Fermentation Fridge

[MAX POWER]

G'day fellas,

I've been viewing the forums for a while, but this is my first post.

Anyway i've been gradually setting up my bar and brewing equipment and am finally (almost) done.
However i've got a problem with my fermentation fridge. A mate of mine wired it up and it seemed to work fine.
But once i moved it back it into postion and plugged it in the heat mat no longer works.
The light on the tempmate indicates that the heat is on but the mat doesn't heat.
My mate checked the wiring and there is definitely power getting through.

So, is my heat mat stuffed? Would there be any other explanation?
Also what other heating options are there for this purpose?

Unfortunately the mat is wired directly into the tempmate so i can't test if it works, or if the problem is with the tempmate itself.
Love the forum guys. thanks for any help.

 

[Cocko]

G'day fellas,

I've been viewing the forums for a while, but this is my first post.

Anyway i've been gradually setting up my bar and brewing equipment and am finally (almost) done.
However i've got a problem with my fermentation fridge. A mate of mine wired it up and it seemed to work fine.
But once i moved it back it into postion and plugged it in the heat mat no longer works.
The light on the tempmate indicates that the heat is on but the mat doesn't heat.
My mate checked the wiring and there is definitely power getting through.

So, is my heat mat stuffed? Would there be any other explanation?
Also what other heating options are there for this purpose?

Unfortunately the mat is wired directly into the tempmate so i can't test if it works, or if the problem is with the tempmate itself.
Love the forum guys. thanks for any help.

Hey Mate and Welcome to the madness!

It would be pretty clear your mat is shagged but not being able to individually test it makes it pretty hard to say for sure...

You need to call your mate and get him to rewire you tempmate in the traditional way, and put a plug back on you mat!

Other heater options: In my fridge I use a slim line heater, works well - only runs for about 30 seconds, 3 or 4 time a day depending on ambient. Others use light bulb covered in a terracotta pot and numberers other inventions... and obviously heat belts.

Anyway, 2c, and I hope you get it sorted bud.

Cheers

 

[MAX POWER]

Thanks mate.

Yeah the mat was stuffed. I got another mate to rewire it properly, and am now using a little electric fan heater.
seems to be working ok.

I was wondering though, where is the best place to mount the probe?
I hear some people say to mount it on the side of the fermenter and go off the air temp, but I've also heard people say to conceal it in a dip tube and submerge it in the fermenter itself.

Which would be best? Any thoughts?

 

[beerbrewer76543]

i have mine on the side of the fermenter with a block of expanded polystyrene foam around it, held in place with ocky straps

this way it measures the liquid temp only and not ambient air temp

having a probe in the liquid is one more thing to clean / sanitise / worry about

 

[seemax]

Having the probe submerged in the wort is ideal, but strapping it to the side of the fermentor also does the trick but I tend to set it slightly lower and then do a quick temp check of the wort by draining a small sample.

Another option, which has been discussed before, is aquarium heaters (fully submersible). I use mine in melbourne winters in the house during overnight colds, then use the fridge during summer. The heaters incorporate a thermostat so you just sanitise it, drop it in the wort set to your desires temp and away you go.

 

[QldKev]

just move to sunny qld and don;t worry about heating. our overnight temp last night was warmer than Melbourne's max forecast for today.. lol

But seriously with the probe position there is much debate. Some like a probe into the middle of the fermentor, so the centre will be correct but the outer edges may be too cool/warm. I mount mine to the side of the fermentor and have something covering it to read the fermentor temp and not the air temp; some say I will end up with warmer beer in the centre. I beleive it does not matter too much, when the yeast is active the brew is constantly moving so thermal layering should not occur. Lets face it, the temp will be 100% compared to leaving it on the laundry floor.

QldKev

 

[alowen474]

I've found the switch cut in /out is a degree either side of the target, so set to 19 degrees cuts in at 17 and cuts out at 21.
Whilst not a huge variation, I believe it better for the air outside your fermenter to vary this much rather than the wort.
This will provide a buffer for your fermenting wort temperatures.
If the temperature is measured in the wort, the fridge may cool to say 10 degrees to drop the wort to say 18 degrees and then the cool environment may drag an extra degree out of the wort to balance the temp.

 

[MAX POWER]

Thanks fellas.

I think for now I'll go with the polystyrene on the side.
I do have an aquarium heater somewhere. I might try dig that up to experiment with in the future.

beerforal - I was thinking that as well. The air temp does seem to fluctuate much more than the wort.

 

[MAX POWER]

Ok.

So now I have the probe mounted in polystyrene on the side of the fermenter and everything seems to be working ok.
However, the stick on thermometer on the fermenter says it's 30 degrees.

How can that be? The tempmate is set at 19.

BTW the fermenter is full of water at the moment, not wort. I want to make everything is working properly before I start brewing.

So, should I just ignore the stick on and go with the tempmate? Or....

 

[np1962]

Ok.

So now I have the probe mounted in polystyrene on the side of the fermenter and everything seems to be working ok.
However, the stick on thermometer on the fermenter says it's 30 degrees.

How can that be? The tempmate is set at 19.

BTW the fermenter is full of water at the moment, not wort. I want to make everything is working properly before I start brewing.

So, should I just ignore the stick on and go with the tempmate? Or....

Use a thermometer and chack the water temp then decide which to ignore.
Nige

 

[The Big Burper]

+1

I always have a good quality thermometer in the fridge when using the fridgemate.

2nd opinions are always welcome.

cheers
BB

 

[MAX POWER]

Ok. So i bought a thermometer. Put it in a glass of water and got a reading of 24 degrees, the same as the stick-on on the fermenter.
I turned the tempmate on with the probe mounted on the side, got a reading of 5.8 so obviously the heater turned on.

No good.

So I got a dip tube, mounted the probe in it and submerged it in the fermenter. Again a reading of around 5.8.

Seriously wtf is wrong? This is really staring to p*ss me off.
Any ideas? Should I just ditch the tempmate and ferment at 24?
Is there any other reason this could be off by so much? Dogy probe or something?

 

[zabond]

5.8? or 58? I tested my frigmate by just getting a beaker of hot tap water put a vacola thermometer in it diped my frigmate probe in at same time both read 65*c,what are your frigmate settings? set/max/min /diff,do you have f04 set to 2[heating]are you using a fishtank imersion heater in the ferm now if so what setting is it set to,maybe its set to a lower temp than frigemate so its cutting off too early[5.8*] I run 2 frigmates 1 kegerator 1 ferm frige never had any probs except inatially didn't set the desired temp,thought that if you set max/min with a 1*diff the mid temp would be right,didnt relise that you had to press/hold set only button[not set/up button]to set desired temp,if your tests with therm & probe in same glass differ you may have a crook probe[contact supplier]back on topic I use a 40w globe for heating mounted top back of fridge in freezer space[no direct light onto brew]works fine
good luck
Russ

 

[MAX POWER]

Finally!

Well she's up and running. I've got a light in there for heat and it seems to be doin fine.

Turns out my mate had mixed up the probes from the fridgemate and tempmate.
Evidently they aren't the same. Once I switched them over all was OK.

So simple, yet so stupid.
Oh well. You get what you pay for I guess.

Thanks for the help guys, and thanks to the guys from craftbrewer for setting me straight.
Anyway, time to start brewing.

Cheers