Fermentation chamber question

[jpeebs]

I have a fermentation chamber that I built at the end of the fall and it has worked great. Being in the winter, and being that I keep it in my brew room located in my garage, I did not really have a need to have anything to cool down the cooler, and the fermwrap I have in there worked great. Now that it's getting warmer (finally), I'm going to be needing my chamber to cool as well as heat. Is it ok to just use the cooling unit of the freezer, or is that going to be overkill and make it too cold? Thanks!

 

[Facinerous]

As long as I understand you correctly then the freezer will work great for you. You do need to use a temperature controller for it though as most freezers don't go "up" to the temperature you would desire for fermentation.

Just look around on HBT and you will find so many threads involving this topic your head will indeed spin.

 

[jpeebs]

Yeah I should've mentioned that I have an STC-1000 controller. Thanks!

 

[Facinerous]

Nice. I read into the effect of using a freezer at a higher temperature than what it is rated for. It looks like if the expected life expectancy of a freezer is 25 years, running it at a higher temperature would reduce its life by 5 to 7 years. Something that I think most of us can consider a non-issue.

Happy brewing.

 

[strangebrew14]

I like to put a small hand towel under the carboy just so its not sitting directly on the bottom of freezer to help ping pong effect. I love my chest freezer, ceramic heater and stc-1000. Best $75 I have spent in brewing and was a fun build. Brew on!!

 

[BigFloyd]

Yeah I should've mentioned that I have an STC-1000 controller. Thanks!

I'm not sure that I understand the question. If you have an STC-1000 outlet box, it's a simple matter of plugging the freezer into it, taping the probe to the bucket w/some bubble wrap over it and letting the controller turn the freezer on/off to maintain your set temp. That's the beauty of those wonderful little gadgets.

 

[jpeebs]

I was mostly just wondering if it would get too cold since it's a freezer. I know the STC will flip between heat and cool, but was unsure how cold it would take it.


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[duboman]

I was mostly just wondering if it would get too cold since it's a freezer. I know the STC will flip between heat and cool, but was unsure how cold it would take it.


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As long as your probe is mounted and insulated properly the STC should kick the freezer off when the desired temp is reached and kick it on when the temp rises above your set point. Same goes for the heat element.


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[BigFloyd]

I was mostly just wondering if it would get too cold since it's a freezer. I know the STC will flip between heat and cool, but was unsure how cold it would take it.


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Yeah, after it gets 0.5*C warmer than the set temp (default setting), the power to the freezer will kick on and stay on until the temp drops back down to the set temp at which time the STC-1000 will power it off.