I'm new to kegging and built my kegerator with a Kenmore 461.98475. its 4.4 cubic feet. Other than bend the chilling tray down and out of the way to make space for the kegs, I've made no modifications to it. it worked fine for the first month. after that, its started freezing kegs, even at the lowest temperature setting. Should i be installing some sort of external temperature control? sorry for the beginner questions.
fridge keeps freezing my beer
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TexasDroughtBrewery
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Take pictures of your setup...right now I think yes you will need a temp controller.
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Yes, a temp controller is necessary. With the cycle on the compressor and a freezer keeping things below 32° F I would say it would be a good idea.
normonster
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Those inkbirds on Amazon are super cheap and work great. I got a dual stage (not that you need a dual stage for kegs) for less than my Ranco single stage.
You'll be better off anyway because you can keep it at 41 degress or whatever you prefer instead of relying on the internal switch.
You'll be better off anyway because you can keep it at 41 degress or whatever you prefer instead of relying on the internal switch.
MrFoodScientist
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How often does it cycle? I picked up a mini fridge from a neighbor who was throwing it out because it was "broken". Turned out the thermostat was shot and it just kept running so everything froze. I swapped out the original thermostat with an STC-1000 and it works great now.
Could be the same problem you're having if it worked fine but just freezes up now. A temp controller would work great.
Could be the same problem you're having if it worked fine but just freezes up now. A temp controller would work great.
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Temp controller will solve the problem...it will limit the cycles and keep the temp that you want.
MrFoodScientist
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When I replaced mine, I had the same question. Looking for a direct replacement analog thermostat it was hard to find the right part. Appliance repair places were selling them for $50 and up. I went ahead and hardwired in STC for about $15, so it was a pretty easy decision to make.
did the thermostat on your fridge have two or three wires coming out of it? mine's got three and it looks like the controller only works for one with two.
edit: just now understanding that this is the whole thing, not something that just wires into the sensor with the original thermostat. thanks for the help.
If one of those three wires is green or green/yellow and connects to the metal body of the thermostat (as opposed to disappearing inside) that's the safety ground (because the thermostat is likely mounted into plastic, hence no direct metal path to the main chassis, a wired path to chassis ground is provided).
Safety ground is not involved in anything functional (aside from making sure you don't get electrocuted
) hence in all likelihood you can indeed transpose the other two wires (most likely a black and a red) across the Cool relay pins of, say, an STC-1000 controller...Cheers!
Check to see if it has a temperature adjustment screw/knob. Mine had a course and fine screw. BE CAREFUL as you can ruin your kegerator if you unscrew this too far! I made small adjustments over time and monitored the temperature with a thermometer. Went from too warm to to almost frozen and then backed off to get where I wanted it to be. Seems to vary a little with time of year and humidity...but saved me from having to buy another temperature controller and dealing with that. YMMV. Cheers!
MrFoodScientist
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I don't think the adjustment screw is going to do any good in this case since the picture shows the thermostat set to "off" and it's freezing the lines. I could be wrong, though. I did try and adjust mine that way, but that made it always on or always off. Stonebrewer is right, though. It's worth a try to see if you can get it back to where you want to be without buying anything.
Yeah, mine had three wires: light blue, gray, and green. Green was, of course, ground; I think gray was the hot wire, running to the black wire on the cord; and then I think blue was the (sometimes hot) wire running to the compressor. The thermostat is essentially just a mechanincal on/off switch controlled by temperature and adjustable to kick on at a range of temperatures, thus supplying power to the compressor.
I just went ahead and clipped both those wires back by the compressor and so there was nothing running through them. That made the ground up into the fridge compartment unnecessary, but I made sure I grounded it underneath for safety purposes. Then the two wires that would run up to the thermostat I wired into the "cooling" section of my controller, made sure that power was also running to the controller from the power cord and that the neutral was correctly routed to the compressor and the controller and then I was good to go. I cut a hole in the side of the fridge down in the compressor compartment to mount it to.
If none of that makes sense, there should be a wiring diagram on the back of your fridge to help make sense of what wires go where and a number of threads on how to wire a controller into it.
On the other hand, if you don't feel like wiring anything and your compressor is always on, you could just plug it in to an external controller and you'd still be just fine. I found, though, that by freeing up the space taken up by my original thermostat (it was on the side instead of the top like yours) allowed me to squeeze in an additional keg with some creative trimming of the shelving.
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