Johnson analog temp controller stopped working

[jfr1111]

I bought myself a new freezer since my beer fermentation chest freezer has been used for its intended purpose by my gf for the last few months.

I transferred the food to the new freezer, cleaned the ice in the old freezer and drained/mopped the water. I plugged the old freezer into the thermostat. I then put my beer in there to crash cool. Everything worked when I went to sleep last night.

This morning the freezer is at room tempertaure even though the thermostat is set at 40F. I tested the thermostat by plugging a lamp in it and setting it to 40F, but it doesn't seem to close the circuit (the lamp doesn't light up).

Any idea what went wrong ? Maybe some water got into the housing unit and fried something inside ?

 

[jfr1111]

Opened the housing, found a large nail inside that was shorting the power cord poles, removed nail and the unit worked again. The controller always rattled every since I bought it, now I know why !