Temp Control Method

[Mylo]

Well, I don't know if I'd be comfortable with Thirsty's solution. It sounds like the fridge and the heater will be locked in a fight to the death. My money is on the heater. If you insulate too much, then the fridge can't keep the fermenter cool enough. If you don't insulate enough then your compressor will be running continously.

This did get me thinking, because it is desirable to have a serving solution and a fermentation solution. How about this.... what if you built an foam board insulated plywood box on top of your chest freezer (ditch the cover). Make hinged doors on the front, and hinged "trap" doors on the bottom. Put a temp controlled fan on one of the trap doors, and a vent on the other trap door. The trap doors would give you access to your kegs. The fan would keep the top compartment at fermentation temps. You could even put a heating pad in the top in case it got too cold. Heat rises... so in my mind it would be safer and more efficient than putting the insulated fermenter in the uncontrolled fridge. I'm going to sketch up something tonight.... What do you guys think?


Mylo

[bub]

Milo they won't fight if you have a 2 stage temp controller.
BUB

[Mylo]

Milo they won't fight if you have a 2 stage temp controller.
BUB

Bub, the two stage would only help you if you had a dedicated ferm fridge in an environment that has large ambient temp swings (like the garage or outside).

Thirsty, correct me if I am wrong - but you proposed a temp controlled, heated and insulated fermenter inside a non-temp controlled fridge. That way the fridge could be at serving temp, and the one stage controller would control only the heater to warm up the fermenter to ferm temps... right?


Mylo

[Thirsty Boy]

Milo they won't fight if you have a 2 stage temp controller.
BUB

Bub, the two stage would only help you if you had a dedicated ferm fridge in an environment that has large ambient temp swings (like the garage or outside).

Thirsty, correct me if I am wrong - but you proposed a temp controlled, heated and insulated fermenter inside a non-temp controlled fridge. That way the fridge could be at serving temp, and the one stage controller would control only the heater to warm up the fermenter to ferm temps... right?


Mylo

Exactly,

And (did you follow the link??) I have been using this for my temp control system for the last year or so. It works very well indeed.

The heater would win teh death match... but its on a temp controller. So it only turns on when the fridge gets ahead of it. If the fermentor is well insulated, then the heat exchange isn't very high at all and both the fridge and the controller only run about 15-20% more often than otherwise they would.

Boob - a two stage is no good for my "particular" scenario, because that throws your fridge right back to being dedicated again, with my way. The fridge runs as per normal, hte freezer compartment still works, your serving beer still stays cold and the leftover chinese food doesn't develop anything (new) that is going to kill you when you eat it.

Follow the link I put in my last post. Much better explanations there.

[Mylo]

I followed the link, but I didn't click on the image. Damn, dog... time for a defrost cycle!


Mylo

[Thirsty Boy]

I followed the link, but I didn't click on the image. Damn, dog... time for a defrost cycle!

Mylo

It got a little worse before it got better!! It was frostng up really badly because the seals were rooted.

For those of you who didn't follow the link, here's a picture of it in action with a 5 gallon batch fermenting, two cornies lagering and various bottled beers ready to drink.



Here's a couple of pics of the thing (after a defrost) with replaced door inner, new seals, freezer door, beer tap and drip tray. The two fermentors are 10 gallons of my kolsch sitting on 16°C. I tried it this time without the insulation... not good, the fridge worked much harder than I am happy with. The insulation makes a significant difference, not only to the amount of work the fridge does, but to the stability of the temperature.

[bergerandfries]

This is what I use:

http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=60288

[santamarina]

I go hi tech....wet t-shirt with a fan in the summer, small space heater in the winter. So far so good...only 150,000 more pennies to save for the hot/cold temp controlled conical!!!