Cold Crashing Temperature-too High?

[stux]

Only if its a new house and yes it should connect to the toilet and laundry I believe, maybe diff in VIC.
we built in NSW 2 1/2 years ago, water is supposed to flow from the tank first (for entire house) then bring in town supply when the tank is empty.
When it was all hooked up, builder takes me to the tank/pump and says' flick this tap and that handle to get tank water, leave them as they are and town water flows stright through'. As soon as you turn on the tank you bypass town pressure and require the pump. Tank water is for beer, light styles like lagers, town supply works fine for most ales.

Around here people actually install water tanks on that setup so they can get decent pressure. Tap pressure is sub 100kpa

 

[ash2]

Boys & Girls with my fridge & trying to CC a brew it only gets down to 4.5c ,do you foresee any probs with this temp.
Cheers

 

[QldKev]

Have you read this thread?

 

[ash2]

I started to but lost interest in the hot water systems,water tanks & curry recipies posts

 

[QldKev]

It's answered in the first few replies.

The yeast will still floc out, but you will need to leave it about 3 days at those temps for it to finish.

I would also look at another fridge long term. If the fridge is warming up over the day and it's running 100% of the time, it's sucking on the power like a 16 year old chick sucking on a .....

The other thing you could look at is trying to insulate it better. Does it have external cooling fins at the back, if so cover the sides and top with insulation. Also is it getting hit with direct sun, if so that will heat them up pretty fast. At certain times of the year if I haven't drawn the blinds, my keg king kegerator in the house gets hit the morning sun for an hour and jumps a couple of degrees as it can't keep up with the cooling.

QldKev

If you leave it at 4.5c the yeast will still floc out over a few days. I actually set my fridge to 4c and leave it for over a week. My fridge will go below zero no problems, it just sits there waiting for keg space.

But if you fridge can only get to 4.5c then it will be working hard sucking on the electricity. Say the fridge is 250w and it runs continuously, hence the lowest temperature you can get to. Then 250w * 25c per kWh = 6c per hour. 6c * 24hours a day = $1.44 a day. Over a week = $10 in power. It won't take too many brews to make the purchase of a more efficient fridge worthwhile. This inefficient fridge is also drawaing more energy at normal fermenting temperatures too.

 

[CosmicBertie]

But will his hot water system still work if its plumbed into the rain water tank?

 

[ash2]

But will his hot water system still work if its plumbed into the rain water tank?

That's the question on everybody's lips.

 

[Rocker1986]

The first time I tried cold crashing, it only got down to about 4C as well. The beer turned out to be one of the clearest beers I've ever brewed. This wasn't anything to do with the fridge being incapable, I just hadn't had the setting low enough in the fridge itself to bring it down any further. Once I figured that out and set it to its coldest setting, I set my STC to 1C with a 0.3C differential, and the fridge brings it down no problems and only comes on for short periods not very often to maintain it. This fridge is about 70 odd years old too.

 

[ash2]

The first time I tried cold crashing, it only got down to about 4C as well. The beer turned out to be one of the clearest beers I've ever brewed. This wasn't anything to do with the fridge being incapable, I just hadn't had the setting low enough in the fridge itself to bring it down any further. Once I figured that out and set it to its coldest setting, I set my STC to 1C with a 0.3C differential, and the fridge brings it down no problems and only comes on for short periods not very often to maintain it. This fridge is about 70 odd years old too.

Thanks Rocker1986 ( or Kelsey )LOL,Thats what I havn't checked was the fridge settings,i will do that tmoz when I go back to work.
Cheers :beer:
P.S. I thought that the STC would override the fridge settings,but we all know what thoughts do. :blink:

 

[ash2]

The first time I tried cold crashing, it only got down to about 4C as well. The beer turned out to be one of the clearest beers I've ever brewed. This wasn't anything to do with the fridge being incapable, I just hadn't had the setting low enough in the fridge itself to bring it down any further. Once I figured that out and set it to its coldest setting, I set my STC to 1C with a 0.3C differential, and the fridge brings it down no problems and only comes on for short periods not very often to maintain it. This fridge is about 70 odd years old too.

Thanks Mate it was as simple as checking the fridge settings,now they are down to 1.5c

 

[Rocker1986]

No worries mate. Yeah, I had a similar thought, but I guess it makes more sense that the fridge will only get as cold as it is set to, regardless of the setting on the STC being lower or not. Glad it worked out for ya though!

 

[sponge]

P.S. I thought that the STC would override the fridge settings,but we all know what thoughts do. :blink:

That's why I never think before doing anything these days.

 

[Rocker1986]

One thing I did notice was that the fridge remained on the whole time, when I had it set warmer than the STC. The light would come on when I opened the door etc, even though it wasn't working to cool it any further, whereas if the STC is set to a higher temp than the fridge is set to, it will actually switch the fridge completely off when it gets to the set temp. So basically the fridge was working as it normally would without an STC being in place, until I re set it to a lower temp. I normally cold crash at 1C now, not sure if the fridge will go any lower as I haven't tried yet. Might switch the STC down to 0 tomorrow and see if it gets there.

 

[anthonyUK]

The circuit is basically two relays in series so if either open the power to the compressor is cut. The STC1000 does this by killing the power completely as you mentioned.

 

[Rocker1986]

Ah that makes sense. That certainly explains why the fridge thermostat would override the STC if the fridge is set to a warmer temp than the STC is.

 

[Yob]

One of my fridges would do a similar thing, wouldn't drop to sub 4's

Someone here told me How to disable the fridge thermostat by snipping a few wires and I've clocked it at sub zero temps now.

Also, if you are getting down to 1 to 2 degrees, set the differential on the STC to 1 degree, it's still at a temp that the yeast will flocc at and the fridge doesn't need to work as hard.