New Keezer Question!

[laxsoccerguy]

Hey everybody!

First off, thanks for any and all help that you might be able to offer. I recently purchased the 7.0 cu.ft. GE freezer from home depot. I have a Johnson A419 temp controller. My questions are:

What should i set the thermometer of the freezer to? I'd imagine at its lowest level? 1? The reason I ask is because it seems as though My temperature gets down low enough, and then the freezer continues to get colder and colder, but the johnson has shut the freezer off.

All i have to do is plug the freezer to the A419, set the temp?

thanks for any help!

 

[LandoLincoln]

That is correct. Turn the freezer to its coldest setting, then use the controller to get the freezer to what temp you actually want the freezer to be.

 

[laxsoccerguy]

thanks!

 

[laxsoccerguy]

it's strange though....when the freezer turns off (because its hit target temp), it just seems to get colder and colder. any advice?

 

[ResumeMan]

Is there any liquid in the freezer (either beer or just a big jug of water)? If not and if the probe is just dangling in the air, what is probably happening is that the freezer is chilling the heck out of the walls, but it takes a bit of time for that to translate to low temps in the air in the middle of the freezer.

So by the time that the probe gets to the temp you want, the freezer has probably way over-chilled, which eventually cools down the air further than you want.

This will probably not be a problem once you have your beer in there, since the mass of the beer will make it take awhile for the temps to change.

 

[Brewnoob1]

I have noticed that as well. My freezer shuts off at say 4.5 degrees Celsius (I use the ebay temp controller) but after a few minutes, it could continue to drop to 4.2 or below. I have my probe in a glass of water though.

Sounds completely normal to me.

 

[BA_from_GA]

One thing I've done (and others have as well) to combat the airt temp consistency issue is take an old computer fan and wire it into an old cell phone charger. Plug the charger into the temp controler (i used a 3way plug) I set this on up in a corner and it circulates air when the freezer is on.

I've had more consistent temps since i've done this. hope it helps you!

 

[cwi]

You need to unplug your freezer NOW!

There are many instances of people ruining their new freezers within hours of using them if the probe is only hanging in the air.

As previously mentioned, place your probe on, or in, a thermal mass. To avoid issues with water affecting the probe, taping it to something thermally massive, then placing insulation over it, works good enough. For fermenting, this is actually works better than a thermowell within the fermenter.

Some controllers have compressor protection settings (ASD) defaulted to 'on', others don't have it at all or they are defaulted to 'off'. The A419 has it, and you should set it to the max value (~15 min?), as there is no justifiable reason to set it any other way for homebrewing purposes.

 

[BA_from_GA]

You need to unplug your freezer NOW!

There are many instances of people ruining their new freezers within hours of using them if the probe is only hanging in the air.

As previously mentioned, place your probe on, or in, a thermal mass. To avoid issues with water affecting the probe, taping it to something thermally massive, then placing insulation over it, works good enough. For fermenting, this is actually works better than a thermowell within the fermenter.

Some controllers have compressor protection settings (ASD) defaulted to 'on', others don't have it at all or they are defaulted to 'off'. The A419 has it, and you should set it to the max value (~15 min?), as there is no justifiable reason to set it any other way for homebrewing purposes.

Is this a problem specifically with the Johnson temp controlers? My ranco temp probe has been floating in mid air for the past year+ and i've never had any issues?

Don't miss-read me, I'm not questioning you... i've just never heard this before and don't wanna kill a perfectly good keezer.

 

[Hoppopotomus]

You need to unplug your freezer NOW!

There are many instances of people ruining their new freezers within hours of using them if the probe is only hanging in the air.

As previously mentioned, place your probe on, or in, a thermal mass. To avoid issues with water affecting the probe, taping it to something thermally massive, then placing insulation over it, works good enough. For fermenting, this is actually works better than a thermowell within the fermenter.

Some controllers have compressor protection settings (ASD) defaulted to 'on', others don't have it at all or they are defaulted to 'off'. The A419 has it, and you should set it to the max value (~15 min?), as there is no justifiable reason to set it any other way for homebrewing purposes.

+1 on what cwi said. In my initial setup, I had the probe just dangling down into the keezer about 1/2 way down between two kegs. My compressor was cycling too frequently and overshooting the set temperature. I now simply tape the end of the probe to the bottom 1/3 of the outside of a full keg and then put insulation over it. Now my keezer cycles for a few minutes ever few hours and there is no longer the overswings in temp due to temperature gradients within the freezer. You can also do the liquid submersion approach as well. The convection that occurs within a freezer is amazing and if the probe is just hanging in air, it's not going to accurately reflect the temp. of your beer and it's going to fry you compressor over time by short cycling. My 2 cents! Good luck!