Side by Side refrig for fermentation chamber

[monsteroyd]

Hi,

We bought a new refrigerator this weekend, so I now have the old one to use as a fermentation chamber. Anyone here ever done a side by side? Obviously a chest or upright freezer would be better, but I think I can get all 6 of my lbks in this side by side. I have the temp controller getting put together, and I am going to set up the refrig side as the ale fermentation chamber at 62F. I was wondering if I can adjust the freezer part to where I could do lager temps in that side and ale in the other. Anyone ever do or hear of this? The big problem I see is that I can only really temp control one side. Should I put the temp sensor in the freezer side or the frig side? Ideas or comments are welcome.

Thanks
Monty

[Brewbirds]

I asked that a long time ago on the MB forum and BigFloyd said it won't work for consistent temp control. He said you can run the freezer w/ the control unit but you the fridge side will fluctuate because all it will get is air blown in.

Edit: I sure wish BigFloyd would have joined us here he knew a lot about this kind of stuff.

[monsteroyd]

Hey that's OK at least I'll be able to actually ferment ales correctly. I'm amazed at the luck I've had so far considering that my ferment temps are a constant 74F. So I'll temp control the frig to ale temps, since it is bigger and I basically do ales. I'll put a thermometer in the freezer side just to see. I can some what regulate the relative temps on either side, so I'll just experiment and see.

Thanks
Monty

[JimH]

Won't hurt to try. If you put the temp controller on the freezer side and set it to lager temps your fridge should be around ale temps. It won't be perfect, but I imagine it would maintain temperatures well enough for an ale. Won't hurt to put a thermometer in the fridge side and test it out.

[monsteroyd]

Thanks Jim. That's what I was figuring, only I was going to temp control the ale side for now, and just see what the freezer does. I think it is going to depend on the heat gain, or how much the frig side will have to run. But you're right, you would have to temp control the lager side and hope for close enough on the ale side.

Monty

[FrozenInTime]

I can see easily controlling the temps on one side, but the other side might be a problem. I wonder if a good electrician could split the temp controller and control each side independently?

In a side by side, is there 2 different cooling units I wonder? One to control the freezer, maybe a heavy duty compressor, and one on the fridge side, controlling the not so cold temp? If so, I cold see using 2 different temp controllers. Did that make sense?

[monsteroyd]

Yes that makes sense to me. However the new one boasts a dual cooling units, whilst the old one does not, so I suspect they are tied together. That said, there are 2 controls in the frig for setting the temps of the frig part and the freezer part (like colder or warmer) so maybe it could be done. I certainly do not know enough.

Monty

[FrozenInTime]

There's a couple pretty good electronics guys on here... I'm thinking there should be a way to take apart the freezer controller and put one of those cheap china built controllers they were using to make temp controllers out of. ST1000 or something like that is what they used on the cheap. It's not a bad idea... I think there's one on craigslist in town here... hmmmmm

[monsteroyd]

Yeah.. We could, but I'm going from no fermenation chamber where all my ferments are in the seventies to actually being able to ferment cooler in the 60's. I'm currently not doing lagers, so I'll be fine with my little st-1000 thingy controlling the frig side, and then I'll see what that gets me on the freezer side. I'm good for now.

But the ultimate would be to do lagers on one side and ales on the other.

Monty

[monsteroyd]

OK I got this set up and STC 1000 wired. I can put up to 9 LBKs in it. It is AWESOME!. That frees up a ton of room in my cabinets for DME/LME and bottle storage. This is such an awesome upgrade I am stoked.

I had a little mess up with the STC 1000 wiring, but I found this out on HBT and I got it working. My original attempt assumed that the two wire attachments from the controller were the hot and neutral side. Actually the two attachments for the cold side are just a switch of the current, so once I got that straightened out, bingo. Now to let it stabilize for a day or so and see what I get on the freezer side.

Here's the wiring diagram, and DO NOT break the tab connecting the neutrals on the outlet. If you do, you'll have to jumper them together (Like I did)

STC-1000_outlet_wiring.jpg (51.39 KiB) Viewed 2063 times

[Editted to fix the 220vac mistake in the original drawing]

Monty

[FrozenInTime]

Is that supposed to be a 220 or a 115? It appears to me to have 115 going in and splitting off to 3 connections, what's the 220 for? I'm confused. NO, I'm not nitpicking, just want to understand the concept.

[monsteroyd]

Its a mistake in the drawing. It should say 110V. Good Catch. These come in 110 and 220 version so they probably started with the 220V picture. I'll see if I can update that picture to fix that.

Thanks
Monty

[FrozenInTime]

Makes sense now, tanx.

[dbrowning]

If you temp control ale side, the lager side will get way to cold.
If you control lager side at low end of range,48 or so, ale side might not be too terriblly high. But is likelyto be a little above preferred range.
Try ccontrol on lager side with air vent fully open. If it's a little to warn a1 gallon ice jug would help a lot

[monsteroyd]

Interesting. The freezer being too cold for lager is pretty accurate so far from what I've seen. I have the refrigerator side set for ale at 65-ish (18.3C) air temp. That gives right around 40F on the freezer side according to my refrig thermometer. What I am thinking is that gives me some refrigerator-like storage for some specialty grains I have, and a place to cold crash before bottling. I may just leave lagers to BMC, do my ales, and cold crash in the old freezer before bottling. Still an incredible upgrade to my brewing. I am so glad my wife 'made' me get a new refrig for upstairs, while the one we had still worked. Now I have a bigger frig downstairs AND my ferment chamber, all for the cost of a new frig (gulp - around $1500 on sale) and the cost of a STC-1000 etc. Looking at that , I guess this was a pretty expensive brew upgrade. LOL.

Monty