I HATE my Johnsonville A419!!!

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scottywags

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So I spent part of last night and more than 5+ hours today brewing a nice batch of HEFE that I planned on adding some peaches to next week after primary fermentation was settled.
Throw everything in the freezer with my (SP) set at 69... because this thing has been dropping 5+ degrees on me in the last couple weeks since I got back into brewing and I figured I would outsmart it and try to keep it at 64 or so degrees.
Everything seems fine for a couple of hours and then I go out to just check to see how the fermentation is going....12 DEGREES!!!!! WTF!!!! I open the chest up and almost everything looks frozen! The wort has a cold almost cloud over the top of it and the walls over the fridge are covered in frost.
 
I guess I'm such a noob that I don't know how to answer that....Truthfully, I don't know the difference.
I'm just going to go off of simplicity and ask:
If I'm a chest freezer and I am designed to ONLY turn on when things are to warm, and you install an manual override (aka johnsonville controller) to prevent you from turning on...would it not be the controllers malfunction?
 
From the OP I gather the controller used to work properly.

The bad news is the probe is likely on its way to Digital Heaven.
The good news is the beer is only stunned. Warm it back up and the yeast will revive and do their thing.

You can get a replacement sensor here. I've bought from ETC a couple of times, they're reputable and don't take forever to deliver.

In the meantime, think "swamp cooler" to handle that Floreeda Heet...

Cheers! :mug:
 
Does it have a flame icon or a snow flake icon? That will indicate if it's in cool-mode or heat-mode. See the screenshot below.

There's 4 settings:

  • Cooling Cut-In: will turn the electricity on when the temp is above the SP (i.e. it's designed to turn on the cooling source when the temp gets too high).
  • Cooling Cut-Out: will turn the electricity off when the temp is below the SP (i.e. it's designed to turn the cooling source off once it gets cold enough).
  • Heating Cut-In: will turn the electricity on when the temp is below the SP (i.e. it's designed to turn the heating source on when the temp gets too low).
  • Heating Cut-Out: will turn the electricity off when the temp is above the SP (i.e. it's designed to turn the heating source off when the temp gets high enough).

View attachment ScreenShot654.bmp
 
Unlike most controllers, you literally have to crack open an A419 to change from Cool to Heat modes.
Not something that's going to happen inadvertently, so if it ever worked properly, I'm going with "something broke"...

a419_jumpers.jpg

Cheers!
 
I have a A419 and it sounds to me like you have it set up incorrectly. See page 7 of this document for information on how to tell whether it is set to heating/cooling mode, as well as whether it will cut in or out at the set point http://cgproducts.johnsoncontrols.com/met_pdf/125188.pdf

It sounds to me like you have it set to heating mode... The controller doesn't care what you plug into it, it only cares about what mode its set to and what temperature it is set to. So if your controller is set to 64 degrees but it is on heating mode and a freezer is plugged into it, the controller will turn your freezer on until the temperature increases to 64 degrees, which it never will.

What you need to do is set the controller to cooling mode at 64 degrees. Then it will only turn your freezer on when the temperature exceeds 64 degrees, and it will turn off when it lowers the temperature to 64 degrees. (technically you can set the controller to cut in or out at the set point, but if you have the controller set to heating mode when you intend to cool your beer, this doesn't matter)
 
I have had this plugged in and working somewhat fine for a week now...(I say somewhat because I've had it set at 68 with a 1 diff and keep finding at 59 degrees) but to have it drop down to 12 degrees and yes there was a little fire emblem which from what I've read means it somehow switched to heat mode.
 
I have had this plugged in and working somewhat fine for a week now...(I say somewhat because I've had it set at 68 with a 1 diff and keep finding at 59 degrees) but to have it drop down to 12 degrees and yes there was a little fire emblem which from what I've read means it somehow switched to heat mode.

So, if it has the fire emblem, that means it's in one of the heat modes. So, as long as the temp is below the set point, it's going to power on your fridge/freezer. If your fridge/freezer is powered on, it's cooling, cooling, cooling, and will not turn off. Because in heat mode, it's only going to power off the electrical supply to your fridge/freezer if the temp rises above the set point. The way you have it set up, the Johnsonville is not acting as a temp control at all. It's just a pure fridge/freezer.

Edit: To be clear, I should say, you need to unscrew the Johnsonville device and move the jumpers according to the diagram Day_Tripper provided.
 
So I took it back to my home brew shop today...defective! He took it apart and messed with a few things then tried it out on his cooler...did not work, had to go to the other home brew shop that s about 30 minutes away and buy a new one...so far so good.
 
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