Just so I'm clear, this isn't just the original setup with the chill down of the water jar but now the chest has been closed for 24 hours straight and we see the scale reading about 20F more than the water bottle consistently. Scale temp reading goes up about 20, water goes up about 2, triggers freezer to run but scale never gets down to the 38 - 40 range that the water bottle does. Air goes from 48 - 58F based on graph where inkbird goes from 37 - 40. Honestly, I think I might trust the inkbird readings more but expected the air reading to be somewhat closer to water reading when things are closed up.
That's good to know, I didn't know what to expect going into this. As for the length of cycle, I'm not sure since I don't have inkbird wifi but I can now anticipate when it will kick on based on plaato temp so I can keep an eye out tonite for a cycle time.
Nope. I bought a small fan to put on the collar but I've found I don't need it. I haven't temped the pour since we moved the unit to the basement (its final home will be there with a full bar around it) but when it was in the non air conditioned garage with temps way warmer (75'ish) than in the basement (65ish), I was pouring at no more than 44, sometimes 42, with the inkbird set at 38 and a 2deg differential so I didn't feel the fan was needed. To compensate, when we built the tower using 2" black iron pipe (2 legs up to elbows, bunch of Ts for the 4 taps), I put 1" copper pipe up into the legs of the tower on both sides and extended them about 10" down into the chest freezer and then put pool noodle looking pipe insultation up in the legs cut flush at the floor flange on the top of the lid and then 2 lines to the taps up each side through the cooper pipe. The theory was the copper would act as a heat sink and given my pour temps, I think it's working as planned (or it's just dumb luck
)