sparky2284
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- Feb 10, 2014
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what is best method to locate the temperature probe (etc-1000)?
how would you do it?
how would you do it?
I drilled a hole in the lid of a 20 oz water bottle which I filled with water and put the probe through the lid. That bottle sits on the hump in the keezer.
I drilled a hole in the lid of a 20 oz water bottle which I filled with water and put the probe through the lid. That bottle sits on the hump in the keezer.
For the fermentation fridge, I tape the probe to the side of my carboy under some foam insulation.
I didn't want to put my probe submerged. I used a glass jar and taped the probe to the side of it. Then put an old folded (laundered) sock over the probe to insulate it directly from air, and taped the whole contraption in place. The jar sits on a piece of foam to insulate from conduction of the keezer itself - only the air influences the jar temperature.
Cycles for about 10-15 minutes every 2 - 2.5 hours. Set at 8C, 0.5 F2.
I'm having a hard time envisioning what this looks like exactly, but love the sounds of it. Any chance you have a picture of your setup?
A picture would look like a balled up rag covered in tape. Thanks to my mad MS paint skills I have a much more useful diagram of what's going on.
Important thing to notice is that only the probe is insulated with the fabric. If the whole jar was wrapped with it it could lead to wild temperature swings due to the jar itself being non-responsive to temperature change. Incidentally this would be exactly the opposite problem from not insulating the probe at all. Insulate probe only and life will be good.
I use basically the same setup, but with 3 neoprene can koozies taped to a keg as an insulator. The probe goes between the koozies and the keg.
I am building mine right now, and this is what I came up with. I made it from a yeast vial, a peanut butter jar, and a coat hanger. Water goes in the jar and the yeast vial with the probe in it is suspended in the water.
View attachment 260329
How is that working for you?
So far my cycle is 1hr 45min off and 30mins on
How is that working for you?
So far my cycle is 1hr 45min off and 30mins on
I went similar to Zepth's route. The probe is against a 22 oz glass bottle filled with water - I've got bubble wrap surrounding the probe held in place with rubber bands.
Keezer is off for about two hours, on for about 10 minutes.
Why don't you start measuring the actual temp of your fermenting wort instead of just taking the carboy's temp? Yeast is making heat in the center and a probe taped to the side isn't gonna cut it.
It's Easy Peasy. Amazon.com 1/4"ID stainless steel tube, crimp one end tight in a vice to seal it, and your temp probe slides right down the tube like a thermowell. I use the orange carboy caps with the two rubber posts- fat (airlock?) tube holding my thermowell ( I slid a 2" section of vinyl tube on thermowell to get a tight seal) and cut the other (blowoff?) tube short and shove my airlock into it.
Now my controller is set to my fermenting beer temp, not ambient air or carboy wall or some little jar of water. +/-1F temp controlled fermenting is now as easy as set it and forget it. Probe stays nice and dry.
Thats in my fermenting cooler, in my serving/lagering cooler I either use the thermowell in at least a gallon of water, or I lodge the probe in between two kegs to take an average reading of both of them.
SS Tube was like 12 bucks on Amazon for 3 feet, makes two thermowells easy. Just make sure you measure your temp probe diameter really well, my Johnson unit probe slides right down the tube but the ranco probe is too big. I could just order the next size fatter tube, but I rarely have more than one beer fermenting at a time.
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