ICEMASTER MAX 2

[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.

 

[maxr]

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.

What are you using for a heater? I'm looking for an option for a conical fermenter that's less expensive than the Spike offering.

 

[BoilerInSoCal]

What are you using for a heater? I'm looking for an option for a conical fermenter that's less expensive than the Spike offering.

I am using the heat pad that comes with the Spike temp control package. It attaches to the inside of the neoprene jacket via velcro and wraps around the cone. I'm not sure of their dimensions, but you might be able to use a heat belt/wrap for carboys (of course this would have to sit higher up on the conical)? something like this perhaps: FermoTemp® - Electric Fermentation Heater

 

[maxr]

Thanks. Yes, I have something like a fermwrap that for carboys. I'll likely try it out with the new conical and see if it will fit. Otherwise I'm going to have to try a seedling or reptile type heater.

 

[maxr]

For instance - this type of thing could work. It has a much higher watt density than brewing specific heaters, but in contact with a large stainless tank, it might not be too bad. I'd likely try to position it clost to the thermowell to minimize overshoot due to mixing time.

ABN Electric Silicone Heating Pad

 

[tneary]

@BoilerInSoCal how did you wire up the connection from the spike heating pad cord to the Max2? Did you cut one of the legs of the extension cord and wire each side of the cut wire to the two open blade connectors on the stc1000 and then the extension cord plug into the wall socket? Or cut the plug off the extension cord and connect each wire to the two blades on back of the stc1000 controller?

 

[blazin]

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.

That’s great to hear. I’m pumped to finally get my basement brewery going. Got the glycol chiller ordered and my wife is getting me the SSBrewtech unitank for Christmas.

Now I just need to get the plans done for the basement....

 

[jeffalanmcclain]

I hard wired in the heating relays on mine today to an outlet on the lid and confirmed they work as expected to power some 120v seed mats for heating. Unlike the Kegland manual posted (which is for 240v version), this does NOT have mains on the controllers and motors. They are 12v. But the overall instructions for wiring in the hot leg of an outlet or peripheral is sound and works.
https://mossycupbrewing.blogspot.com/2020/12/glycol-chiller-and-heater.html

 

[jeffalanmcclain]

@BoilerInSoCal how did you wire up the connection from the spike heating pad cord to the Max2? Did you cut one of the legs of the extension cord and wire each side of the cut wire to the two open blade connectors on the stc1000 and then the extension cord plug into the wall socket? Or cut the plug off the extension cord and connect each wire to the two blades on back of the stc1000 controller?

The STC1000 does NOT have heating relay blades on it. I wish it did, so I could put a fish tank heater in the reservoir and use the fluid to "heat" a higher than ambient target. The heating relays are ONLY on the independent vessel controllers (these are not STC1000, but not sure what model they are).

I didn't want to have to modify and wire in dedicated wires on peripherials, so I wired in switched outlets to handle this. I ran dedicated 120V supply to the input blade on each vessel temp controller from the main switch (brown wire), then the output of each controller relay to separate outlet sockets (bus bar broken to make separate) and a dedicated neutral from the main power switch (blue wire).

 

[maxr]

@jeffalanmcclain I looked at your blog post - that's helpful. Are you saying that you CAN use the relay built in to the controller to switch the 120V hot wire but that there is no neutral run to the controller? Or did you use an external solid state relay to switch the outlet?

 

[jeffalanmcclain]

@jeffalanmcclain I looked at your blog post - that's helpful. Are you saying that you CAN use the relay built in to the controller to switch the 120V hot wire but that there is no neutral run to the controller? Or did you use an external solid state relay to switch the outlet?

You CAN just switch the HOT side (even though it is 12v controlled, not 120v it is isolated and works). Just run a hot wire from the main switch to one of the spades, then out of the other one to an outlet (other side of outlet back to neutral on switch and earth ground). Or you can wire up like the instructions show to just cut the hot side and run to the spades...works fine...

 

[maxr]

Thanks for the info. I am eagerly awaiting the delivery of my Icemaster. I'm sure that morebeer got absolutely slammed with orders over the weekend.

What 120V heating mat are you using? I'm debating between being cheap and ordering an oil pan or seedling heater vs blowing the $$$ on the Spike 120V heater.

 

[jeffalanmcclain]

Thanks for the info. I am eagerly awaiting the delivery of my Icemaster. I'm sure that morebeer got absolutely slammed with orders over the weekend.

What 120V heating mat are you using? I'm debating between being cheap and ordering an oil pan or seedling heater vs blowing the $$$ on the Spike 120V heater.

I just got a couple cheap 20W seedling mat heaters on amazon. It is slow, but so far it is enough to maintain. I have a 500W fish tank heater that I was hoping would work with a relay on the STC1000, but it doesn't have one so I'm going to have to replace it with an inkbird and wire that in next to heat the glycol to a target temp for ales when the shop is cold (it is sub 50'F right now, which is good for lagers).

 

[maxr]

20W is probably not enough. It dips down into the low 40s overnight here and I'd like to be able to ferment at 70-90 for Belgian and kveik strains. There are various silicone mat heaters that might fit the bill such as a 2x5 inch engine heater that puts out 50W or a 4x5 that puts out 100W.

 

[jeffalanmcclain]

/nod. that was why I went with a wired outlet. I can swap out heaters or whatever as long as it is 120v plug. Honestly, I'm just going to replace the STC-1000 with an ITC-1000 inkbird for $15 that has 'C and 'F *and* has a heating relay output and wire that up to the 300W fish tank heater and put it in the glycol bath. Then I need to pump into fermentation vessel on heat (only can run one target temp then).

 

[blazin]

/nod. that was why I went with a wired outlet. I can swap out heaters or whatever as long as it is 120v plug. Honestly, I'm just going to replace the STC-1000 with an ITC-1000 inkbird for $15 that has 'C and 'F *and* has a heating relay output and wire that up to the 300W fish tank heater and put it in the glycol bath. Then I need to pump into fermentation vessel on heat (only can run one target temp then).

I just ordered the max 2 and am planning to wire it up for heat as well. Thanks for putting together that blog post.

In regards to the fishtank heater idea, I'm not sure you would get any benefit out of heating the glycol solution instead of heating the fermentors directly with a heating pad.

With the heating pad, you are applying resistive heat directly to the fermentor only as needed to maintain fermentation temps, which is a pretty efficient way to heat.

But with the aquarium heater, you are using the same resistive heat to maintain an entire glycol reservoir above fermentation temp and then will have thermal loss pumping that heat over to the fermentors. I would think that glycol solution could get pretty nasty after an extended period of time at peak bacteria growing temps as well.

 

[jeffalanmcclain]

Yup. I’m just wanting to positively control the glycol temp. My shop can get way below freezing in winter and while I could heat it, it is expensive. Just like to have heater keeping glycol bath at 10’C if I set it there. I agree, I will still need the heating mats. And probably need one of the car block heater ones! I like my cooling to be closer to my target temp (I.e. I don’t run bath at 30’F for a 68’F ale ferment..more like 60’F).

still looking for a drop in replacement for the vessel controllers to be in ‘F without modifying/cutting the cabinet.

 

[BoilerInSoCal]

@BoilerInSoCal how did you wire up the connection from the spike heating pad cord to the Max2? Did you cut one of the legs of the extension cord and wire each side of the cut wire to the two open blade connectors on the stc1000 and then the extension cord plug into the wall socket? Or cut the plug off the extension cord and connect each wire to the two blades on back of the stc1000 controller?

Essentially the former, but I cut the extension cord in half (as opposed to cutting the hot leg only) simply for ease of installation and access. I separated the wires a bit at the cut ends and (i) added female blade connectors to the two cut ends of the hot leg and attached those to the controller per the instructions in the manual (pay attention to which end goes into which port); and (ii) reconnected the cut neutral line with a simple twist on connector and electrical tape. So, the extension cord plugs into the wall, runs to the controller (where the hot is interrupted/controlled) and then the socket end of the extension cord (unfortnately) just hangs outside of the lid. I plug the heat pad into the socket end of the extension cord.

Heat pad --> socket end of extension cord --> MAX2 controller --> prong end of extension cord into wall.

Not very elegant, but it works for now. Hope this helps.

 

[BrewAgain]

I pulled the trigger on this chiller on Thanksgiving. Arrived today. The string has some great info. In saw there were issues when these were first delivered. Anyone have any issues yet?

 

[BoilerInSoCal]

I hard wired in the heating relays on mine today to an outlet on the lid and confirmed they work as expected to power some 120v seed mats for heating. Unlike the Kegland manual posted (which is for 240v version), this does NOT have mains on the controllers and motors. They are 12v. But the overall instructions for wiring in the hot leg of an outlet or peripheral is sound and works.
https://mossycupbrewing.blogspot.com/2020/12/glycol-chiller-and-heater.html

Great blog post! This is similar to the the "more elegant" solution for the future that I was thinking of...but even better. Thanks!

 

[jeffalanmcclain]

Great blog post! This is similar to the the "more elegant" solution for the future that I was thinking of...but even better. Thanks!

Using a "sacrificial" extension cord to cut and wire into the switched leg is also a GREAT idea (assuming you had to do an extension cord per vessel controller) and avoids having to cut in the square outlet to your chiller cabinet, but as you said, you end up with cords dangling out somewhere... Still, a much better idea than perma-modding your heaters and stuff...makes it more flexible. BTW, the STC 1000 is directly replaceable with a $15 Inkbird DIN controller, though the secondary vessel controller openings (even peeling back the tack weld metal holders for the circuit boards) don't quite fit that profile and I have not found any drop in replacement like I had hoped.

P.S. Also, the leg posts are metric, so you might have some luck finding some M8x1.25mm casters with threaded post (I found some for under $20).