New brew fridge

[Soton]

I had another look last night and does not seem too hard to do so going to try and flash the next one i buy and give the arduino to my son to play with. I wired up my second STC last weekend and after 5mins it died so i ordered another. Took that apart in case there was a fuse inside and it was very easy to do. No fuse though.
Soton could you recommend a socket for the temp probe? Would like to be able to remove them as i can see myself breaking it.

I am not sure what you mean by a socket for the temp probe, on my STC's they are wired in and the wires are clamped with screws just like the electrical wiring in plugs
Maybe you could buy a male and female type socket and wire that in to the STC mounting box, that would give you the advantage of being able to pull the probe out of the mounting box, but for how much convenience that gains you it hardly seems worth while when all you need to do is coil up the temp probe and tape it out of the way on top of the STC when not in use

 

[Soton]

I just had a look online for jack sockets that can be used to enable the temp probe to be plugged in rather then direct wired to a STC, the socket could be wired into the STC then mounted into the STC housing and then the temp probe could be wired onto a jack plug that fits the jack socket, this would then make it easy to replace a faulty probe and make it removable for storage
Jack plug sets can to seen and bought here
http://www.banggood.com/buy/jack-connector-set.html

 

[BeerCat]

I just had a look online for jack sockets that can be used to enable the temp probe to be plugged in rather then direct wired to a STC, the socket could be wired into the STC then mounted into the STC housing and then the temp probe could be wired onto a jack plug that fits the jack socket, this would then make it easy to replace a faulty probe and make it removable for storage
Jack plug sets can to seen and bought here
http://www.banggood.com/buy/jack-connector-set.html

Cheers mate, i can be rather clumsy and the Mrs has already yanked on the cable. Also to be honest had so much fun making these i just wanna tinker about a bit more. Thanks again :thumb:

 

[Aphid]

I have just had my STC-1000's delivered today and I thought there is no time like the present so I wired one up, the odd thing about it was the STC-1000 cost just over ��£7 but the box to house it cost me ��£5!!!!. Anyway I installed the 60W heater in the base of my to be brew fridge plugged the heater and fridge into my new toy and it works a treat, Hmmm new brew fridge up and running so there was only one thing for it, I had a Woodford Admiral reserve ready for a fermenting bucket so in it went for a proper test:razz: Its now inside the fridge letting it work its magic to get down to a temp for pitching yeast

Someone told me about this - a brew fridge - in a discussion on another thread. What a great idea it is. What capacity fridge do you have in the pictures, please? Clearly it must be big enough to accommodate a fermenter with space for the heater below. You clearly have capacity above, too, where you store your racked bottles.

 

[Soton]

Someone told me about this - a brew fridge - in a discussion on another thread. What a great idea it is. What capacity fridge do you have in the pictures, please? Clearly it must be big enough to accommodate a fermenter with space for the heater below. You clearly have capacity above, too, where you store your racked bottles.

The best general advice I can give for a brew fridge is size wise is a "under counter fridge" is probably a bit on the short side to be useful, but that of course depends on fermentation vessel size, if you go for the next size up ( whichever size that is in fridge size's) you should be good to go, if you know the size of the fermenting vessels that you want to use you may even be able work out if you could ferment two brews at the same time, but that will depend on the area and space you have to place the brew fridge, in my experience I would have to say with the right temperature control a bigger brew fridge is better
Also the best thing that you can do to improve the taste and consistency of your brewing is to control the fermentation temperature of the fermenting wort, so one of the best tools in a brewers armoury is the control of the temperature of the fermenting wort

 

[Aphid]

The best general advice I can give for a brew fridge is size wise is a "under counter fridge" is probably a bit on the short side to be useful, but that of course depends on fermentation vessel size, if you go for the next size up ( whichever size that is in fridge size's) you should be good to go, if you know the size of the fermenting vessels that you want to use you may even be able work out if you could ferment two brews at the same time, but that will depend on the area and space you have to place the brew fridge, in my experience I would have to say with the right temperature control a bigger brew fridge is better

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated. Any thought on running costs? A larger size fridge like your versus a typical under counter type? If there isn't much difference, a larger one is a no brainer. What will hold a lot will hold a little.

 

[Dutto]

Absolutely no idea of costs but I suggest that you keep an eye on the STC to make sure that you aren't "cycling" everything! (i.e. The Heater warms up the fridge and then the fridge kicks in to cool the fridge and then the heater kicks in to .... ad infinitum.)

At this time of the year, I disconnect the fridge altogether when fermenting and conditioning as the garage (where the fridge is located) never gets above 12 degrees. (I see this as another good reason for having two sockets and two plugs.)

In the summer I adjusted the thermostat on the heater to make sure that it only just provided enough heat to keep the set temperature during cold nights. It minimised the requirement for the fridge to kick in.

The joy of the STC 1000 is that you can set a Time Lag to allow the heater to cool down naturally before the fridge kicks in.

It's worth doing the testing and required adjustments for your particular set up. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Soton]

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated. Any thought on running costs? A larger size fridge like your versus a typical under counter type? If there isn't much difference, a larger one is a no brainer. What will hold a lot will hold a little.

Once agin I'm no expert on running costs of brew fridges but I would guess that there is a little difference between a small and large fridge as once the required temperature is hit the brew fridge just ticks along with very finer adjustments to keep within limits

 

[Soton]

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated. Any thought on running costs? A larger size fridge like your versus a typical under counter type? If there isn't much difference, a larger one is a no brainer. What will hold a lot will hold a little.

I'm no expert on running costs of brew fridges but I would guess that there is a little difference between a small and large fridge as once the required temperature is hit inside the brew fridge it just ticks along, if say you were fermenting 40 pints that is quite a mass so that would help keeping the temperature inside a fridge stable so there is then very little work for the heater and fridge motor to do once its hit the the set tempture

 

[neal]

fridge was free (just ask around you'd be suprised how many people have one they no longer need!) bits and bobs came to about �£25 , makes a huge difference to quality of the brew, highly recommended to anyone :thumb:

 

[Aphid]

Absolutely no idea of costs but I suggest that you keep an eye on the STC to make sure that you aren't "cycling" everything! (i.e. The Heater warms up the fridge and then the fridge kicks in to cool the fridge and then the heater kicks in to .... ad infinitum.)

At this time of the year, I disconnect the fridge altogether when fermenting and conditioning as the garage (where the fridge is located) never gets above 12 degrees. (I see this as another good reason for having two sockets and two plugs.)

In the summer I adjusted the thermostat on the heater to make sure that it only just provided enough heat to keep the set temperature during cold nights. It minimised the requirement for the fridge to kick in.

The joy of the STC 1000 is that you can set a Time Lag to allow the heater to cool down naturally before the fridge kicks in.

It's worth doing the testing and required adjustments for your particular set up. :thumb: :thumb:

Thanks for your comments. I hadn't thought about some of the finer details you describe, like unplugging the fridge in the winter and throttling down the heater in the summer. All good advice greatfully received.
I think the ST1000 is the one I read about previously from a link within the forum. Clear instructions on glueing and wiring up two plug sockets on a control box. What made you opt for this over the various Inkbird models? You say you can set a time lag with your STC1000 to avoid cycling. Can this not be done with an Inkbird?

 

[Aphid]

I'm no expert on running costs of brew fridges but I would guess that there is a little difference between a small and large fridge as once the required temperature is hit inside the brew fridge it just ticks along, if say you were fermenting 40 pints that is quite a mass so that would help keeping the temperature inside a fridge stable so there is then very little work for the heater and fridge motor to do once its hit the the set tempture

Apologies for this posting twice. Can't explain why, but thanks for your comments. Greatly appreciated.

 

[Aphid]

fridge was free (just ask around you'd be suprised how many people have one they no longer need!) bits and bobs came to about ��£25 , makes a huge difference to quality of the brew, highly recommended to anyone :thumb:

Thanks for the pictures. I have a few questions if you don't mind answering:
Is this a standard under counter fridge or slightly bigger?
Does your wooden shelf rest on the rear part of the fridge holding the fridge workings?
The tape on your FV? What is that for?
STC1000 or Inkbird controller?
As you can see I am new to this and navigating a steep learning curve. :

 

[neal]

Thanks for the pictures. I have a few questions if you don't mind answering:
Is this a standard under counter fridge or slightly bigger?
Does your wooden shelf rest on the rear part of the fridge holding the fridge workings?
The tape on your FV? What is that for?
STC1000 or Inkbird controller?
As you can see I am new to this and navigating a steep learning curve. :

it is a standard under counter fridge and I built the shelf to the same height as the rear part, and routed the wires out through the drain hole

the tape holds the temp probe to the fv behind some bubble wrap as that seems to monitor the wort temp the best, and it is a Elitech stc1000 (��£11 from eb*y) housed in a simple ply box

hope this helps :thumb:

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Quick update - I've now made the decision and purchased:

Control box
STC-1000 controller
60W 1ft Green house heater

I've a few options on Ebay second hand fridges and will pick something up within the next few days, as the control box and STC-1000 are coming from HK i recon i have time to source the fridge at the right price (preferably free if i can find one)

The wire, plug sockets and other bits and bobs i'll source locally from the DIY store.

Having thought it all through the fridge option has multiply uses, firstly maintaining a constant temperature during initial ferment, then i can crash chill the brew, once bottled use the fridge to store and condition and finally chill the bottled batch down for drinking. Also presents the option of all year brewing if i want to, and an extra fridge might come in handy at Christmas (that is if its not full of beer which is my primary plan ) :

I started with using a 60W greenhouse heater and they are not really powerful enough, although my brewing cabinet/fridge is a lot bigger than yours.
P.S. I have a 60W here if you want it FOC.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

My alternative to a greenhouse heater

 

[Chippy_Tea]

No need for a PC fan there JB. :lol:

 

[Aphid]

it is a standard under counter fridge and I built the shelf to the same height as the rear part, and routed the wires out through the drain hole

the tape holds the temp probe to the fv behind some bubble wrap as that seems to monitor the wort temp the best, and it is a Elitech stc1000 (���£11 from eb*y) housed in a simple ply box

hope this helps :thumb:

Many thanks. Helps immensely on several levels - that an under counter fridge is big enough, the wooden shelf at the bottom, taping the sensor to the FV in bubble wrap (assuming bubble wrap just on the outer surface?), using the drain holes for cables and making a wooden box to house your STC1000 and plug sockets. I understand that the STC1000 allows you to create a delay between heating and chilling cycles to eliminate non-stop cycling from one to the other.

 

[Aphid]

I started with using a 60W greenhouse heater and they are not really powerful enough, although my brewing cabinet/fridge is a lot bigger than yours.
P.S. I have a 60W here if you want it FOC.

Would a 60W heater be sufficient for an under counter fridge? What wattage heater do you now use, please?

 

[neal]

Aphid these are what I use

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1ft-Tubul...286327?hash=item1e8343ef37:g:MokAAMXQqBxRHiOI

brewed a saison at a steady 28deg no problem

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-S...637422?hash=item419f6da5ae:g:1c4AAOSwQoFWOZhU

gone up a couple of quid since I bought mine !