Kezzer Help

[billysparrows]

Built a keezer with a 7 cubic foot magic chef freezer from Home Depot. It's on a Johnston temperature controller.
Used it for 4 months with no problem and I went to pour a beer and the temp inside is at 62 degrees. The compressor runs and the light on the freezer is on and it appears to be working, but it's not chilling down to temp. I unplugged it and had a service guy come out and look at. He said something about there being oil in the coolant lines and I just needed to unplug it and let it sit for a week so the oil could exit the coolant lines, but everything appeared to work fine. I did just that and plugged it back in after a week. Freezer got down to temp and worked great for two months. Went to pour a cold one yesterday and back up to 62.

The freezer is 7 months old and I don't want to rebuild or replace it. Any ideas or similar issues? Fixes?

Thanks all.

 

[Thedutchtouch]

Sorry I can't offer any solutions, but If it's less than 12 months old wouldn't it be covered under warranty?

 

[pannell77]

you could be short cycling the freezer maybe. I am not familiar with the johnston controllers, is there a user set delay time you can adjust?

 

[billysparrows]

It would be covered, but they could easily void the warranty bc I'm not using it as intended. I will try that route if necessary, but then I have to re-sand, re-prime, and re-paint the entire thing all over which I'm trying to avoid.

The controller has a set point and a differential. So I set it at say 38 with a plus/minus of 3 degrees and it will go down to 35 and cycle off and up to 41 and cycle on.

 

[pannell77]

I have mine set for a 3d differential as well, seems to work well. I would maybe give the manufacturer a call and just see what they say could be causing the issue and go from there.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

Is your controller the A419, the blue box with the internal jumpers you need to change to adjust from heating / cooling and cut in / cut out modes?

 

[billysparrows]

I think it is the A419...badnews, what exactly do you think I need to do? I didn't follow your post.

Thanks for the help.

 

[billysparrows]

Is your controller the A419, the blue box with the internal jumpers you need to change to adjust from heating / cooling and cut in / cut out modes?

I think I do have the A419. What are you saying I need to do...?

Thanks for the help.

 

[BigFloyd]

I'd try plugging the freezer directly into the wall and seeing if the temp drops over a 20 minute period.

Better that it be the controller. That's an easy and inexpensive replacement. I've got an STC-1000 hard wired into my keezer. Cost = $20.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

If you have the A419, there's a few things. First, make sure you have the internal jumpers set up right - it could be set for heating vs cooling, but I doubt that's your problem. You also need to set it for cut-in or cut-off, which will impact how things work. Check out the manual, it'll explain which jumper does what, and how to set them.

The temperature you set will be the cut in or cut off depending on your jumpers. The differential is not X* on either side of that set point, but X* above or below depending on heating/cooling and cut-in / cut-off. So if you have your jumpers set to cool and to do cut-in mode, and you have your temp set to 65* with a differential of 3, then it will allow the freezer to warm up to 65*, where it will then 'cut-in' and start cooling. When it gets to 62* (65* set point - 3* differential) it will stop and start to warm up again.

There is a setting called ASD - Anti-Shortcycle-Delay. For your freezer, you probably want that set to 10. This means that the compressor will not run for at least 10 minutes after shutting off. You may have a short-cycle issue, where it's kicking on and shutting off frequently, which is generally bad for these compressors.

Also - where is your probe? Do you have it in a thermowell inside your carboy, or just hanging out in the air? Do you have a fan in your keezer? These will impact how often the compressor runs, which could impact the wear and tear on the compressor.

There are a few other settings in the A419, but they're not too particularly important for what you've got going right now. I would say you do this: Turn it off for 2-3 days to let everything drain. Then make sure your controller is set up correctly. Then fire it back up and see if it works better. If it does -then you just had a controller issues, likely on the ASD side. If it doesn't work, then you've got a freezer issue and I'm no help there.

Good luck,
-Kevin

 

[masonsjax]

Put the probe in a bottle of water at tbe bottom of the keezer. That will measure the temp of the water which has more thermal mass than the air, and more closely resembles what you want to measure, the beer. The freezer will cycle less frequently and probably solve your problem.

 

[LuciferSam]

I put my temp sensor in an old yeast vial, and the water froze, breaking the sensor and warming my beer. What type of sensor is needed?

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$(KGrHqN,!i0E3SGCFGI1BOHiy2zy,g~~_3.JPG
This is my temp controller

Also, can I use 2 sensors one in water, and a backup in air ?

 

[billysparrows]

Thanks guys. I have a computer fan in the freezer and the probe is in a growler of water. I will look into the a419 and make sure it's set correctly.

Thanks for the help.

 

[benco]

If you have the A419, there's a few things. First, make sure you have the internal jumpers set up right - it could be set for heating vs cooling, but I doubt that's your problem. You also need to set it for cut-in or cut-off, which will impact how things work. Check out the manual, it'll explain which jumper does what, and how to set them. The temperature you set will be the cut in or cut off depending on your jumpers. The differential is not X* on either side of that set point, but X* above or below depending on heating/cooling and cut-in / cut-off. So if you have your jumpers set to cool and to do cut-in mode, and you have your temp set to 65* with a differential of 3, then it will allow the freezer to warm up to 65*, where it will then 'cut-in' and start cooling. When it gets to 62* (65* set point - 3* differential) it will stop and start to warm up again. There is a setting called ASD - Anti-Shortcycle-Delay. For your freezer, you probably want that set to 10. This means that the compressor will not run for at least 10 minutes after shutting off. You may have a short-cycle issue, where it's kicking on and shutting off frequently, which is generally bad for these compressors. Also - where is your probe? Do you have it in a thermowell inside your carboy, or just hanging out in the air? Do you have a fan in your keezer? These will impact how often the compressor runs, which could impact the wear and tear on the compressor. There are a few other settings in the A419, but they're not too particularly important for what you've got going right now. I would say you do this: Turn it off for 2-3 days to let everything drain. Then make sure your controller is set up correctly. Then fire it back up and see if it works better. If it does -then you just had a controller issues, likely on the ASD side. If it doesn't work, then you've got a freezer issue and I'm no help there. Good luck, -Kevin

thanks for the info! I just got mine a few days ago! As soon as I open door it kicks on, so I set the asd to 10. I didn't know you were a rocket scientist. I couldn't figure out the manual for ****!

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

For those of you with your probe submerged in water - are they rated to be submerged? I was under the impression that the probes were not rated for direct submersion in liquid. I'm not sure if it would give you bad readings or short something out in the probe, but it may be worth looking into. I opted to use a thermowell (long stainless tube that's sealed on one end, interior diameter the same as the probe so it fits fairly snugly) so my probe is never in contact with liquid.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

As soon as I open door it kicks on, so I set the asd to 10.

You have a few options to help with this issue - the easiest of which is just to tape the probe to the side of your carboy. The issue is that you're measuing air temperature, which can swing rapidly, especially when you open the door, and frankly you don't care much what temperature the surrounding air is at. You care about the temperature of your beer. Get some tape, or even better - get some insulated tape - and tape the probe to the side of your carboy. Then you should be measuring the temperature of the beer and you won't have the big swings when you open the door and the unit shouldn't kick on.

A better option IMO is to get a thermowell and actually stick the probe into the core of your carboy. Then you're measuring good temps at the center of the beer and you should be confident that it's the most accurate value. See my previous post about directly submerging the probe in water.

Good luck, and don't fret about the manual - it's not great, but all the information is there!

-Kevin

 

[masonsjax]

The probe is water tight. However, one of mine started getting surface corrosion after a while, so now I have a plastic bag taped over it, big enough to be above the water level.

 

[Stealthcruiser]

I believe that I've read somewhere, that folks insert these probes into a "blue ice" packet or the like..........The things that you freeze to place in your travel coolers.
They give it the needed "thermal mass" as opposed to having them submerged in a container of water.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

So I apologize - I was all off on carboy stuff, and you're talking about a keezer (not a fermentation chamber). So yes, figuring out a way to get the probe into something with more thermal mass is the way to go.

If you were to do it in a fermentation chamber type setup, you'd want one of these: https://www.brewershardware.com/16-Stainless-Steel-Thermowell.html

-Kevin