ICEMASTER MAX 2

[BarleyAndApple]

CELSIUS MASTER RACE!!! WOOT WOOT

 

[WesBrew]

OI I think the instructions for the G20.1 are more applicable.

That is what I attached
~ Aye, I read 20.1 but put 20 on there. fixed.

 

[WesBrew]

performance looking good on tank of water test. 6.5 gallons in an anvil fermenting bucket with the rudimentary 3/16id chilling rod & no insulation on tubing. dropped from 80.1 down to 66.8 in an hour. chiller bath went up 1.8c but is now starting to creep back down.
I did manage to shoot gly/water all over the wall and floor on two separate mishaps. FYI: Pump in/out will pour water out even when the pump is off. lesson learned

 

[stealthfixr]

Got my Spike Conical with just the neoprene insulation jacket down to 37F, from 68F, in a few hours. Seemed to be running full time, or nearly so. WIth some better insulation I am sure lagering long term will not be a problem.

 

[Bent-Brewer]

Yeah, I do wish the barbs were out of the top of the unit instead of the front. Gonna have to get some elbow connectors so my lines don't stick into the walkway.

 

[stealthfixr]

Having some problems and hoping for suggestions to address.

Using the Icemaster Max 2 for the first time with an also new Spike CF5 (prefer not to add two, new things at once, but it is what it is). Batch is a 5gal Imperial Stout using WLP004 Irish yeast (65-70F). The wort into the fermenter was at 78F, so I selected 65F on the chiller and let it go. After a few hours, the Tilt reported temp was stable at 69F...not 65F (verified by calibrated thermometer). The G20 reported 65F, but it was actually 4F off. Thinking that this was a G20 probe calibration issue, I biased a few degree C down in the probe temps. I woke up the next morning to the fermenter at 59F (and a stalled fermentation)! After taking the probe bias down to 0.5C 'up', temps finally sync'd up, but I still cannot explain the initial discrepancy that lasted for hours. This is my first time fermenting with a glycol chiller.

Beyond this, I am finding temp stability to be poor. According to the G20.1 instructions, the cooling differential is set to 0.5C. So, I think that means that if the probe temp rises 0.5C above the set point, the pump kicks in to cool it down. In actuality, I am seeing (via my Tilt hydrometer/thermo) temps drop 1-2C after the pump kicks in. Once it dropped 5F degrees before shutting off--no idea why it was so much greater than the rest! So, the temps over time look like a roller coaster, constantly up and down in a 2 degree C range. Is this normal? The G20 probe is in a 3" thermowell inside the CF5 conical, so I think it is in a great location to measure fermentation temps. I did use a thermal paste on the end of the probe--not much--just enough to 'connect' the probe with the thermowell.

Seems I could raise the holding tank temperature so the cooling effect is not so great (currently set to 28F). It's just darned inconvenient to have the holding tank controller on the opposite side from the two output controllers. There's also a hysteresis custom function on the output controllers (F6?) that I have not messed with.

Anyone seeing better temp stability with different settings?

 

[jkctax]

I have not had the same issues.

 

[WesBrew]

Having some problems and hoping for suggestions to addres
Anyone seeing better temp stability with different settings?

couldn't explain the initial difference but with 30 degree coolant in the coil, it might continue to drop slightly even when the pumps turn off. I'd expect a little variance there. can't speak to the other functions as I haven't used them.

 

[deuc224]

Im having the same issues with the max4, another member, @Advance , made a remedy for this with some delay timers that im going to implement soon. But the flipside is that on the second fermenter i have going, everything is running perfectly. I mean im getting 2F shifts as opposed to the 5 i was getting with the one connected to the first fermenter. Really odd but im thinking of just switching out the probes and seeing if that is the problem, but will implement the above members fix for this, pretty genius idea and even helped with how to best wire it up.

 

[Craiginthecorn]

After a few hours, the Tilt reported temp was stable at 69F...not 65F (verified by calibrated thermometer). The G20 reported 65F, but it was actually 4F off.

I have a Spike Flex+ and a CF5, both with cooling coils chilled via glycol. I've noticed that at the start of fermentation, there is a 4-5F difference between my thermowell and the Tilt floating on the surface. Once the lag phase has ended and fermentation actually starts and the wort starts to churn, the temperatures equalize. When fermentation slows, the temperature difference returns. It's simple physics. Heat rises. That large temperature drop might have happened without your chiller pump even running.

 

[stealthfixr]

I have a Spike Flex+ and a CF5, both with cooling coils chilled via glycol. I've noticed that at the start of fermentation, there is a 4-5F difference between my thermowell and the Tilt floating on the surface. Once the lag phase has ended and fermentation actually starts and the wort starts to churn, the temperatures equalize. When fermentation slows, the temperature difference returns. It's simple physics. Heat rises. That large temperature drop might have happened without your chiller pump even running.

Interesting. Almost implies that 'stirring' within the conical (like a stir plate for a starter) could be beneficial for heat equalization, and maybe even yeast health. Sounds like a Brulosophy test waiting to happen. I am just surprised that a 4-5F difference is seen on the wort surface vs. 3/4 down where the thermowell is located.

 

[WesBrew]

Finally Got a beer running on the ice master. Perfect so far. Trying a Kölsch for the first time. It also makes a great laptop stand during the brew

 

[WesBrew]

After two days running a beer fermentation I have to say this thing is doing a fantastic job. it hardly runs the compressor to maintain within +/- .5C. I'm not going to bother changing that setting. once Fermenter temp was reached the pumps hardly run either. I feel for the guys that invested in that other new-chiller that is loud and runs constantly.

 

[stealthfixr]

My Icemaster Max 2 is holding my Spike conical w/Spike neoprene jacket at 39F without a ton of work (i.e. not running constantly), with 5gal of imp stout inside. The temperature differential from the conical top to the conical thermowell near the bottom was lessened by putting a Cool Brewing bag over the top, which dropped the difference from 4F to 1F. Seems there was a lot of heat being lost out the top of the conical where the neoprene jacket did not cover. The chiller also seemed to work a little less with the added insulation over the top. I am wondering what better solution might be made to serve the same purpose.

As for the temp swings when the chiller kicked on, that 'roller coaster' was lessened by upping the glycol tank temperature to 40F. Might even try higher next time, like 50F for ale temperature control.

All in all, the Icemaster Max 2 is working great!

 

[Bent-Brewer]

My Icemaster Max 2 is holding my Spike conical w/Spike neoprene jacket at 39F without a ton of work (i.e. not running constantly), with 5gal of imp stout inside. The temperature differential from the conical top to the conical thermowell near the bottom was lessened by putting a Cool Brewing bag over the top, which dropped the difference from 4F to 1F. Seems there was a lot of heat being lost out the top of the conical where the neoprene jacket did not cover. The chiller also seemed to work a little less with the added insulation over the top. I am wondering what better solution might be made to serve the same purpose.

As for the temp swings when the chiller kicked on, that 'roller coaster' was lessened by upping the glycol tank temperature to 40F. Might even try higher next time, like 50F for ale temperature control.

All in all, the Icemaster Max 2 is working great!

For routine fermentation temperatures I would recommend keeping the chiller set point around 15-20F below the target fermentation temperature. There will be less of a temperature differential between the reservoir and ambient air (meaning the pump won’t need to cycle as often) and you’ll see smaller swings in the fermenter.

 

[WesBrew]

My Icemaster Max 2 is holding my Spike conical w/Spike neoprene jacket at 39F without a ton of work (i.e. not running constantly), with 5gal of imp stout inside. The temperature differential from the conical top to the conical thermowell near the bottom was lessened by putting a Cool Brewing bag over the top, which dropped the difference from 4F to 1F. Seems there was a lot of heat being lost out the top of the conical where the neoprene jacket did not cover. The chiller also seemed to work a little less with the added insulation over the top. I am wondering what better solution might be made to serve the same purpose.

As for the temp swings when the chiller kicked on, that 'roller coaster' was lessened by upping the glycol tank temperature to 40F. Might even try higher next time, like 50F for ale temperature control.

All in all, the Icemaster Max 2 is working great!

Mine is coming on once an hour and only runs 3-4 min to get back to 0C. I wrapped my anvil bucket fermenter in reflectex bubble wrap, that works better than the neoprene it came with. Would have used both but was too lazy to put the jacket on. for the MAX 2, I stacked some scrap reflectix pieces on top of the reservoir fill area of the machine.

 

[WesBrew]

Cold crashing my kolch after a pleasant week of fermenting & not having to fill a cooler with ice bottles 2-3x a day. 39 degrees. bath is at -1c. machine turns on about every 20m, runs a few minutes and turns off. pumps come on more often but only run 2-3minutes. anvil bucket fermenter isn't the best setup for cold crash, had to add a second layer of reflectix, no big deal, & a towel to cover the top. still need to get some foam insulation for the tubes. going 10 hours now.

 

[stealthfixr]

Beyond this, I am finding temp stability to be poor. According to the G20.1 instructions, the cooling differential is set to 0.5C. So, I think that means that if the probe temp rises 0.5C above the set point, the pump kicks in to cool it down. In actuality, I am seeing (via my Tilt hydrometer/thermo) temps drop 1-2C after the pump kicks in. Once it dropped 5F degrees before shutting off--no idea why it was so much greater than the rest! So, the temps over time look like a roller coaster, constantly up and down in a 2 degree C range. Is this normal? The G20 probe is in a 3" thermowell inside the CF5 conical, so I think it is in a great location to measure fermentation temps. I did use a thermal paste on the end of the probe--not much--just enough to 'connect' the probe with the thermowell.

Following up on above...I found raising the coolant tank temp to 50F solved the ale temp stability problems. I am fermenting a Pumpkin Ale with WLP002 at 67F right now and the ferment temp stability is nearly a flat line on 67F. Dropping the coolant tank to 25F or so later allows fantastic cold crash performance. Someone already suggested the coolant tank be 15-20 degrees below the desired fermentor temp, and that seems exactly right.

Should some of these basics be in the instructions?

 

[BoilerInSoCal]

Hi All, Thanks for all the input in this thread. I really like that this unit has the pumps and controllers included, but what I am wondering about is what you all are doing for adding heat. It doesn't appear that the controllers can turn on a heating pad if the temp gets too low. Perhaps it isn't a concern for your setup?

 

[WesBrew]

Hi All, Thanks for all the input in this thread. I really like that this unit has the pumps and controllers included, but what I am wondering about is what you all are doing for adding heat. It doesn't appear that the controllers can turn on a heating pad if the temp gets too low. Perhaps it isn't a concern for your setup?

no, but you can get a $30 Inkbird 308 to do that.

 

[mwayne112]

no, but you can get a $30 Inkbird 308 to do that.

There is a diagram to wire a heating element in the good isntructions.

 

[BoilerInSoCal]

There is a diagram to wire a heating element in the good isntructions.

Doh! I'm not sure how I missed that (or that the face of the display says "Heat & Cool"!). Thanks for having me look again. Not exactly an ideal solution -- and I'm thinking that there probably is a better way to wire this up than they suggest -- but it is good to know it is possible!

 

[BoilerInSoCal]

As an update, I am nearly one week into my first brew (11.5 gal in a Spike CF10 with jacket). The Max 2 has been great! The setup was a breeze thanks to all the help on this thread, so thank you! I can also confirm that this unit is not very loud at all. I have it in my attached garage and I cannot hear it from inside. I have the reservoir temp set to 20 degrees below set fermentation temp and have had no wild swings. This baby holds it right within the 0.5 degree variance (ambient is probably between 70-80, so it doesn't kick on all that often either). I am very, very pleased!

I'll soon be doing a soft crash followed by dry hop followed by cold crash, so I'll report back on that.

 

[maxr]

I'm thinking of buying one of these units. Has anyone successfully wired in a heating element? I was looking at the instructions on Morebeer's site and they reference the heating delay and hysteresis temperature for the controllers but there's no information about what's involved in wiring a heater.

 

[BoilerInSoCal]

I'm thinking of buying one of these units. Has anyone successfully wired in a heating element? I was looking at the instructions on Morebeer's site and they reference the heating delay and hysteresis temperature for the controllers but there's no information about what's involved in wiring a heater.

I did end up wiring this following the instructions on the last page of the manual in post 29 (thanks again to @mwayne112 for pointing that out), but have neither needed nor tried it yet. I may try it out soon to get temps back into the low 70s for a dry hop after a soft crash, so I will report back.

I have a Spike CF10 with the temp control package, which includes a heat pad. The cord for that heat pad is not very long, so I bought a 6 ft. extension cord at Home Depot and cut it in half and modified per the instructions. It is pretty crude and cord prevents the top from closing flush. At some point I may modify to make more elegant, such as adding an actual outlet.

I also read somewhere that the heat may adversely compete with the cooling, so the recommendation is to use only one at a time.

 

[maxr]

Thanks @BoilerInSoCal! That's very helpful information. I'd likely wire in a socket or extension cord. Where I live, we often need heating and cooling over the course of a given day in the shoulder seasons.

 

[blazin]

I’m thinking about picking up the Max 2 while it’s on sale.

Does it have enough power to hold lager temps on a 11-12 gallon batch?

I’ll be fermenting in a 14 gal SS Brewtech unitank with neoprene jacket in a ~ 70 degree basement

 

[WesBrew]

I’m thinking about picking up the Max 2 while it’s on sale.

Does it have enough power to hold lager temps on a 11-12 gallon batch?

I’ll be fermenting in a 14 gal SS Brewtech unitank with neoprene jacket in a ~ 70 degree basement

Yes, and i think you could do two lagers simultaneously, but might have to cold crash one at a time
*** checked website and its says it can cold crash two half barrel batches at once.

 

[blazin]

Yes, and i think you could do two lagers simultaneously, but might have to cold crash one at a time

Thanks sounds like it will work well for me. Just ordered it through morebeer.

 

[BoilerInSoCal]

As a follow-up, I employed the heating feature this weekend and it worked perfectly. I first used it to maintain ferm temps overnight as the temp was getting to the low 60s in my garage and fermentation was slowing (and thus cooling off). I also used to it warm back up to about 70F after a soft crash that went to about 55F.

With maintaining temps, I never saw more than a 0.4 C degree overshoot, so I did not have any conflict with the cooling and thus there was no yo-yo type effect that I had read about. After the soft crash, I set the temp to 70F (21.1C) before I went to bed and woke up to 21.1C. So, I am quite pleased with how this is working on all fronts! Note that this batch was a half batch: 6 gallons in a CF10 (neoprene jacket and the spike heat pad).

And @blazin, this will definitely work for lagering 12 gallons. I've gotten 12 gallons down to 34F no problem for a cold crash with the Max set at 28F. Obviously, the unit runs more at this temp, but it certainly wasn't continuous.