Son of a Fermentation chiller materials

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking in the forums for a little while now and am currently brewing my first batch of beer. I haven't been doing much for temperature control and after looking over the plans for a son of a fermentation chamber a week or so, i decided to try to build one. The only problem is I can't find 2 inch thick extruded polystyrene. Home depot has 1 inch thick sheets so worst comes to worst I could glue two sheets together but I wanted to check first if anyone has found a place in phoenix az that carries 2 inch thick polystyrene. Thanks guys any help is appreciated.

I think most people just use the two one inch sheets.

Alrighty then thats what I will do. Thanks for the reply.

Yep, the 2" pink stuff...

Thanks guys, I have one more question though. I tried to the wiring for it today and i ran into a problem with the thermostat. I can't seem to get it to work on the automatic cool setting. It works when I set the fan switch to the on position but when i switch it to auto it doesn't operate the fan when it rises above the target temperature. After looking at the wiring diagrams for the thermostat, I think it may be that the simplest wiring available for a cooling system is a three wire system while what i have setup is a two wire system. The power supply is connected to the pin for the cooling power supply, the fan is connected to the thermostat then the power supply. According the wiring diagrams there should be a third wire to the cooling output. Do i have the wrong type of thermostat? Sorry for the lengthy questions.

Pepe said:

Thanks guys, I have one more question though. I tried to the wiring for it today and i ran into a problem with the thermostat. I can't seem to get it to work on the automatic cool setting. It works when I set the fan switch to the on position but when i switch it to auto it doesn't operate the fan when it rises above the target temperature.

Click to expand...

Not sure what thermostat you are using but I got a RiteTemp model 6020 from Homedepot and had the same issue. After reading the installation I found a note explaining that I needed to allow ~2mins after temp rises above target for the controller to switch on. I reset the controller and time the switching, it did turn on around the 2min mark. After that, the controller have been switching as expected (close to the 2mins time frame). This is assuming the wiring is OK. Just in case, check out this site. I use the first wiring diagram (need to scroll near the end)

http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/Remote-Sensing-DIY-Controller-for-Less-Than-$25

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Thanks!, turns out it takes 4 mins for mine to kick in after the temperature rose. And here is my last question, I promise, I might be able to get a freezer for free off of craigslist, would I be able to use the thermostat to control the freezer or would I need to get a better temperature controller? I am currently using a Hunter 40135 model. It would be awesome if I could since the freezer would involve less work. All I would need to do is extend the thermocouple from the thermostat into the freezer. Thanks guys! This forum is awesome.

EDIT: Nevermind, figured it out on my own. Thanks to everyone though!