Poll Time! - Temperature Controller?

OK. I have a dilemma. I recently received, for free, a fridge in great shape. I thought about it and REALLY wanted to do lagers, so I turned it into a fermentation fridge complete with a Ranco controller. Total investment - about $53 for the controller (insane deal on eBay).

Dilemma? What's the dilemma? Well, I recently, again, received for free, a kegerator. I had all intentions of turning my fermentation fridge into a kegerator on a part time basis. Bought the lines, kegs, faucets, the whole shebang. My brother in law asks me about three days after I bought everything if I wanted his setup. It's a single tap sanke set up but it has only seen four kegs. Includes the CO2 tank, everything. All it needs is electricity and a fresh keg! I'd drill the extra holes for the faucets I have and it would become a four corny keg setup with a sanke option. Nice!

So, again, what's the dilemma? My wife will shoot me square in the head if I drop another $64 on a temperature controller for the kegerator. :cross: Not to mention the fact our garage now has three major appliances in it (the kegerator, the fermentation fridge and a stand up deep freeze). The appliances are going to stay, no doubt (at this time) but she really will look at me like I have lost my mind if I drop more money into this project.

So, there's a poll above. I'd like to know how many of you all out there have a temp controller on your kegerator. I assume everyone would agree with me that a temp controller on a fermentation fridge is nothing short of critical, so I'd like to know how many of you all think it is critical on a kegerator. This will help me decide how hard I have to convince my wife that the kegerator would need the extra money on a temp controller. I had a kegerator in the past when I was in college and it was a sanke and it worked just fine without a temp controller but now I am, uh, more refined? Plus that was commmericial Miller Lite and it was party time. This is hand crafted love in a glass. Big difference!

Thanks in advance! - Dean

Can't see any poll....

If you want to save the bucks, you can just use the thermostat on the kegerator and drop a better thermometer inside. It will take a little while to get it dialed in, but it will work fine that way.

FYI - when I did it this way, I used a plastic bottle (Gatorade) and poked a hole in the top for the thermometer to measure the liquid temperature - much more accurate than measuring the air temperature.

I now use a BCS-462 that controls the temp of my fermentor fridge, staging fridge and serving fridge. Yeah, I'm sick that way...

I don't, but I use a fridge and found a sweet spot with the internal controller that I like.

You might get some skewed poll results here.

Folks that use freezers for their kegerators are going to have to use temp controllers. So, there are really two kinds of "YES" people here. Ones that use it because they are a little anal about the temp of the fridge-based kegerator and ones that use it because their freezer-based kegerators absolutely need it.

Darn it, Walker, you are right. Shoot....

Does it have a working internal thermostat? Check the range of the thermostat first, and see if it includes your serving temp. If it does, just adjust the temp the old school analog way.

I have a temp control on my kegerator, but only because it doubles as a fermentation chamber. I can bump it up to 68F, which is above the maximum temp of the internal thermostat, for fermenting. When I'm using my keg for serving, the temp controller is hooked up but redundant, as the internal thermostat would work just fine.

Hi Chem,

Yep, thermostat works fine on the kegerator. Sounds like I should skip the controller and just dial it in old school like you suggest.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Dean

If it stays at the temp you want with no controller then do it. I have a chest freezer and it was too cold so I needed a controller. I searched around and got a johnson A419 that I got from a non brewing site for around $50. It didn't come wired up but a free extension cord from work and homebrewtalk helped me get it working and it works great.

My fermentation chiller has a temp controller, but by kegerator does not.

For my kegerator (fridge), I use the built in temp controller and a cheapie digital thermometer. I adjusted the built in controller knob to get 38*F on the thermometer. Works fine, costs less than $10.

:rockin:

If the kegorator was built for the purpose, you are very unlikely to need another controller.

This forum rocks. I think I am going to go Premium Supporter. Thanks everyone!!!

For a kegerator not necessary.

For a fermentation chamber most definetaly desired.