Ferm Chamber cooling question

[abledsoe]

I recently moved to a much warmer climate leaving behind a house with a basement perfect for fermentation. The new place has no basement so a ferm chamber is in my future.

To get me through I brewed a couple batches and am using my currently empty keezer as a ferm chamber. Its a 7.2 cu. ft. chest freezer with a collar and STC-1000 controller. I brewed Wed. and put the 6 gal bucket inside, taped the temp probe to the side of the bucket covered with bubble wrap and set the controller to 18.3C. I noticed the freezer was running non stop but the controller never read cooler than 23.x

Yesterday (Thu) I brewed another batch and put the 6 gal better bottle in the freezer with the other, leaving the probe on the first bucket. The freezer still hasnt stopped running and the STC now reads 25.x. I'm aware they warm up during fermentation. Is it being that warm for that long going to be a problem? Should I be concerned the freezer isnt cooling properly? I bought it brand new and its less than 2 years old. I also have 2 computer fans inside keeping the air moving.

I was trying to decide what to get for my actual ferm chamber and was just planning to get another chest freezer. Now I'm rethinking that. Any thoughts, input, advice are welcome.

Thanks!

 

[kombat]

I'd say either your freezer is pooched, or your STC-1000 is actually in Fahrenheit.

 

[porterpounder]

You should have a separate controller for the fermenter and the keezer. The ambient temp needs to be cooler than your ferment target to keep the temp under control w/o stressing out the compressor. If the keezer wasn't significantly cooler than the fermenter when you put it in there then it has been trying to catch up ever since.

 

[abledsoe]

You should have a separate controller for the fermenter and the keezer. The ambient temp needs to be cooler than your ferment target to keep the temp under control w/o stressing out the compressor. If the keezer wasn't significantly cooler than the fermenter when you put it in there then it has been trying to catch up ever since.

Just for clarification I'm not currently using it as a keezer, strictly as a fermentation chamber. But I did not pre-chill the chamber before I put the fermenters in there. That makes total sense but didn't occur to me at the time.

 

[abledsoe]

So I think maybe the freezer itself isn't working correctly. After a few days the temperature still wasn't dropping so I took everything out of the freezer, unhooked it from the temp controller and it just plugged it up as a stand alone freezer. After running for 24 hours the temp inside the freezer is 57 degrees.

The freezer itself is only about 2 years old. We did just move across the country and hired movers to move our stuff. There is no obvious damage but it was working correctly before the move. Wondering if I can get it repaired. I just converted it to a keezer in the fall, would hate to scrap it already.