Fridge set up

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Neil1987

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Hi I've just picked up a fridge to regulate the temperature is it best to keep the inkbird on the fv or is it better to leave it in the fridge to keep the temperature steady?
 
You want to measure the temperature of the beer in the FV, not the air in the fridge (which will vary much more than the thermal mass that is the beer). Ideally, you would dangle the probe I to the beer but that opens up a whole load of issues around sanitation, probe life, etc. Soost people, me included, tape or otherwise attach it to the FV with some foam or something on the outside - so the probe is sandwiched between the outside of the FV and the foam. This means the probe is as near as damnit measuring FV temp. Hope that helps - I can take a piccy later once I get back home of you like.
 
I tissue, tinfoil & tape the inkbird probe to the side of my fermenter (vertically and about a third from the bottom). It's never that far off my ispindal but I can notice a lag in the probe. A long thermowell on my fermenter lid for the probe is my next planned upgrade.
 
A few options,

A thermowell thru the lid and then put the probe into the beer with the sensor inside ( also means you can take readings from different levels if your probe is long enough.

Taping to the side works well, hardly any disagreement between my probe reading and Ispindel.
I use a big piece of blu tack to hold the probe on then a piece of sleeping mat foam and hold it on with a bungee cord.

Remember you will see variance in the temperature depending on where on FV you put the probe. Near the top will be warmer than the bottom especially during active ferment.
Don't put it right next to the heating belt / pad either.
 
I’ve done similar to comments above. It’s a section of foam packing material that I covered in aluminium tape and stuck to the side of the FV. Holds the probe snugly against the side of the FV.
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What about keeping the door closed with the cables interfering with the seal?
 
I've got two fermentation fridges. On one, I run the cables through the fridge drain hole ( tube heater cable and Inkbird temp probe cable) This is the neatest solution but involved fitting a new plug on the tube heater as the moulded one needed to be chopped off to feed the cable through the hole.

On the other fridge I just run them out the door, and the seal seems to cope but I will get around to using the drain hole eventually as it's better. The drain hole needs to be enlarged very slightly with a drill bit (it's dead easy, you can do it by hand no drill required)
 
Never thought about that I'll give that a go thanks I'm useing a heat pad at the moment cables thin so should be fine I'll get a tube heater eventually
 

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