So the coil in the cooler will be immersed water? The stainless coil that runs down through the center of the fermenter is fairly deep reaching and I just let it do its thing. It really doesnt seem to have any trouble keeping up with the heat in the garage and seems to be working quite well. Easy question. I had read a few comments on this approach on these forums but nothing that provided much detail on build or examples. Not sure how fridge thermostats work. Chilling great now! Have a few questions about the glycol. Ok. Cheers to Metzen for laying the ground work. I decided to stop trying to make it perfect before I caused a leak. It also helps to cut a small gateway for the chiller tubing to set into so the lid can close fully. Wondering if a bigger unit (>5000BTU/hr) might be needed for multiple/larger fermentors and cold crashing. i have a question for you: What pump are you using inside the fridge?
The aquarium pump was easy. I decided on a commercial food bin slightly bigger than the one I showed in the photos. Im glad you got some use out of my build write-up! Hoping this will do the trick and enable varied temp ranges down to cold crashing. Im really not sure what it would take to crash multiple fermenters at the same time, but unless you get super crazy with it, I dont think youd have much problem at all. Any more follow ups? Just an fyi that I just stuck with the itc308 regular temp probe. Build a 2x2 platform on some casters and maybe box it in with the condenser end open and some side vents to pull in air. Ive found used analog window units for $35 on Craigs List, and portable units from $100.
I actually have 2 temperature controllers. I dont have a great grasp on that subject and Id hate to give you bad advice. I'll keep this thread updated as I test my first brew and make observations. Cal in the summer. Almost fully covering the coil. This seems to be the happy spot for my setup so that the AC unit isnt running constantly trying to cool the solution and it stays cold enough to chill my fermenters easily. Thanks! Unfortunately, I only have a few pictures of this process. Ive had mine running for a full year now and Id say it runs less than 10% of the time and any heat it produces is so small its practically non-existent. Thanks for the responses. Specialty, Fruit, Historical, Other Recipes, View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1499488045.953097.jpg, View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1499488062.486545.jpg, View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1499488081.467072.jpg, View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1499488094.194334.jpg, View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1499488108.515326.jpg, View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1499488121.264856.jpg, View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1499488132.751185.jpg, View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1500239048.724020.jpg, View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1500239064.064269.jpg. I guess it really just depends on what the mini fridge is rated for. After over 24 hours - it looks like we stabilized at 42-43F in the fermenter. Do you have any in progress photos of how you sealed that fridge? Are you worried about temparature gradient inside of the fermenter? I see inkbird has an aquarium probe and a temp probe do you suspect one is better than the other or will the stainless temp probe survive the glycol bath the same (or differently) then the aquarium coated probe. The A/C units inkbird actually has a small power strip connected to it, so when the glycol solution rises to above the specified temperature, it actually powers the A/C unit as well as a small pump inside the cooler to keep the glycol recirculating over the cooling fins. Guess how many times I moved it. This gets me going. I hope this answers your questions! Does the fermenter temp match the temp of your glycol reservoir, therefore your ink itd gives an actual reading of the fermenter temp? JavaScript is disabled. My woodworking skills arent exactly the worlds best, so the box ended up having a lot of extra room inside that isnt really necessary. What did you use? For the aquarium pump, I basically just used a really short surge protector that I plugged into the inkbird. Any comments would be great. And thinking. I plan on using an itc308. For my system, I shot for a 1:2 ratio of glycol to water. Hi Keith! I'm searching for a larger container to use as a reservoir to fill the full width of the shelf it sits on. I dont think it has affected performance in any way, but its been going for quite awhile now and a refresher would probably be a good thing. I just daisy-chained it like you mentioned so that the AC unit and aquarium pump both turn on and off at the same time.
cousineau homebrewing brew Hi, great job! My actual question is how are you making the two inkbirds work together? Encouraged by his findings I took my own approach. Did you plug your pump into the heating side of the inkbird? I have a spare dorm fridge, do you think it could be used instead of the AC unit? Put some thick rubber under compressor and condenser section to help with vibration amd noise. I've been on hiatus from homebrewing for almost like 2 years, what have I been missing? I cant remember exactly where I got it from, but theyre pretty easy to find at a lot of different places. No idea how to even begin figuring out the math on this, so I'd put as much liquid volume in the freezer as could reasonably fit (gotta maintain some circulation space). Sounds like your conditions are similar Thanks. Anyone use the freezer part of a fridge as a glycol chiller? To help prevent any splashing from making its way out of the cooler, I spray foamed the spot at the top of the cooler I had cut for the copper tubing entrance. Set the differential to 3*F so the pump kicks on at 38*F. This is pushing the limits of the system as the pump kicks on every 110 minutes or so and runs for about 12 minutes to get back to 35F, the fridge doesn't get much down time. The first one is on the glycol chiller so that I can control accurately what temperature the glycol solution is currently at. I messed with the knobs and settings and it kicked on for me. On the fermenter, I also ran two short lengths of tubing connected to the male end of the liquid quick disconnect. Currently, my glycol chiller and fermenters are living in the garage which gets really pretty warm this time of year. any chance to test this yet? Hi Matt- Ive been looking all over for these kind of plans. As for the overall dimensions, I definitely built it bigger than I needed to. Besides making room for the cooler to fit up close without having to bend the evaporator all that much. Any data on getting from room temp to 34F or so? I found a 2 y.o. Will it be an issue with the glycol if I leave it? Great plans Matt. Cheers! Thanks for the step by steps on this. Cheers! Big thanks Metzen, and everyone else, for this. Seems to do everything I need it to without too much complaint either. The AC unit seems to keep up with demand really pretty well and is usually fully recovered within about 30 minutes after reaching the target temp. We will see. Looks really nice. When Im just maintaining fermentation temps, it seems to run maybe 20% of the time. Im sorry if this is a simple answer I cant make my brain understand it for some reason. It definitely took me more time to go this route, but I learned a TON and I have the pride in knowing that I built everything myself. Seems that digital AC units are becoming more and more the norm, so it makes it a lot easier to find a suitable unit. By Matt McRoberts. I did find some reviews that te aquarium probe plastic was breaking down after a couple of years. Cheers! It has been up and running for right at a year now and doesnt seem to have slowed down one bit at all. How is it wired to turn on with the a/c unit? Any updates? Hopefully insulation remedies this, but my personal rig has only be used to test water and is currently working on its first batch of beer. Good make a glysol cooler out of this. Its finally time to add the glycol/water solution and get things rolling! I noticed you bent yours so the evaporator was standing vertical instead of horizontal. It needed to be sufficiently powerful, but even more important was that it needed to be an analog unit. My setup currently runs pretty infrequently and doesnt seem to have any issue at all keeping up with things. Ive seen them plenty of times before in the past at Walmart as well as Target. Maybe someone else would have a better answer for you? Well time to find a cooler and start bending that copper. It really doesnt seem like its a powerful pump at all. Is it simply daisy chained into the inkbird cooling outlet? On your aquarium pump (for recirculation) when you say daisy chain do you mean you just put a splitter on the cooling side of the inkbid? The Stasis looks neat and has pumps and controllers already installed. If at all possible, Ive found that its best to try to keep the full cooling fin submerged. nice job with your build just wanted to know what size pump did you use to pump the glycol through your feed lines? Agree with transamguy, really happy to be coming to the thread, if only today. Ive ran it a a couple times for a few minutes and gets ice cold. Hey Dan! My fermentation room stays at 68 all year. is it possible to use ice maker for glycol fermenter? Thoughts? I have beer fermenting right now, but once this current batch is packaged up, Ill probably replace the glycol solution to keep things fresh. I have mine located in the garage as well where it definitely gets hot in the summer and theres practically no additional heat at all. First things first was finding a suitable window AC unit. The glycol will lower the freezing point of the solution and the water will keep the heat capacity sufficiently high so we can pull heat out of the fermenter. Thanks for the quick reply. Create a website or blog at WordPress.com, Brew Bros Hops and Sprockets Club Off2019, https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=118169&catid=743, https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=118171&catid=743.
glycol byo chiller While not a small amount of money, it was still MUCH less that the $800-1000 for an entry level pre-made glycol chiller. Matt, one more question, those 3 wires that were attached to the condenser, did you reattach them to to base of the unit for grounding purposes? A router would probably work the easiest!! While digital units can be used, theyre MUCH more labor intensive and expensive to make work.
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