Setting freezer temps with a temp controller

[Beer-lord]

My Fermostat can be set for any number of cushion minutes but like RickBeer, it has a default built in much like an A/C thermostat to sit idle a few minutes between cycles.

[DaYooper]

Talk about being lazy, I just put the wort in the fridge, push a few bottoms on The Black Box, come back in two weeks and have beer that's fermented and cold crashed.

Now that is a great idea! I think I am going to have to pick up another fridge or freezer now. If an angry woman is pounding on your door in the near future holding a baseball bat, that would probably be my wife wanting to "thank" you for cluttering the house with yet another gadget.

[gwcr]

My STC-1000 stops the compressor from coming on until it's been 3 minutes, which is the default and which nearly everyone seems to use. Does yours have that?

Many also use a 0.5 C variance, so if you set it for 17.5 C it turns off and then doesn't turn back on until 18.0 C. That's less than 1 degree F.

My Fermostat can be set for any number of cushion minutes but like RickBeer, it has a default built in much like an A/C thermostat to sit idle a few minutes between cycles.

It does have that setting, but it's one I haven't looked at. Was setting the temp cushion instead of the time cushion. Will need to see what the default is and give that a shot.

[RickBeer]

The time cushion overrides the temp cushion, saving the compressor. You set both, and if it needs to come on for a temp reason it only will if it's more than 3 minutes (or whatever you set) since it last ran. Mine are set for 3 minutes and 1/2 degree centigrade.

[gwcr]

Interesting. My time default is set to 5 minutes. Dropping to a 2 degree cushion to see what happens.

[RickBeer]

That points to the freezer compressor as the issue - if it can't restart after being off 5 minutes...

[gwcr]

2 degrees worked just fine so changed it back to the defaults. 1 degree and 5 minutes. Working fine. Must have just been the initial big drop from 64 to 34. Not going to challenge the freezer gods any further as everything is now working as anticipated. Will definitely keep an eye on it though.

[jimjohson]

fwiw I'd raise the delay to 10 min

[JohnSant]

FWIW when I first hooked up my temp control to my mini fridge I let the probe hang about 2/3 way to bottom of fridge my thinking was Hot air rises and Cold air lowers. I had 2 Mr. beer LBK's going with same temp range. With the Coils of the fridge hanging above my top tank I found that my bottom tank took off and my top tank showed no fermentation at all, took readings at top and bottom of fridge and found that the lower tank was close to set temp, however the top tank was way to cold by about 15 deg. Took the probe and using a old cozy taped it to the top LBK and everything seems to work now. Set temp, +- .5 deg. C, 3 min. delay. I think with the top tank being directly under the heating coils that it transferred more cooling to it than it was getting to the bottom one. IMO.