Temperature Controllers

[Steven Sinclair]

Changing some things out in the brewery and am stuck deciding which way to go with temperature controllers. What are people doing that are utilizing separate heating and cooling controllers as pertains to the probes? I am using a glycol chiller that has its own probes for the cooling portion, but then the conicals also have their own heating sources, that would require a controller and secondary probes per conical. Typically, a conical will only have a single thermowell location, but would it be possible to utilize say the sample port or racking port for the secondary thermowell? Thanx in advance.

 

[Golddiggie]

I simply change out what probe is in the conical thermowell depending on if I need to heat, or cool, the batch. I also plug up the opening in the thermowell to minimize the impact of ambient air on the sensor.

I wouldn't use the racking arm port for a thermowell since it removes your ability to use it as a racking arm. If you went with the sampling port, you just removed that option as well. IF you have a conical with additional/available ports in the lid (like the current generation from Spike and Brewers Hardware) then you COULD put a thermowell in there. Just make sure you get one that's long enough to go deep enough to get the same reading as the one already present.

IMO, adding another thermowell really isn't needed.

 

[Steven Sinclair]

Yeah, I thought about the option of swapping between the heating and cooling probes, but wanted to not have to manage that process. It would be nice to either have two thermowells, one for heating and one for cooling because the heating and cooling are separate units in my setup, or to have a probe with two outputs (if that's even a thing) to plug into both the heating and cooling controllers. Thoughts? Thanx again.

 

[Golddiggie]

Or just DP the thermowell.. Double Probe, get your mind out of the gutter.

 

[KyBeer]

Not sure of your set up but I am building a chiller/heating set up for my fermentation using the Inkbird ITC-308 Digital Temperature Controller.
it is a 2-Stage Outlet Thermostat that provides Heating and Cooling Modes. It has a single probe with two out puts. I have a Heater pad under my carboy and a jacket from a chiller wraped around the side. I only need to change out the ice bottles every two or three days.
The chiller was recycled from the ice machine I needed after sholder surgery and the heating pad is from a fish tank heater donated from a friend. My total cost is about $35.00 USD.
Test on a 6 gallon glass carboy over a two week time look very good.

 

[Steven Sinclair]

Or just DP the thermowell.. Double Probe, get your mind out of the gutter.

Unfortunately, there's not enough room in the existing thermowell to accommodate double probes.
(Hears someone yelling, "That's what she said!" in the distance.)

 

[wsmith1625]

Dual stage temperature controllers work off a single probe. I use this one.

ITC-308 Heating and Cooling Dual Relay Temperature Controller - Inkbird

 

[Golddiggie]

Unfortunately, there's not enough room in the existing thermowell to accommodate double probes.
(Hears someone yelling, "That's what she said!" in the distance.)

What's your fermenter?? There's plenty of room inside the thermowell that came with my Spike CF10's for both. Don't even need to use lube for them.

I have the IceMaster Max4 plus heating pad/elements for the CF10's. Bought two different controllers for the heating aspect, since I'm not planning to modify the Max4 (yet at least) to let it control both aspects. Most of the time, I need to use the cooling for things. I'm hoping that when I get the BH jacketed conical I won't need to add heat due to it's insulation between walls.

 

[Steven Sinclair]

What's your fermenter?? There's plenty of room inside the thermowell that came with my Spike CF10's for both. Don't even need to use lube for them.

You're on a roll this morning, Golddiggie!

 

[eric19312]

Second time this week I've seen this question. Who was the bright designer that didn't realize brewers might want to be able to call for either chilling or heating from their fermentor temperature controller? I know they are familiar with how an STC-1000 works as they are already using that very inexpensive controller to control the temp of the glycol. Perhaps a safety concern if you were driving multiple heaters simultaneously...

 

[Golddiggie]

@eric19312 I suspect that the designer/makers of the chillers that require zero additional items to work (like the IceMaster line) didn't want to need to add the outlets for heating pads/elements. Plus, they'd need to provide 110v power for those heating pads via outlets in the chiller (someplace). With how these things are typically streamlined to make production costs as low as possible, to increase profit margins, I'm not surprised. Plus, IMO, there's plenty of areas where cooling is needed the vast majority of the time.

I didn't get one of the chiller setups where I'd be able to do both heat and cool, for a couple of reasons. Not the least of which was cost to get up and running. Plus enough of the other chiller models (where I'd need to get the additional items to use them) were having long time frames form order placement to shipping to me. Needed to get the thing sooner, not in X months.

Next batch I plan to chill to a little higher temperature into fermenter. At that point, I might not need to use the heating pad on the batch.

 

[eric19312]

I'm very jealous of your well water. My tap is almost never below 60 and so over chilling into the fermentor is just not typically a thing for me.

Hmm a little research and I see that controller they are using may be even cheaper than an STC-1000 plus it displays target and actual temp simultaneously. It is a nice looking unit enjoy.

 

[KyBeer]

FYI. When doing my resurch on specs for heating and cooling I found an on-line calculator that helped me size the parts.
https://bloglocation.com/art/water-heating-calculator-for-time-energy-powerIt saved me from getting an undersized heater.

 

[Golddiggie]

I'm very jealous of your well water. My tap is almost never below 60 and so over chilling into the fermentor is just not typically a thing for me.

Hmm a little research and I see that controller they are using may be even cheaper than an STC-1000 plus it displays target and actual temp simultaneously. It is a nice looking unit enjoy.

I have to watch the thermometer on the plate chiller wort side outlet to make sure it doesn't go below 60F for too long. Using the ball valve there I can get it right into the zone I want. Even if I blast through it without the chill water on (for sanitizing), by the time I'm done chilling the batch, it's at 60-65F inside the fermenter. Love using the setup with the plate chiller. Added bonus of keeping the kettle lid closed for the entire process. With using the Spike SCL I only open up the 4" port when I need to put hops in.