ebay aquarium temp controller build

I use wire nuts for the wiring, and 12 or 14 gauge wire. I go directly from the wire nut to the duplex socket. I use a 12 Amp cord, so I make sure not to overload. But then, a 12V DC converter draws way less than 1 Amp. Very simple, very safe. If you wanted to be even safer, just use a 10 Amp fuse with the black wire going to the socket.

marshallwms said:

I use wire nuts for the wiring, and 12 or 14 gauge wire. I go directly from the wire nut to the duplex socket. I use a 12 Amp cord, so I make sure not to overload. But then, a 12V DC converter draws way less than 1 Amp. Very simple, very safe. If you wanted to be even safer, just use a 10 Amp fuse with the black wire going to the socket.

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Ok cool thanks. I used 12 gauge inside the box since I had an old outdoor extension cord. I'll use some left over to do up a socket.

I ordered an STC-1000. After several hundred pages of this thread and some

Up to now I haven't bothered with heating using the STC-1000 but I think I'm going to give this Lasko 102 200W heater a try.

alien said:

Up to now I haven't bothered with heating using the STC-1000 but I think I'm going to give this Lasko 102 200W heater a try.

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Are you heating to control it if the temp gets below a certain temp? I use mine outside and have just a 40 watt bulb that kicks on when the temp drops... been freezing out there for the last few days since I've put it on and it controls if VERY well.

theck said:

Are you heating to control it if the temp gets below a certain temp? I use mine outside and have just a 40 watt bulb that kicks on when the temp drops... been freezing out there for the last few days since I've put it on and it controls if VERY well.

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Any concerns with the light exposure to the beer? What other heating options have people had good success with?

strangebrew14 said:

Any concerns with the light exposure to the beer? What other heating options have people had good success with?

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Oh your using as a ferm chamber I'm using it to control temps in an outside kegerator. I think the light bulb either has no or little UV anyhow... If I remember past discussions. Not 100% so don't take my word for it ha..

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strangebrew14 said:

Any concerns with the light exposure to the beer? .....

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Fluorescent, and led light and to a lesser degree, incandescent, can all skunk unprotected beer. It's the blue end of the visible, down into the UV portion of the spectrum that causes skunking. I would protect hopped wort/beer from all light sources.

alien said:

Up to now I haven't bothered with heating using the STC-1000 but I think I'm going to give this Lasko 102 200W heater a try.

Click to expand...

I use the same heater and love it. You might be able to get one cheaper at Walmart.

strangebrew14 said:

Any concerns with the light exposure to the beer? What other heating options have people had good success with?

Click to expand...

You can install the light in a metal paint can. I can't link any pictures right now from my iPad, but you can search it out I am sure.

http://www.brewstands.com/fermentation-heater.html

Got a link for you

Well I excitedly finished up my STC1000 build last night and went to walfart today and picked up a 1000w small ceramic heater..has tip over and overheat safety features so I fell comfortable popping it in the chest freezer. Time for some testing!! Love this addiction and only completed 2 brews to date :0)

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1000 watts? That's insane.

In the depths of this cold spell where the outdoor temps haven't made it above 10°F this week, the ambient temperature in my unheated basement right now is 54°F.

But my 17cf fermentation fridge is maintaining after-primary clean-up temperature of 68°F by virtue of a 60W bulb-in-a-can-with-a-small-fan-blowing-on-it, and my 50cf modestly insulated wood cabinet fermentation chamber is also sitting at 68°F by virtue of a 100W ceramic resistor array.

Take it back before you open the package and get something much, much smaller...

Cheers!

After looking at box technically I am running the heater at 500w using the low heat setting. I guess my question is what is the risk by using a decent heater? In my head (not saying much) I figure the heater will warm the chest freezer quicker resulting in a lower cycle time and longer life on heater..Am I crazy?

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I'll defer to the jury on the whole Sanity thing

If there are issues, one may be overshoot that causes the compressor and heater to play ping-pong, and another would be causing something plastic too close to the heater to experience a melt-down. If you can get your control to avoid the former and be religiously careful about heater and fermenter placement to avoid the latter, you'll likely be ok...

Cheers - and good luck!

Gentle heating and cooling is the best approach for a fermentation chamber. As day trippr states, over/under shoot will be a problem, otherwise.

What better to do on a Friday night than drink beer
and work on your STC-1000 build.

Too to attempt wiring. At least the dangerous stuff with cutting the metal plate to fit the controller is done. :rockin:

Hello, what is the ideal heating element to use here? Would a brew-belt "mounted," somehow suffice?

Thanks !

tcd2004 said:

Well I just finished a build of my own and am pretty happy with how it turned out. The first controller I received had a defective cold relay so I had to order a new one. Luckily I ordered through Amazon, so the return process was smooth. I ended up using a 7x5x3 project box. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread, it made making this thing a breeze!

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Nice clean professional looking job.

jerryk said:

I use the same heater and love it. You might be able to get one cheaper at Walmart.

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Does this ceramic heater have a built in fan? That would certainly help in a fermentation chamber to evenly distribute the heat, and reduce the Ping Pong effect.

I recommend getting a heat wrap from ReptileBasics.com. They're cheap and you don't have to worry about exposing the wort to light. I bought two and they're keeping two 3 gal PET carboys at 68F in my drafty garage with the STC-1000. I'm going to buy several more, one for my chest freezer and the others for more heat wraps.

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Out of curiosity what kind of longevity can I expect from my STC1000? I wish the display would shut off after a certain amount of time

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scottzo said:

Hello, what is the ideal heating element to use here? Would a brew-belt "mounted," somehow suffice?

Thanks !

Click to expand...

Mine has been working great so far this winter. I have it draped across two fermenters. But you need a fan to keep the air circulating

chessking said:

Does this ceramic heater have a built in fan? That would certainly help in a fermentation chamber to evenly distribute the heat, and reduce the Ping Pong effect.

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It does have a fan and I don't think it heats the chamber to quickly. Also I have not had a problem with the Ping Pong effect. My diff. Is set to .6 if that helps.

Anyone use the reptile under the tank heating pad in a keezer? Thinking I might put one in next winter under the kegs instead of the bulb, takes up less room and evenly distributes the heat?

Finished my STC-1000 build tonight. What a great little unit!

Having two temp controllers is great. I am going to use the old one for lagering and this one for primary fermentation. Now I just need to explain to SWMBO why I need another fridge/freezer.

I got a little ceramic heater from walmart for 17 or 18. Works perfect has tip over stop and therm stop, no problems so far during this new england winter

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This Lasko Ceramic heater seems popular and is on offer now for less than $20.

I use a cheap aquarium heating pad with my chamber. Was only $20 and is designed to work in humid environments. Also, puts off zero light. My advice, buy the biggest one they have.

Donnie

Keg #1: Empty
Keg #2: Empty
Primary #1: Tailgater Pale Ale
Primary #2: Leiny's Big Butt Clone (as an ale)

I did the fermwrap from the aquarium place, just search DIY fermwrap. Nice thing about it is I use it to heat my seed trays for planting season as well!

strangebrew14 said:

Out of curiosity what kind of longevity can I expect from my STC1000? I wish the display would shut off after a certain amount of time

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Click to expand...

I don't know what the life expectancy is. But I have been using mine for ~1.5 years now and it keeps on rocking.

Since it's an "aquarium" temperature control, I'd expect it should be designed for a few years of 24x7 usage at least.

Since I don't have fermentation going on 24x7 I think I should get a lot of use from my STC1000. I have been tempted to buy another one to have as a spare just in case though...

Just started my build tonight. I'll finish up the wiring tomorrow and try it out. Great info in this thread!

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Just about anything that puts off heat will work with this build. If you have more than one beer fermenting at a time, I would avoid directly heating a fermentation bucket and putting the probe on it since the other bucket(s) might end up varying greatly. FWIW I have a couple old 35W and 45W soldering irons lying around. I put one, in its metal stand, in the fermentation chamber, and I have a fan running all the time. It works perfectly. I use a .3 difference setting, and put my cooling delay at the max to avoid ping pong. I have never seen the temp outside of the .3 range. I use an extended mini-fridge. So just about any heat source will work. Large ceramic resistors are a great idea.

I use this reptile heater:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OVBEEK/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

In a 4.6 CuFt fridge it warms quickly, I've gotten it up to 80F. It looks pretty safe, and heats gently. I got the idea from someone else on here, very satisfied.

Put a light bulb in a paint bucket. Cheap, easy and works extremely well

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day_trippr said:

That's an MH1210F or G (can't read the fine text on top).
Fahrenheit single stage with ASC, works great.
I installed one in the lid of my new keezer.

It can be set for heat OR cool - not both - as it is in fact a single stage controller...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Nice integrated design.
Can you show how you have the power is coming into the controller?

TripleHopped said:

Nice integrated design.
Can you show how you have the power is coming into the controller?

Click to expand...

The freezer has an integrated interior light mounted in the lid liner with its AC fed through the back edge of the lid (the square black thingie in the first picture), so I tapped that AC feed to run the controller logic. However, the 18 gauge wire used for the light was way too wimpy to run a compressor, which would have meant running a beefy AC cable in and out of the lid and through the controller relay.

Rather than do that, and having run a 12VDC line through the lid to run my fans anyway, I tapped the 12VDC and ran a leg through the MH1210 relay, then back out to a beefy 30A relay that's inside the small panel in the dolly. The cable for that is just to the left of the AC feed in the first picture (and to the left of that are the two gas feeds).

A socket for DC power to the fans is at the left end of the lid liner in the next to last picture, and a dongle to plug in the temperature probe pops out on the right end. I replaced the dangle with a fixed socket in the liner once it finally showed up in the mail, and the two sockets are different diameters so you can't plug the fans into the sensor path or vice versa.

The liner hides the spaghetti-fest of wire nicely and the keezer has been running flawlessly since first power on two months ago.
Very happy with the MH1210 controller, it works very well and isn't too hard on the eyes...

hth

Cheers!

What is the general consensus on the accuracy of these controllers? I just finished my build and will be using it to control fermentation. I had it set to 63 in my chest freezer for testing. According to my CDN instant read thermometer it was around 61. Not sure which one to believe.
Here's a pic, fun build!


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Calibrate with ice water.

^Agreed, you definitely want to calibrate before using. The MH1210 in my build needed 5.4°F correction applied to correlate the ice slurry temperature reading to my Thermapen...

Cheers!

brew2enjoy said:

What is the general consensus on the accuracy of these controllers? I just finished my build and will be using it to control fermentation. I had it set to 63 in my chest freezer for testing. According to my CDN instant read thermometer it was around 61. Not sure which one to believe.
Here's a pic, fun build!


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Click to expand...

Smart idea mounting it on the end of the box.


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