Tilt hydrometer vs thermowell

[glugglug]

I’m fermenting with a tilt hydrometer for the first time. I have an stc1000 hooked up to my refrigerator. The probe on etc is in the thermowell. It is reading about 8.4c (about 47 degrees), and the tilt is reading 56f. Which one do I believe? And what do you do in this situation.

 

[mongoose33]

Pull out the probe from the thermowell and validate it against something with known temperature. Pour a glass of water, get it to about 50 degrees, checking w/ another thermometer. Then put the probe from the thermowell in it and see how close it is.

 

[redarmy990]

is the thermowell in the beer, from how you described it is just in the refrigerator.
Did you calibrate the tilt, During fermentation heat is produced, if thermowell is not inside fermentor, then that would be why you have the difference.

I am no expert i also use a Tilt and have the temp probe of the temp controller strapped to side of fermentor.From recommendations on here.

I normally see a couple of degree swing

 

[glugglug]

Good idea with the water. Tilt was calibrated right before I put it in the fermenter. Thermowell is in the fermenter. Thank you for the replies. I guess my final question is which do you trust more?

 

[mongoose33]

Good idea with the water. Tilt was calibrated right before I put it in the fermenter. Thermowell is in the fermenter. Thank you for the replies. I guess my final question is which do you trust more?

The question should be, do you trust the probe in the thermowell? If you've brewed good beer using that as your temperature reference, then I'd go with that.

But I'd still validate it--maybe you've had the wrong temp all along.

 

[redarmy990]

For me i would trust the temp controller more than the Tilt, but checking the Temp controller will validate for you

 

[lablover]

Pull the probe out of your thermowell and put it in a jug of ice water. If it gets down to 32 or 33 F in twenty minutes or so, I'd believe that one.

 

[brewswithshoes]

I use a thermowell with an inkbird probe and a tilt. My tilt and inkbird never match temps but are usually within 1 - 2 degrees of each other. I think that would be an expected variation from the top to roughly the bottom of the fermenter. I've never had to calibrate the temp on the tilt. Checked it a few times to make sure it matched against other thermometer readings.
Another possibility is to make sure no liquid (I.e. sanitizer, etc) got into the thermowell and may be throwing off the probe. I've seen that before if I have a blow over and the thermowell gets liquid in it. The probe temps will swing more if that happens.

 

[mongoose33]

I use a thermowell with an inkbird probe and a tilt. My tilt and inkbird never match temps but are usually within 1 - 2 degrees of each other. I think that would be an expected variation from the top to roughly the bottom of the fermenter. I've never had to calibrate the temp on the tilt. Checked it a few times to make sure it matched against other thermometer readings.
Another possibility is to make sure no liquid (I.e. sanitizer, etc) got into the thermowell and may be throwing off the probe. I've seen that before if I have a blow over and the thermowell gets liquid in it. The probe temps will swing more if that happens.

I would think it would make the probe more accurate since there is liquid to act as a thermal pathway from sidewall of the thermowell to the probe. Why would it throw off the temp?

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I would think it would make the probe more accurate since there is liquid to act as a thermal pathway from sidewall of the thermowell to the probe. Why would it throw off the temp?

My understanding is that some probes aren't supposed to get wet. If that's the case, a flooded thermowell could throw everything off.

 

[eric19312]

This is a crazy thread. Why hasn’t OP pulled the probe out of the thermowell and tested it against ice water and reported back with results yet? That is like a 30 minute project...including time to post here...

 

[schematix]

I had an extremely bizarre fermentation problem a few weeks ago and wondered if it might be a probe issue. Grabbed my thermapen from the kitchen and stuck it in the thermowell with the controller probe for 20 minutes. They were different by 0.4F. Not the probe!

 

[sammyreyes]

I use a thermowell with an inkbird probe and a tilt. My tilt and inkbird never match temps but are usually within 1 - 2 degrees of each other. I think that would be an expected variation from the top to roughly the bottom of the fermenter. I've never had to calibrate the temp on the tilt. Checked it a few times to make sure it matched against other thermometer readings.
Another possibility is to make sure no liquid (I.e. sanitizer, etc) got into the thermowell and may be throwing off the probe. I've seen that before if I have a blow over and the thermowell gets liquid in it. The probe temps will swing more if that happens.

I had same issue and wondered which one to trust. I think you are correct about the temperature differences between the top vs the bottom of the fermenter. I took my handheld temperature probe (sanitized of course) and check temperature at the top and bottom of beer. Both Inkbird and Tilt were correct. I just lower temperature the night before. I suspect they will equalize eventually.

 

[dhoyt]

Old post revival... I am having this issue with the tilt reading off from the thermowell. I have tested my two tilts and a couple other sensors and they all read within 1 °F of each other so they are all good. I do expect some variation from the top of the fermenter to the bottom but I have found other things that have affected the readings. One is how far the probe is in the thermowell. On the SS brewtech 7G fermenter I have the well almost hits the coil. When I had the sensor pushed all the way into the well this caused an issue because it would get a false reading since it was basically touching the coil. The temp would drop dramatically as soon as the pump turned on. This lead to a high temp delta between the tilt and the probe because it was essentially short cycling and not cooling things down properly. This is also exacerbated if you have you entering chilled water going to the bottom of your coil where the probe is instead of the top. I found that pulling the probe out so the tip was closer to the edge of the fermenter help this to an extent. The other issue seems to be that with all the extra space and air inside the thermowell causes "lag" in the temp updating. My probe is water proof so I put some water in there and it seemed to help a little. What really should be in the well is a thermal conductivity compound or paste. That makes me nervous though since its not food grade and probably causes cancer and with the constant moving things around and taking the probes in and out for cleaning it would get messy. My other issue now is that when my garage is open the sun shines on my fermenter causing a much higher heat load than normal and my tilt temp always seems to read 3 to 5 degrees higher than my probe. This is an easy fix but figure I would mention it.

If anyone has anymore tips or insight I'd love you hear it!

 

[Deadalus]

Old post revival... I am having this issue with the tilt reading off from the thermowell. I have tested my two tilts and a couple other sensors and they all read within 1 °F of each other so they are all good. I do expect some variation from the top of the fermenter to the bottom but I have found other things that have affected the readings. One is how far the probe is in the thermowell. On the SS brewtech 7G fermenter I have the well almost hits the coil. When I had the sensor pushed all the way into the well this caused an issue because it would get a false reading since it was basically touching the coil. The temp would drop dramatically as soon as the pump turned on. This lead to a high temp delta between the tilt and the probe because it was essentially short cycling and not cooling things down properly. This is also exacerbated if you have you entering chilled water going to the bottom of your coil where the probe is instead of the top. I found that pulling the probe out so the tip was closer to the edge of the fermenter help this to an extent. The other issue seems to be that with all the extra space and air inside the thermowell causes "lag" in the temp updating. My probe is water proof so I put some water in there and it seemed to help a little. What really should be in the well is a thermal conductivity compound or paste. That makes me nervous though since its not food grade and probably causes cancer and with the constant moving things around and taking the probes in and out for cleaning it would get messy. My other issue now is that when my garage is open the sun shines on my fermenter causing a much higher heat load than normal and my tilt temp always seems to read 3 to 5 degrees higher than my probe. This is an easy fix but figure I would mention it.

If anyone has anymore tips or insight I'd love you hear it!

Potentially still messy but here's one food grade thermal paste.