So, I got this with a bunch of other equipment so it was basically free. It powers on and it cools "a little" but it's not really doing it. I was thinking it is the heat exchange base but I really have no idea. Has anyone got any experience with this? I mean, if I spend a hundred bucks on this and it turns out it's the control board or a replacement rod, I might as well just go buy a new unit. lol
Brewjacket immersion pro cooling issue
- Thread starter Sematary
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More info needed to advise. What do you mean by a little, and how long did you give it?
Have you taken the board off and cleaned the filter? And do you have the jacket?
its 4 screws and you lift the temperature module up, unplug the cable and the filter is there
its 4 screws and you lift the temperature module up, unplug the cable and the filter is there
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I do have the jacket. I'll try what you suggested. Thankyou.
The filter really hardly had any dust in it but I took it out and cleaned it anyway. Fan is working so that's good. I did note that two of the screws holding the fan to the cooling/heating unit were a little loose so they are nice and tight now. We'll see. This is still a dry run. using water only as I wanted to make sure that everything was working before I put wort into the fermenter.
You should get about 25-30 degrees higher/ lower than ambient temperature
How long should I expect it to take about?
BrewJacket is Mr. Slow and Steady. I use different methods/tools, so I don't have data handy that I know was from a BrewJacket fermentation. But I'd say about 0.5 to 1 degree per hour. It's trying of patience when going from my post-wort chiller ~65-68 to get down to 50F.
But once you hit your target, it's unmatched in my experience of holding temperatures rock steady.
But once you hit your target, it's unmatched in my experience of holding temperatures rock steady.
Must be something else going on. Overnight with the AC on it steadily dropped to about 61 degrees (verified that the controller is reporting correctly with the thermometer). After I shut the AC off in my room it started going back up and is now at 62.6. It does have the jacket around it as well. Could it be the immersion tube itself?
The rod has to be screwed on tightly.
I have two BrewJackets, the latest one is a Pro model with the heating option. The older one is a Kickstarter original and still plugging along.
In my experience, the cooling rate is almost exactly as described above by Sematary--slow and steady. I can usually get about 20 degrees below house ambient temp. And, yes, the rod needs to be tight to work.
One thing that does help that I tried was using computer CPU thermal paste (very, very, very little--perhaps 2-3 'dabs' about 0.1" in size) on the interface where the rod screws in to the bottom of the Peltier cooler. Clean with alcohol beforehand. Seems to definitely help, but I haven't measured the difference. It does, however, make removing the rod later to be quite a chore, so I don't do that much anymore.
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It is.
Hate to mention it, but Peltiers can and do fail. I had one fail on my Brew Jacket and had to replace the head unit. They did sell me a replacement at cost which I thought was decent of them, but still not cheap. Never could get down to reliable lagering temperatures plus it took forever (2+ days) to reach max differential temp. Finally bit the bullet and switched to glycol. You could say the Brew Jacket was my "gateway drug" to temperature controlled brewing.
Brooo Brother
Possibility I might just be better off finding a used one that works rather than a new unit?
I'd reach out to the BrewJacket folks. They've always been super helpful with me in the past. And yes, I have had some fail that they had to repair for me. The risk of buying someone's used one, is you don't know for certain how much life they have left in it, and even whether it works from the start. It's not like you can start it and take it for a test drive like a car...
Has anyone had their Brewjacket pro just stop holding it's temp and not cooling anymore? Fortunately this happened at the end of my layering for my Helles. Not sure what else to do.
lablover
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Yes, my brewing buddy got one for Christmas a couple years ago and it failed 2 or 3 times on him before he finally gave up trying to get it repaired. He went to this system that I was using. I've had mine 4 years and used it literally dozens of times and even the little $12 pump is still chugging along after all that. It appears to be much more responsive than the peltier type system as well. Temp Control system
Thanks for the info. I ordered one from Ball and Keg. At least the jacket part and the lid from my Brewjacket will still get use. I just need to get a cooler I can modify to keep the ice water cold enough, long enough so I don’t have to replenish the ice containers constantly.
lablover
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I'm not sure how often you consider too often, but I use one of those cheap styrofoam coolers that they ship steaks in. I only put a gallon or two of water in and I use two liter soda bottles. With ale temps, I only change a bottle once per day and with lagering temps in the summer, I change out two per day. The styrofoam cooler was nice because it was free (sort of) and I could punch holes through it for the pump cord and the two hoses of the coil.
