all about? I am guessing that is becuase the wine fridge has a lower limit so that wine folks don't freeze their wine. I plugged my Ranco temp controller in and the lowest it would go is the 50 degrees that it already could go when I had it on setting 7. Thanks for the help...(I am still a little wary of messing with the wiring)

Click to expand...

Bypassing the thermostat causes the fridge to cool whenever it has power. Using the external temp controller, the fridge will run as long as you want allowing it to cool below 50.

I finished my build today. Thanks again for everyone's pics and comments.

Only one thing seems odd: the light inside the fridge doesn't turn on, though the compressor runs whenever the fridge is plugged in thanks to the thermostat bypass.

Edit: forgot a couple of things that might help other builders.

- I used a 6x6x4 junction box.

- There was no room for a blue outlet enclosure inside this size box, but I did not miss it.

- The outlet's two screws bit just fine in the grey plastic, once I gave them a pilot hole.

- I suggest using spade terminals for easier connections at the outlet. Note that you cannot use ring terminals because the screws on an outlet are captive.

- I used 16 ga. stranded copper wire for the interior wiring. At 110V, it should carry 13A--and the supply is fused at 10A, and the cooler draws less than that anyway, so there should be adequate current capacity for the heat/cool hookups. (There is a stranded wire current capacity chart on this page: http://www.rowand.net/Shop/Tech/WireCapacityChart.htm)

Horseflesh said:

Only one thing seems odd: the light inside the fridge doesn't turn on, though the compressor runs whenever the fridge is plugged in thanks to the thermostat bypass.

Click to expand...

By bypassing the thermostat from outside the fridge the light also gets bypassed.

Thanks. Good to know I did not mess that up.

Say, what are you folks using for the precision parameter? The default of 0.5C seems like it might cycle the compressor quite a bit, even with that configurable delay.

Horseflesh said:

Say, what are you folks using for the precision parameter? The default of 0.5C seems like it might cycle the compressor quite a bit, even with that configurable delay.

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I use 0.4C, cycling doesn't seam to be a problem.

dunrooz said:

Okay, possible stupid question. If you are using a temp controller, why is it necessary to bypass the fridge's thermostat? Isn't that what a temp controller is all about? I am guessing that is becuase the wine fridge has a lower limit so that wine folks don't freeze their wine. I plugged my Ranco temp controller in and the lowest it would go is the 50 degrees that it already could go when I had it on setting 7. Thanks for the help...(I am still a little wary of messing with the wiring)

Click to expand...

TonyR said:

Bypassing the thermostat causes the fridge to cool whenever it has power. Using the external temp controller, the fridge will run as long as you want allowing it to cool below 50.

Click to expand...

I was about to asked the same thing. I actually have the same setup. I just plugged the fridge into the temp controller as well as my heating pad because I don't lager. At least I don't lager yet ( as soon as I find a lager I like, I may try to make one) I leave my fridge on 6 and its gets plenty cold enough for my ales. One thing I did notice about this unit in the summer though is that the outside can get very hot if you are in a garage or area that the ambient temp is pretty warm like say 90-100 for a time. Here in Northern California, I had to take it out of commission for a while and switch to a temp controlled freezer because I was worried this unit would overheat. Great build by the way and the one thing I love about this unit is being able to see through the amber glass in front to check on my fermentation.