Hi All,
I've been fermenting in a temperature controlled fridge for about 6 years now. I've recently upgraded my brewery into a 40L (10G) 3 vessel HERMs. I often end up splitting the batch into 2 x 20L using different yeasts etc. Although I can fit 2 plastic fermenters in the fridge, I cannot run them at different temperatures. I figured I'd up my fermentation game.I don't really have room for 2 fridges in the garage, can't pass a $1000 glycol chiller pass the wife and I like building stuff, so a DIY glycol chiller it is. In the future I'll be looking to purchase 2 new fermenters (at this stage, the Fermzilla) that can take a heat exchanger coil.
Kept an eye out on facebook market place and managed to pick up a portable air conditioner unit for $50NZD. Window AC units are very rare in New Zealand, so I couldn't go that route. At this stage, I've managed to hack it all apart into just the items I need from the AC unit.
A few people warned away from a digital AC unit in their builds, but I didn't find it to be an issue. It was just a matter of tracing the wires that ran to the compressor and bypassing the control unit. I kept in the starter capacitor. I'll be controlling it all off an STC-1000 unit.
Still a lot of things left to do. I need to track down a cheap and appropriate sized chilly bin (cooler) and some pumps. I would like one smaller pump for glycol recirculation in the cooler to prevent stratification, and one for each fermenter.
I'll need to work out a way to mount the cooler and fit the heat exchanger into the cooler. As this was a vertical AC unit, the two HEXs are stacked on top of each other. I may keep it that way if I can't work out a way to bring the HEX down to ground level.
Here is a link to the build so far.
I've been fermenting in a temperature controlled fridge for about 6 years now. I've recently upgraded my brewery into a 40L (10G) 3 vessel HERMs. I often end up splitting the batch into 2 x 20L using different yeasts etc. Although I can fit 2 plastic fermenters in the fridge, I cannot run them at different temperatures. I figured I'd up my fermentation game.I don't really have room for 2 fridges in the garage, can't pass a $1000 glycol chiller pass the wife and I like building stuff, so a DIY glycol chiller it is. In the future I'll be looking to purchase 2 new fermenters (at this stage, the Fermzilla) that can take a heat exchanger coil.
Kept an eye out on facebook market place and managed to pick up a portable air conditioner unit for $50NZD. Window AC units are very rare in New Zealand, so I couldn't go that route. At this stage, I've managed to hack it all apart into just the items I need from the AC unit.
A few people warned away from a digital AC unit in their builds, but I didn't find it to be an issue. It was just a matter of tracing the wires that ran to the compressor and bypassing the control unit. I kept in the starter capacitor. I'll be controlling it all off an STC-1000 unit.
Still a lot of things left to do. I need to track down a cheap and appropriate sized chilly bin (cooler) and some pumps. I would like one smaller pump for glycol recirculation in the cooler to prevent stratification, and one for each fermenter.
I'll need to work out a way to mount the cooler and fit the heat exchanger into the cooler. As this was a vertical AC unit, the two HEXs are stacked on top of each other. I may keep it that way if I can't work out a way to bring the HEX down to ground level.
Here is a link to the build so far.