Bypass fridge thermostat

[Chrissparky]

Anyone bypassed the thermostat on their brew fridge and just used an inkbird and how difficult is it to do?
Any advice would be great 👍

 

[Chippy_Tea]

This might help - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=652300#post652300

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[Chrissparky]

Thanks, that'll do

 

[WierdFish]

If it isn't broken, just turn it down to coldest and let the Inkbird do the work.

 

[Chrissparky]

It's only getting down to about 4c is that ok for cold crashing

 

[IainM]

Yeah. Plenty cold.

 

[marlon]

I bypassed mine, - just because I could really. Probably not necessary but I can 'lager' now at -1deg. So far, without any problems :thumb:

 

[Brett74]

It's only getting down to about 4c is that ok for cold crashing

Depends how long you crash for ...I crash at -1 or 2 degrees depending on what fridge I use, 2 days at -1 and it is done or 6 days at 2 to get it clear.
I took the thermometer the fridge uses and drilled a hole in the frifge from the inside and pushed it further and further in until the fridge turned at -3,7, this realy works the fridge hard and it quickly heats up again, this fridge will get beer in 2 x 30 liter fv's down to 2, but no lower...

 

[Toffee]

I had a fridge that got down to 0c without bypassing. but my newer (larger) one only got down to 5 or 6c. So I bypassed the thermostat, and hey presto, can get down to below freezing now.

take it to bits. follow the wires to work out which did what, and connect em together. worked for me, and nothing blew up.

now of course electricity is not to be messed with, if you are not sure, get some qualified advice.

 

[Brett74]

What you have to be careful of is something called slugging, if it gets too cold for the systems design, your refridgerant enters the compressor as a liquid instead of vapour and this will destroy the compressor quite quickly. Tricking the fridges thermometer like I did by "burying" it a little bit into the insulation where it reads slightly higher was a good way to increase how low the temp went incrementally. That way when the inkbird or whatever is now in control reads warm beer the fridge will still have its safety system so it doesn't get so cold this slugging thing does damage.