alien
Well-Known Member
I would advise it, best to be on the safe side.
Most refrigerators only have one compressor. Top/ bottom fridges use the "excess" cold air from the freezer to cool the fridge. If your compressor keeps turning on, I would check the temperature settings first, then the other parameters in the controller. Then the wiring. If it is hooked up like mine is, the fridge doesnt even get electricity untill it is above the set temperature+variance. You may have some wires crossed, somewhere.
Lol, thanks for your concern. Long days at work, beginning at 5 am. And a couple of beers makes for a drowsy boy. I was apparently dozing off while posting that. So I will clarify, I tried to tape the sensor to the glass carboy, after it had been in the fermenter for about 3 days but the humidity was causing profuse sweating, therefore even the almighty duct tape wouldnt stick. So I ended up having to wrap the duct tape all the way around the carboy so that it would stick to its self. I am going to brew an irish red this weekend and will probably fashion an elastic belt to hold the sensor in place.
I put the probe against the carboy/keg, put about 5 layers of bubble wrap over it, then use a bungee cord around the entire carboy/keg. No sticky residue from tape that way and it holds no matter what temp/moisture is inside the keezer. Works well for me!
So you put an aquarium heater or something similar in the refrigerator as well? Do you seal it in a container of water to help cut down on the water evaporating and condensing inside the refrigerator?
Last question...I promise...I didn't see if the swing in temperature could be programmed (but I may have missed it). I would prefer to be ale to control that so that I could avoid a constant fridge/heater/fridge/heater/fridge/heater cycle. Is that possible?
Rbeckett said:Yup this stuff is like crack. You get hooked on a 25 dollar kit and 1000 bucks later your deciding what the next upgrade is gonna be. Mine is a walk in ferm chamber I can lager in during the hot part of the Florida summer. Wish me luck getting that past the SWMBO minister of finances....
Wheelchair Bob
cincybrewer said:What is everyone using as the line in power? Just an old power plug that you strip one end off? Or are you running it off of an existing outlet?
Got mine last week - Amazon had the deal for the box (same as the OP) and controller for $25 shipped. Made it to my doorstep in 4 days even with econo shipping. Put it together this past weekend, and it is working great. I am using it in an old, non-working kegerator as an insulated box with a fan on the cool side, and a brew belt on the heat side. Ran the wires down thru where the tower was then stuffed it with a hunk of foam. 2 2-liter bottles later, I am keeping a fermenter bucket full of water at at 16C (no heater installed) out in my rather hot garage. Bottles appear to last about 24 hrs, so looks like I'll finally be brewing again this weekend!
I used a 6x4x2 for mine.
cincybrewer said:How did you cram the controller in that? I just bought a 7x5x3 and the box doesn't seem deep enough for the controller. Is everyone just cutting holes in the back of the box to allow the controller to stick out the back?
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