A Great Place To Shove Your Temperature Probe

[jupiter]

Slightly OT but Jupiter do you know of any cheap WA sources for T Type Thermocouples ? I have a dual channel medical thermometer that uses T Type probes.
Cheers
Doug

i haven't looked recently, but i used to see extension wire cheap on ebay all the time so just make your own, it's a piece of cake.

 

[PistolPatch]

hey fellas, shouldn't this be on a seperate thread, this has nothing to do with PP's original post

rook

Don't worry Rook, if I remember correctly, the thread got off-topic from the third post on I'm sure though that all the technical gurus here, who speak a language I cannot comprehend, will solve not only the original question...

1. Where's the best place to put your probe for crash-chilling?

but also...

2. Where's the best place to put your probe for fermentation?

Once they have these answers, maybe we can put the results in the Wiki. That's worth waiting for!

Cheers Rook,
Pat

 

[stm]

As I recently purchased a Fridgemate, I did a bit of a search on the forums for relevant discussions, and came across this interesting thread from a couple of years ago. Pretty much everyone agreed to disagree about the best place to stick your probe, so was wondering whether anyone had any further comments, have seen the light and changed their mind, have done further study and are now certain that theirs is the best solution, etc.

The options appeared to be:

1. In the wort
2. In the headspace in the fermenter
3. In the fridge (airspace)
4. In a bottle of water in the fridge (separate from the fermenter)
5. Taped to the side of the fermenter with electrical tape
6. Covered by a big blob of blutac (or foam/insulation and tape) stuck to the side

(Number 6 has appeared in some more recent threads as the option favoured by some.)

Interested to hear whether people have further thoughts; particularly the original commenters on this thread who have had a eureka moment since then.

 

[wambesi]

6. Covered by a big blob of blutac (or foam/insulation and tape) stuck to the side

I use diving suit material (old stubbie cooler/pencil case stuff) over the probe and taped onto the fermenter.
Works fine for my uses.

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

I use diving suit material (old stubbie cooler/pencil case stuff) over the probe and taped onto the fermenter.
Works fine for my uses.

Very good idea. At the moment I use cotton balls and gaffer tape. Seems to work, but not the best insulating properties, I'd imagine.....

 

[wambesi]

Very good idea. At the moment I use cotton balls and gaffer tape. Seems to work, but not the best insulating properties, I'd imagine.....

Can't claim it as mine though, saw people here using it.
Kids became minus a pencil case, sacrificed to a good cause.....

 

[mikem108]

I gaff tape it to the side of the fermenter halfway down with a layer of some sort of insulating material between the probe and the tape, like bubble wrap or polystyrene, then you are regulating the temp of the fridge based on the beer temp

 

[matt white]

I use what they call plumbers tape. Its a silver, soft tape and sticks for months. The wort is consistently 2 degrees warmer than what my fridgemate says, going by the stick on 0-30 degrees thermometer.

 

[np1962]

I too tape to the outside of the fermentor with insulation covering. During active ferment and set to 18C the fridge can actually get down around 14C.
If you think about it just sitting probe in fridge and keeping fridge at 18 your wort will probably be sitting up over the 22 degree mark.
Taping to fermentor is the closest I can get to reading the true wort temp without actually sitting the probe in the wort and it is the temp of the fermenting wort that I want to control.

Nige

 

[cubbie]

I would love to know if browndog carried out his experiment. I place my temp probe into a 1.5L bottle which seems to have a smaller following than the other methods. I account for the heat generated by the wort by adjusting the fridge temp to 2c below the ferm temp. Having read through the thread, I think the bottle does has some merit. Firstly it will prevent the compressor kicking in frequently (as may be the case measuring air temp) and secondly its thermal mass is greater than the air and less than my fermenter so it

a. should cool down faster when the compressor is on yet stop before there is an overshoot in my fermenter
b. it should heat up faster than my fermenter and switch the compressor on before the fermenter gets an over shoot at the high end of the temp range

With this method I need to ensure that my fermenter when pitching is at the correct temp and when fermentation is over that I adjust the temp upwards (no heat production by fermentation.

I use this probe. Now if only it had a more accurate dial.

I plan to by a digital prob so that I can measure the temp ranges and difference of my beer throughout the fermentation cycle.

PS I like these old threads best, some great discussion.

 

[np1962]

its thermal mass is greater than the air and less than my fermenter so it

a. should cool down faster when the compressor is on yet stop before there is an overshoot in my fermenter
b. it should heat up faster than my fermenter and switch the compressor on before at get an over shoot at the high end of the temp range

I see faults in both your arguments,

a. will fermentor actually get down to the required temp? or do you set controller to a lower than required temp?
b. would be correct if fermentation wasn't raising the temp of the wort, fermenting wort will heat up quicker than straight water.

Nige

 

[cubbie]

I see faults in both your arguments,

a. will fermentor actually get down to the required temp? or do you set controller to a lower than required temp?
b. would be correct if fermentation wasn't raising the temp of the wort, fermenting wort will heat up quicker than straight water.

Nige

a. I need to have cooled my wort to ferm temp before pitching, otherwise it may never to my ferm temp. having said that I do often pitch at around 24, though by the time the ferment kicks off it is down to 20c
b. I don't believe the fermentation is going to continually increase to temp of my wort. My estimate is that it adds about a constant 2c

Therefore if I want a ferment temp of 18c I cool my wort to 18c and then set the fridge to 16c. After fermentation has finished I adjust the fridge temp to 18c