Keezer Help

[jackdog]

Hello

I am new to home brewing (just tasted my first brew and brewed my second batch). I decided to build a keezer just because I could tell I wouldn't have the patience for bottling and I like draught any way.

I spent many hours on here checking out builds and finally built one. I bought an 8.8 ft3 Kenmore and the Love controller TSX-10140 and am having a killer time with temperature control. I did put the probe in water as most people have done but cant figure out what's going on. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

There are a couple pics attached but if it helps I am happy to take more

 

[Grippe]

What is your specific issue with the controller?

Love the beaten copper look on your collar & base.

 

[jackdog]

I set it at 39/40 and it will drop to 34/35 or go up to 44/45. I insulated and sealed the heck out of it. I did notice a lot of people use fans to move the air around and thought i would try that next.

Thanks, the copper is roof flashing.

 

[day_trippr]

It is the nature of chest freezers to overshoot the target temperature. The system fills the cooling loop until it's told to stop, but the loop is still filled with working fluid transitioning to vapor until it reaches equilibrium, and that endothermic process doesn't just stop because the controller said "Stop".

But the observation point matters: if you tightly couple the probe to something with a large thermal mass, you'll see a much tighter temperature swing that a glass of water will show, which in turn is tighter than the free-air temperature swing.

I don't know what "most people have done", but my take is I care most about the brew temperature, so that's where I put my controller probe: slapped against the side of my fermenters and kegs, covered with a thick chunk of foam insulation, then strapped tight using velcro straps. The controllers are all set for 1 degree of differential, so that's all the beer ever sees. Meanwhile the air temperature in my keezer, cold fridge and ferm fridge are swinging by much larger values, no doubt, but that isn't very important, imo...

Cheers!

 

[limulus]

I use an STC1000 controller which only runs in Celsius. My probe is in a 1-liter plastic bottle. My theory is that if the water in that bottle is 4.5C, then the beer in my kegs should be about the same. I set mine for 4.5C (~40.1F) with a differential of 1-degree. So at 5.5C (41.9F) it comes on. It is true that it will continue to chill down to around 3.5C (38.3F). But, the nice thing is my compressor is off for 1:40 - 2hrs and then runs about 20min. BTW, the STC1000 can also control a heat source. When mine gets down to 3.5C, it tries to turn on a heat source, but of course, I don't have that in my keezer. The coffin stays in the mid to high 40s.

 

[Pratzie]

Love the beaten copper look on your collar & base.

+1. at first i was like WTF and then realized in the second pic. Very nice

And i second what daytripper said, def secure it to one of the kegs with some foam insulation.

 

[Setesh]

Others have mentioned this but I'll just come out and ask: What is your differential set at? If it's set to 5 degrees then you are going to have huge swings before the compressor kicks off. What does it do when the target temperature plus the differential is met? Does it shut off? If it does and the temp still goes down it must be the nature of your freezer. I have a 15.5cf freezer and it doesn't behave this way.

 

[Whut]

I have two Kenmore 8.8cf freezers in my garage and both are set to a 1˚ differential. They've been like this for ~4 years and going strong. As for what the temp shows on the Johnson controllers, it at times will show a difference of at least 4/5 degrees but the actual temp of the wort stays the same. My probes are suspended/hanging and I do have fans to move the air.

 

[jackdog]

Thanks for the replies. I will set the differential to 1 and see if that does the trick

 

[beaksnbeer]

I use an STC1000 controller which only runs in Celsius. My probe is in a 1-liter plastic bottle. My theory is that if the water in that bottle is 4.5C, then the beer in my kegs should be about the same. I set mine for 4.5C (~40.1F) with a differential of 1-degree. So at 5.5C (41.9F) it comes on. It is true that it will continue to chill down to around 3.5C (38.3F). But, the nice thing is my compressor is off for 1:40 - 2hrs and then runs about 20min. BTW, the STC1000 can also control a heat source. When mine gets down to 3.5C, it tries to turn on a heat source, but of course, I don't have that in my keezer. The coffin stays in the mid to high 40s.

I use the heat source to run the fans in the coffin.