Bypass Kegerator Thermostat (install STC 1000)

[nlook]

Long story short, is anybody able to tell what I need to do with the wires in the attached picture below to disable the thermostat? I have a kegerator and want to use an STC 1000 instead of the stock thermostat, but that only works if I want to keep beer above 32F -- anything below that and the built-in thermostat in the kegerator will kill the compressor. Is it as simple as cutting away the black and blue wires from the box and connecting them together (and then capping the white amd green wires)?



Alternatively, curious whether I can use these wires for running the STC 1000. Thoughts are:

- split black wire into two and connect to slots 1 and 7 of STC 1000
- connect white wire to slot 2 of STC 1000
- connect blue wire to slot 9 of STC 1000
- cap (and ignore) green wire



Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Nick

 

[day_trippr]

First, the "white wire" isn't a wire at all, it's a capillary tube leading to the bulb sensor.
No need to cut it - or the green safety ground wire. Leave them both be.

Remove the black wire, connect it to pins 1 and 7 of the controller.
Remove the blue wire and connect it to pin 8 of the controller.
Then you just need to track down the actual neutral wire leading back to the line cord and splice that to pin 2 of the controller...

Cheers!

 

[DurtyChemist]

I just plugged my kegerator into mine and set the temperature. The kegerator sees power and turns on when the inkbird tells it to and turns off when it tells it to. What kegerator do you have that overrides the inkbird telling it what to do?

 

[day_trippr]

He explained his issue already: the oem thermostat won't let him run the system colder than 32°F (for whatever reason that is important )...

Cheers!

 

[MaryB]

Why the need to go below 32? Beer Popsicles are not that tasty...

 

[nlook]

First, the "white wire" isn't a wire at all, it's a capillary tube leading to the bulb sensor.
No need to cut it - or the green safety ground wire. Leave them both be.

Remove the black wire, connect it to pins 1 and 7 of the controller.
Remove the blue wire and connect it to pin 8 of the controller.
Then you just need to track down the actual neutral wire leading back to the line cord and splice that to pin 2 of the controller...

Cheers!

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll give that a shot and re-post the results. Curious why there was no neutral wire going to the oem thermostat?

Also, was my other thinking correct that connecting the blue and black wires together would cause the compressor to run nonstop?

 

[nlook]

Why the need to go below 32? Beer Popsicles are not that tasty...

Haha. I can enjoy warmer beers as much as the next guy ... but with summer coming, there's nothing better on a hot afternoon than an ice cold lager. To each their own.

 

[day_trippr]

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll give that a shot and re-post the results. Curious why there was no neutral wire going to the oem thermostat?

Because it's a mechanical switch, there's nothing "active" that needs to be powered.
Hot in leads to hot out, no neutral needed. Just like a light switch.

Also, was my other thinking correct that connecting the blue and black wires together would cause the compressor to run nonstop?

Completely correct...

Cheers!

 

[Undead8]

What wire gauge do you use for this job? Is 14 AWG ok?

 

[day_trippr]

14 awg would be an excellent choice. Most folks would go with 16...

Cheers!

 

[nlook]

Because it's a mechanical switch, there's nothing "active" that needs to be powered.
Hot in leads to hot out, no neutral needed. Just like a light switch.



Completely correct...

Cheers!

Done and done! Thanks for the advice day_trippr -- works perfectly. I ended up cutting the white probe and ground wire anyway because I wanted to take out the old thermostat. I then connected the blue and black wire together and voila -- kegerator runs nonstop. I opted not to try to connect the STC 1000 directly into the old thermostat wires for the simple reason that I didn't want to hunt for the neutral wire. So now my kegerator is plugged into an stc 1000 project box thing and I can get sub-zero beer as desired. Woohoo!