weird temp problem

[heister00]

Hello everyone. I converted a mini fridge to a kegerator. the tower is mounted on my bar top. all beer lines are double insulated. i have a fan that circulates air inside the fridge. i do not have a fan blowing air into the tower. my 1st pour is foamy and everyone after is good. my temp question is: why is the bottom of the fridge at 40, the top of the fridge is 44, the water in the bottle with my temp probe is 32, and my beer comes out at 39. does this make any sense? also i get air bubbles at each end of the beer line? can someone explain this please? if anymore info is needed just ask, thanks in advacne

 

[Monster Mash]

Because the water bottle holds temps better then the fridge. Take the probe and put it up high in the fridge without the water bottle and see if that helps.

 

[LandoLincoln]

And it might be due to the fact that your faucet needs to chill before the foaming stops as well.

 

[heister00]

If I take the temp probe out of the water and put it near the top of the fridge, won't the air at the bottom be significantly colder? I realized I never mentioned I am using a temp controller which is set at 32 so that explains why the water is at 32. It don't make sense to me why the air would be 40 at the bottom and 44 at the top with beer at 39 (I temp the second pour). I am thoroughly confused about getting temps to all agree and what is the best way to go about it. Thanks for the replies

 

[raouliii]

..... It don't make sense to me why the air would be 40 at the bottom and 44 at the top with beer at 39 ....

Warm air rises. The beer represents a thermal mass that resists temperature changes much better than air.

... I am thoroughly confused about getting temps to all agree and what is the best way to go about it....

You will always have some kind of temperature stratification in the fridge and being overly concerned about air temperature is a wast of time, imho.

If you want to control the temperature of your beer, then attach the probe to the keg of beer and set the controller to the desired temperature. Ignore all other temperatures.

That's how I handle my fermentation chamber with an STC1000 controller. The probe is attached to the outside of the carboy with insulation over it. I ignore the air temperature.

A little different for my keg cooler. I adjust the stock thermostat until my beer is at the correct average temperature and ignore the air temperature in the fridge.