How much of a temperature variation should I expect to see in my Kegerator? I recently purchased a Summit SBC490, and over the course of a day, I’m seeing (via a wireless temp monitor) an internal swing of 24 to 42 degrees. I am seeing though, that the pour stays fairly consistent at 38 degrees.
How long are you waiting between changing the temp of the kegerator and pouring the beer? The air temp in the kegerator will change much faster than the temp of the beer (primarily water, by weight), because the specific heat of water is very high.
I’m not changing the temperature. The thermostat has been set, and the temperature as recorded by a wireless thermometer (I’m not opening and closing the door to measure) shows a low / high of 24 - 42 over the course of the day. When measuring the pour temperature at various times during the same period, it is staying right in the neighborhood of 38 degrees.
I a guessing all is well since the pour temperature is fairly static . . . was just concerned of
the wide variation in the internal kegerator temp (my regular refrigerators don’t vary to such a degree)
Kegerators are horrible for temperature swings. The common solution is to get external controllers (Johnson & Ranco are two popular ones).
I also have Min-Kota fishing thermometers on both of mine. I have the probe inside the kegerator sitting in a 16 oz. beer can filled with distilled water. This gives me actual water temperature rather than air temp. The Min-kotas are cheap too.
Is the probe directly on a cooling coil or something like that? It makes sense that certain parts would be very cold when the compressor is on, then warm up to ambient when the compressor is off. Or the probe is on the metal keg with cold air being blown on it?