Can I put the temperature reader (bulb) part and cord in water? How much water? Fill up a 20 oz. bottle? thanks
NO! do not get the sensor wet, unless you want to buy a new sensor! There are ways you can waterproof it but don’t immerse it!
How do I waterproof it? Is it true the temp will read closer to the beer’s temp if put in water? Regards.
The only real reason to put the probe in liquid is to create a buffer so the freezer will not “short cycle” (try to turn on within 2-3 minutes of when it shut off) when you open the top of the freezer. The johnson has an Anti-Short Cycle Delay parameter (see the instructions). Set it to 5 minutes. Set the diff to 1(really 2). Additionally put a small muffin fan in the freezer to circulate the air.
There is a thermowell you can get for the JCI controller to mount the sensor in liquids. Typically they would be threaded in a pipe fitting. The part number is JCI WEL11A-601C. I found one at a random website. It looks like this
http://www.pexsupply.com/Johnson-Controls-WEL11A-601R-1-2-Well-2-3-8-long
You could use a thermowell or insulate the probe with some plastic sheeting or bubble wrap and tape it to the side of the fermentor (or serving keg).
Here are some more thermowell options: http://www.brewershardware.com/Straight-Wall-Thermowells/