Help with Keezer temp please!!

[BigEasy43]

So this is the first time I have kegged my beer and just want to make sure I am doing things right with my keezer. So I am using an ink-bird 308 and have the prob hanging in the air about 8 inches from the bottom. I have my temp set at 40f with a 5 degree upper and lower setting and noticed my freezer kicks in every 36mins to cool and wondering if there is anything I can do to make the temp somewhat stable. I have read about the prob in water, tape it to the keg or the side of freezer. Should I be concerned that my compressor on my freezer is kicking in every 36mins? Any advice would be great. Thanks

 

[GPP33]

36 minutes doesn’t sound that frequent. I have about the same setup, never paid any attention to how often the compressor comes on but I’m curious now. Just brew more beer so you have more thermal mass to help regulate the temp.

 

[whiskeyjack]

Fill the keezer with gallons/buckets/kegs of water to have more thermal mass and hold temp better. I tape my thermo to the side of a water keg and put a few layers of cloth on top then tape that down.

 

[PADave]

Your freezer shouldn't be kicking on that often, especially with a 5 degree differential. Mine kicks on every few hours, set at 37, with a 2 degree diff. Get as much liquid in there as possible, fill water jugs if needed. Liquid is a MUCH greater thermal mass and is going to hold the temp, air does not. Tape the temp. sensor to your keg, or keep it in a jug of water. Having it hang in the air is the the majority of the problem. Measure what you are trying to cool, which is your beer, not the air.

 

[jturman35]

I put my probe is a jar of water so every time I open the lid the temp doesn’t fluctuate as much.

 

[day_trippr]

As said, a keezer filled with beer vessels to have much high thermal inertia which greatly cuts down the compressor duty cycle. As well, the worst thing one can do is simply hang a controlling temperature probe in free air - even in a full keezer. Much better to strap it to or sink it in some volume of water, and better than that is to actually monitor the beer temperature.

fwiw, I use a 2" wide velcro strap to pin my beer temperature probe to the side of the fullest keg under a pad of 1" thick closed-cell foam. This plot is from a 24 hour period in July '15 and shows the compressor cycling on roughly a 5 hour period for ~50 minutes per cycle, which adds up to under 20% duty cycle - the compressor is loafing through life.

btw, what this plot also shows is the difficulty using ambient temperature to regulate a keezer compressor: note the sharp fall of the upper/lower probes (yellow/green) and particularly where they cross the purple Keg channel - which more or less represents the Set Point.

If I used either of those probes to control the compressor for sure the period would be greatly shortened and the cycling would increase proportionally. I'd guess ~3X as many compressor cycles over the same time span...

Cheers!

 

[BigEasy43]

As said, a keezer filled with beer vessels to have much high thermal inertia which greatly cuts down the compressor duty cycle. As well, the worst thing one can do is simply hang a controlling temperature probe in free air - even in a full keezer. Much better to strap it to or sink it in some volume of water, and better than that is to actually monitor the beer temperature.

fwiw, I use a 2" wide velcro strap to pin my beer temperature probe to the side of the fullest keg under a pad of 1" thick closed-cell foam. This plot is from a 24 hour period in July '15 and shows the compressor cycling on roughly a 5 hour period for ~50 minutes per cycle, which adds up to under 20% duty cycle - the compressor is loafing through life.


View attachment 566296
btw, what this plot also shows is the difficulty using ambient temperature to regulate a keezer compressor: note the sharp fall of the upper/lower probes (yellow/green) and particularly where they cross the purple Keg channel - which more or less represents the Set Point.

If I used either of those probes to control the compressor for sure the period would be greatly shortened and the cycling would increase proportionally. I'd guess ~3X as many compressor cycles over the same time span...

Cheers!

After putting a buck of water and taping my sensor with some foam on the outside to the keg it has been working GREAT!!! I knocked my temp down to 38f with a 2 degree differential and its stable for hours which is great now. Thanks for the info.

 

[BigEasy43]

Thanks all it's working great now with all your input!