Dialing in temp control

[Kaz]

Hello...I have 2 different setups I use for fermentation temp control. #1 is a fermentation chamber built around a dorm sized mini-fridge with a Love controller and homemade fermwrap for heating. In this setup, I am usually taping the probe to the outside of the fermenter and covering with foam to insulate. With the Love controller, I can dial in a high and low temperature and it seems to pretty much keep my wort at a constant temp. In setup #2, I am using a mid sized old fridge plugged into a STC-1000 controller and a smaller homemade fermwrap for heat. Setup #2 is also usually using a Speidel Fermenter with a thermowell in the wort. WIth the STC-1000 controllers, I can only set 1 temperature and then a swing value. I seem to notice that with the thermowell, there is more of a sine wave of temperature activity and it doesn't remain constant. Any thoughts on tweaks to keep it more constant? Its only swinging about 1 degF, I keep the STC-1000 set at about .5 for a swing value.

 

[Pappers_]

I wouldn't worry about a 1 degree variance. For example, I would suspect that if you took the temperature in difference portions of your fermenting wort, not just the place where the thermowell reaches, you would get some variance. I also suspect that if you used a thermowell on your first set up to measure temp, you would also get a variance - the taping of the thermometer is giving you a more constant reading because of the mass of the fermenter, maybe.

In other words, I think you may be identifying a temperature measuring issue, not a temperature variance issue.