Fermenting in Freezer Chest...

[pogden]

That should work fine. I think I have mine set to F2=.5 and F3=10.

 

[shtoive87]

FYI if you have it set to 21 +/- 1, it will refrigerate when it gets to 22 and heat when it gets to 20. I have the same setup and it works great. My fridge is indoors, so I don't have a heat source. Good luck! And it's great to see more ABQ brewers on the site!

 

[Figgy15]

Thanks pogden and shtoive87.

Being that my fridge is out in the garage, should I make the differential more like 2 or 3 so that its not clicking back and forth so much causing my fridge compressor to go out???

 

[Figgy15]

So my freezer chest is successfully staying around 20-21 degrees Celsius! STC-1000 seems to be working beautifully. Made
My starter yeast yesterday and getting ready to make my first batch on Wed. Very very excited here. Will keep everyone updated.

 

[pogden]

Thanks pogden and shtoive87.

Being that my fridge is out in the garage, should I make the differential more like 2 or 3 so that its not clicking back and forth so much causing my fridge compressor to go out???

I'm not an expert, but I believe the thing to be avoided is rapid cycling of the compressor. In my experience, with the freezer in the garage where the temperature has been swinging from the upper 40s to the upper 60s (F) every 24 hours, the STC-1000 has no trouble keeping my fermenter around 64F, with no rapid cycling or hot/cold bounce. I have a 7cf freezer, and I'm fermenting 5gal at the moment.

You results may vary based on the how fast your unit heats/cools, how well insulated it is, how much heat is being given off by your fermenter, where the 24-hour high/low temperature band is in relation to your set temp, etc. Setting your threshold to 2-3 should reduce compressor cycling, but it will also allow your fermentation temperature to vary (by 4-6 degrees, if the ambient temperature band straddles your ferm temp), and that's a bit much (IMO).

You could increase the compressor delay (F3) if you feel your compressor is cycling too often. Or, a better solution would be to add thermal mass to your chamber, if you can (containers of water, ...). That should dampen the effect that changes in garage temperature have on what's inside your freezer.

 

[Ilan34]

I use a Brewers Edge Space Heater. It's just stuck to the middle of the back wall of my 7.2cf chest freezer and plugged into the "hot" side of my STC-1000 controller.

I live in Phoenix, so there's no polar vortex to contend with. But night time temperatures routinely drop into the low 40s, sometimes below freezing. As advertized, it has never had trouble maintaining the temperature of my fermenting beer even when the temperature in my garage is 25F cooler than the set temperature.

+1 to this. I have this thing in my freezer and it's had no problems getting the beer up to as high as 82 degrees (I was trying to fix a stuck fermentation). The real test will be with my next brew - a Saison that I'll try to get up to 90. I opted for the Brewers Edge after finding that Fermwrap was more like FermCrap for the 3 gallon Better Bottles.


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[bobby4]

The thermal mass (or whatever it is called) of the 5 gallons of liquid is pretty high so it takes quite a while to cool or warm. I started using a thermowell, then experimented with taping my temperature probe on the side of the carboy. I couldn't see any difference in the wort temperature, so now I just tape it on.
Re: the compressor, I find mine doesn't run too often. I am guessing that the probe on the outside picks up the temperature change at a good time - not as early as the air, but before the whole carboy changes. So it seems to cycle in a reasonable way (not too often) and seems to maintain the target temperature pretty well.
Thermowells are another religious debate, there are lots of opinions

 

[Figgy15]

Done withy first brew now in chest fermenting. Wow I love this!!!! Let's hope it's comes out good lol.

 

[Figgy15]

First full day of fermentation! So far so good.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

IMO you should always max out your Compressor delay on the STC1000 to 10 minutes. Your beer going from 64 to 63.8 in the extra 3-4 minutes of delay you add from the default is better than the added stress on your fridge/freezer.

 

[Figgy15]

IMO you should always max out your Compressor delay on the STC1000 to 10 minutes. Your beer going from 64 to 63.8 in the extra 3-4 minutes of delay you add from the default is better than the added stress on your fridge/freezer.

So then set the F3 setting to 10?

 

[Figgy15]

Thanks the for advice!