New Keezer Questions

To those of you with keezers I have a couple questions as I just got mine up and running and I want to get some opinions, if possible, about my settings. I am using a 8.9 cu ft Frigidaire with a Ranco unit. My collar is 8" and finally got it installed tonight. After the install I fired everything up and set the Ranco to 40* with a 3* differential (37-43*). After turning it on the Ranco kicked on and it took 4 minutes to bring the temp down from 49 to 40. The compressor turned off and the temp dropped to 37*. The unit then took 30 minutes to turn on again as soon as the temp hit 43* and the cycle has continued. Therefore it seems it takes 4 minutes to bring the compressor to bring the keezer down from 43* to 40 (then it falls to 37*) and takes 30 minutes to fire up again.

Questions:

1.) Is my differential too high at 3? I have read a lot of threads here but nothing really addresses my inquiry, unless I am searching poorly. And it seems 40* is common?

2.) Does this time table seem acceptable and about right? I don't want to kill the compressor. I have read that some people's fire every 10 minutes, but I can't find a comparable thread to the size of my keezer. I have spent the last couple hours searching for a leak in the collar but can't seem to find one. Tomorrow I will throw some Starsan or soap on there and see if I can find some bubbles.

3.) Before I hook everything up, any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

I don't have a keezer, but it sounds to me like yours is well enough insulated that it doesn't warm up quickly at all... this would be a good thing!

SatelliteGuy said:

I don't have a keezer, but it sounds to me like yours is well enough insulated that it doesn't warm up quickly at all... this would be a good thing!

Click to expand...

Well I am hoping so!

I should also note the keezer is empty really. There are 4 empty cornies in there just to save space in the fermenting closet for now. Though I am hoping to rack 2 cornies tomorrow depending on how things are going.

That sounds about right to me. I have the 8.8 Kenmore with a 2x4 collar and a Ranco. It runs around 2 or 3 minutes maybe, every 20-30 minutes or so.
It's loaded up though. I've got 4 cornys, CO2, and my line chiller in there... That really helps to stabilize the temperature.