FTSS Temp Control Chill Water temp?

[BrewInHK]

First post on the forum here! Currently fermenting a Kolsch at 64F. Using the FTSS temp control, a small cooler and an aquarium chiller.

The ambient room temp is 78-80F.

My question is, what would be the ideal temperature to set the acquarium chiller at so that the FTSS can maintain the fermenting wort easily at 64F?

Currently it's set to keep the chill water at 15C / 59F - my goal would be to minimise the amount of time the aquarium chiller is required to switch on, yet keep the fermentation temp stable at 64F.

Any thoughts/advice welcome! A pic of the set up is attached (a bit messy and not had chance to drill holes in the cooler lid yet)

Cheers!

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1463932773.204816.jpg

 

[303Dan]

I read a review of the FTSs somewhere that said keeping the chilling water within 5-6 degrees of your target fermentation temp helped prevent significant overshoot, albeit at the expense of quicker temp changes. It sounds like you're already doing that. I'm interested to see the responses you get because I'll be getting a brewmaster chronical and FTSs this summer.

What are your thoughts about it so far?

Oh, and welcome to the forum. There are a lot of knowledgeable and helpful people around here.

Dan

 

[BrewInHK]

Thanks for the response Dan - quicker temp changes aren't really an issue for me as my aquarium chiller can cool the water quite quickly and if I needed to drop it rapidly I could drop some ice packs in there (all though that does defeat the point of buy a chiller)

Really pleased with the FTSs so far! Decided to go for it as temp control here in Hong Kong is really challenging with the heat - was able to cool my wort down from 85F to 62 really quickly - didn't time it but was approx 20 mins.

Also really like the fact that the temperature reading comes from with the fermenter - so much better than a simple stick on thermometer strip!

Out of interest how will you plan to keep your chill water cool?