Extending the life of chest freezers question

[mtnrockhopper (Jimmy K)]

I stuck my probe in a block of solid foam insulation. The effect is the same as sticking it in liquid - the controller is slow to react to temperature changes - but without the mess of liquid.  This is in a keezer, not a fermentation chamber.

[quattlebaum]

@dak0415

DO NOT GET THE RANCO PROBE WET! Ask me how I know.  I use a ranco dual stage with a thermowell that goes inside the fermenter.  That also handles the short cycling problem.  In my keezer, the probe is in a thermowell - in a 20oz plastic bottle filled with water.

Yes DO NOT SUBMERGE THE PROBE IN ANY LIQUID.  I did a study with tapping my Johnson A-419 to the side of a 6.5 gallon glass carboy and in a thermowell on the same carboy with the same yeast at the same temp. There is a 1 degree difference between the 2.  Tapped version is 1 degree cooler than thermowell. So i offset my Johnson ;D to compensate. A Pic for ya

[joe_feist]

Great. I was looking at the thermowell solution. It seemed so elegant and straightforward. But a 1* difference doesn’t seem like a big deal either. Thanks for all the feedback. Now, just to figure on how to adjust the Johnson… :o

[corkybstewart]

My chest freezer is now 9 years old, it runs in my garage which routinely hit 110F in the summer and low 20’s in the winter.  I didn’t insulate the collar, and I even sheathed it in oak plywood, something I since learned is very bad.  I keep my temp probe in a sealed, dry, empty water bottle.

[mtnrockhopper (Jimmy K)]

@corkybstewart

My chest freezer is now 9 years old, it runs in my garage which routinely hit 110F in the summer and low 20’s in the winter.  I didn’t insulate the collar, and I even sheathed it in oak plywood, something I since learned is very bad.  I keep my temp probe in a sealed, dry, empty water bottle.

Why is that bad?

[corkybstewart]

@mtnrockhopper

@corkybstewart

My chest freezer is now 9 years old, it runs in my garage which routinely hit 110F in the summer and low 20’s in the winter.  I didn’t insulate the collar, and I even sheathed it in oak plywood, something I since learned is very bad.  I keep my temp probe in a sealed, dry, empty water bottle.

Why is that bad?

Freezers apparently dissipate heat through the outside walls. The plywood holds heat in.

[mtnrockhopper (Jimmy K)]

@corkybstewart

@mtnrockhopper

@corkybstewart

My chest freezer is now 9 years old, it runs in my garage which routinely hit 110F in the summer and low 20’s in the winter.  I didn’t insulate the collar, and I even sheathed it in oak plywood, something I since learned is very bad.  I keep my temp probe in a sealed, dry, empty water bottle.

Why is that bad?

Freezers apparently dissipate heat through the outside walls. The plywood holds heat in.

Oh, gotcha. I thought you just sheathed the collar in plywood.

[dean_palmer]

@corkybstewart

I keep my temp probe in a sealed, dry, empty water bottle.

You can really improve your temp control by directly measuring what you are trying to control. Attach the probe to the side of the fermenter itself and cover it, or use a thermowell. Measuring the air in a bottle is inherently inaccurate as it doesn’t properly represent the time it takes to change the temp of the mass of liquid that is your wort. It is only measuring the reaction of the air and that container. When this is important is where the fermentation is generating a lot of heat. By measuring the air in a bottle you are just creating a certain temperature in the fridge that is simply an ambient, but cannot react to the conditions in the wort.