Tried to make a fermentation chamber, and I failed...

[BrewLikeAegir]

First I bought a deep freezer, Model #FCM11PHWW.
Then I bought a temperature controller, Inkbird ITC-308.

Did my research on both, didn't really see anything outright that would make me think I wouldn't be able to pull this off. Finally decided to hook it all up on brew day. It's starting to get cold here but it's been warm the past two days, so I hooked my deep freezer up to the temperature controller (I plugged the power cord of the deep freezer into the cooling socket of the temp controller because it was about 80 degrees ambient and I needed it to be at 68 inside) and I set the probe inside the freezer. The deep freezer's green power light did not come on. So, curious, I tried the heating socket (I plugged the power cord of the deep freezer into the heating socket of the temp controller) and the deep freezer turned on--The light inside came on, the green power light was on. So I played with the temperature controller for a second, I set the minimum and maximum temperatures, and I closed the lid and watched it go for a second. The deep freezer started getting colder and colder, blew right past the minimum temperature set. Believe it or not, the freezer was doing what it was designed to do, it started freezing, even thought it was plugged into the heating socket on the temperature controller, even though the minimum temperature was set. So I thought, defective temperature controller right? Maybe the two aren't compatible in some way? What am I missing? I'm not an electrician. I've got beer that needs to be at 68 degrees and my heater in my house has to be on or my family will freeze. I've got a "swamp cooler" set up right now in the meantime. Help. Please.

 

[day_trippr]

Was the freezer already cold when you installed the ITC-308?

If the interior was below the 308 controller's Set Point, the 308 Cold circuit would not turn on.
Otoh, in that same condition, the 308 would likely be trying to raise the temperature to Set Point, so the Heat circuit would be enabled until the temperature rose to Set Point - if there was a heat element plugged in.

In that condition, if you plugged the freezer into the Heat circuit, the compressor would fire up and it'd stay in that condition pretty much forever - or until you realized that's a good test of the Heat relay, but not an actual practical configuration. The controller can hardly be faulted for not knowing you plugged a cooling element into a heating circuit...

Cheers!

 

[Genghis]

What settings did you program into the Inkbird?

 

[BrewLikeAegir]

In that condition, if you plugged the freezer into the Heat circuit, the compressor would fire up and it'd stay in that condition pretty much forever - or until you realized that's a good test of the Heat relay, but not an actual practical configuration. The controller can hardly be faulted for not knowing you plugged a cooling element into a heating circuit...

I'm not sure I understand what you want me to do to fix this. Sorry.

 

[johngault007]

I just hooked mine up today. Filled a ferm bucket with water and attached the probe to the side. After setting the 308, it kicked on and is holding temp like a champ. Above may be accurate, if the temp is too low, the cooling circuit won't close. And the same about the about the above mentioned heat circuit.

 

[BrewLikeAegir]

What settings did you program into the Inkbird?

Wanted it to stay at 68 degrees, set the min and max to 67 and 69. The other settings, I'm not sure but I definitely programmed it correctly. All I know is, it did not stop the freezer from kicking on full blast and dropping to 50 before I finally decided to pull the plug.

 

[BrewLikeAegir]

I just hooked mine up today. Filled a ferm bucket with water and attached the problems to the side. After setting the 308, it kicked on and is holding temp like a champ. Above may be accurate, if the temp is too low, the cooling circuit won't close. And the same about the about e mentioned heat circuit.

You're going to have to break this down for me like a you would someone who time traveled from the stone age. You're saying if I put pants on, break down the swamp cooler set up, bring the ferm bucket into the deep freezer, attach the probe to the side of the bucket, plug all the back in, then it will work?

 

[johngault007]

If you left the probe dangling inside, or set it against the sides, it will give you issues. There are many posts about this in the forums.

 

[johngault007]

You're going to have to break this down for me like a you would someone who time traveled from the stone age. You're saying if I put pants on, break down the swamp cooler set up, bring the ferm bucket into the deep freezer, attach the probe to the side of the bucket, plug all the back in, then it will work?

Its worth a shot. Worked for me and several others that posted similar issues using freezers.

 

[BrewLikeAegir]

Its worth a shot. Worked for me and several others that posted similar issues using freezers.

Okay so I go in there, do everything mentioned above. What do I plug my deep freezer into? The heating or the cooling socket. Not sure what the temp is inside my garage but its in the high 50s outside.

 

[johngault007]

The cooling outlet. Being that the ambient temp is in the 50's, it may not cut on until the temp around the probe gets to your set high temp

 

[Transamguy77]

If you plugged your freezer into the cooling socket of the controller and the freezer didn't turn on its because the freezer was already below the temp you requested which is why the best side was turned on. I think that is what Daytripper was trying to say.

You might need to buy something to heat the freezer because if the temp was below your set point and no way to heat it your going to have problems keeping your temp constant.

 

[mongoose33]

You plug the freezer into the cooling socket. If you had a heat mat or ferm wrap you wrapped around the fermenter, you'd plug that one into the heat socket.

Double-check that you have the freezer plugged into the cooling socket.

The other thing I don't see mentioned above is the compressor delay. My 308's came w/ a 3-minute delay already programmed in, and I left it at that. This means, if you plug the freezer into the cooling socket, it will delay 3 minutes before it comes on. This is so the compressor isn't constantly cycling, which will reduce its life.

That you did not seem to experience a compressor delay suggests you plugged it into the heating socket, not the cooling socket.

************

You'll want the temperature probe to be pressed against the fermenter with a piece of closed-cell foam or similar. This will allow the probe to monitor the temp of the fermenter, not the ambient temp in the freezer. It's the wort in the fermenter you're concerned with, not the ambient air in the freezer.

Below is a pic showing how I do it. You'll note the heat wrap around the fermenter as well. The foam is blue, and I use a bungee cord to hold it against the fermenter. I cut a small channel in the foam to accommodate the temp probe.

 

[FunkedOut]

You can’t plug the freezer into the heating socket and get the behavior you want. It has to be plugged into the cooling socket.

You never mentioned what temp the probe read when it you first tried it. We can guess it was below the min temp, as the heating socket was on.

Set it up correctly again, and take a min it to look at what is going on.
There’s a cooling led and a heating led.
If the cooling led is on steady, the socket should be powered.
If the cooling led is blinking, the controller has decided it should be powered up, but is not allowing power to protect it from short cycle. You can set the number of minutes it requires as a minimum to keep from cycling too frequently.
Set this to 10 minutes and you should be fine.

Probe location is a good topic to read about, but is not your problem at the moment.

 

[WestMichBrewer]

Is the ITC set up to run in Celcius rather than Fahrenheit? 68 is pretty hot in Celcius...

 

[myndflyte]

Wanted it to stay at 68 degrees, set the min and max to 67 and 69. The other settings, I'm not sure but I definitely programmed it correctly. All I know is, it did not stop the freezer from kicking on full blast and dropping to 50 before I finally decided to pull the plug.

As others have said, you plugged it into the heating outlet. Therefore, the controller thinks that it needs to add heat to get to the correct temp and thinks the thing plugged into the heating outlet is a heater. It'll continue to run until it heats up to that temp. Since what was actually plugged in there was the freezer, it'll run forever.

My guess, again, as others have said but you haven't confirmed, is that the freezer was already below your set temp, which is why it didn't turn on.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

On the heat side;

LTET min temp (too cold) = power on (call for heat), GTET max temp (too hot) = power off (heat off)

On the cooling side;

LTET min temp (too cold) = power off (freezer off), GTET max temp (too hot) = power on (call to cool)

Thus, if you connect a freezer to the hot side it will run continuously waiting for a max temp condition that will never happen because no heat is being made to reach the desired max temp which will turn the power off.

The controller is not smart enough to know what is connected to either side. All it can do is turn power on or off based on a less than equal to min temp condition or a greater than equal to max temp condition based on setpoints.

Do this, plug the freezer into the cooling side, set your min/max temps, and hold the temp probe between your palms and wait for it to switch on.

 

[mongoose33]

As others have said, you plugged it into the heating outlet. Therefore, the controller thinks that it needs to add heat to get to the correct temp and thinks the thing plugged into the heating outlet is a heater. It'll continue to run until it heats up to that temp. Since what was actually plugged in there was the freezer, it'll run forever.

My guess, again, as others have said but you haven't confirmed, is that the freezer was already below your set temp, which is why it didn't turn on.

The Inkbirds come with a 3-minute compressor delay. When you plug it in and plug the freezer into it, nothing obvious happens. For 3 minutes, anyway.

The first time I plugged my freezer into an Inkbird that happened. Bummed me out--for about 3 minutes. The freezer turned on then I read the instructions.

 

[bigdawg86]

THIS! All my Ink Bird products have been default on celcius.

 

[day_trippr]

Well, no, it's not "THIS!".
The OP simply did not realize that the Inkbird controller isn't magically going to raise the temperature inside his freezer to 68°F if ambient is colder than that...

Cheers!

 

[johngault007]

Just finished the collar for my freezer and set up everything for heat as well (in Florida, it might be used 3 times a year). When I came home today to get started on the work, the temp was holding at 68F. So this forum, and a little searching and studying paid off the first time. Now just waiting for the silicon caulk to dry and test run finished (DAYS) before it's first use.