Fermenting fridge advise

[GNU]

I scored a SS fermenter for Xmas to replace one of my plastic FV. Now it's time to setup a fridge for temp control.

Ive got a heat pad, stc and plan on getting 2 small fans to place one in the bottom pointing up and the other in the top pointing down.

I'm concerned that the plastic FV will be touching the back of the fridge, do you think this will cause it to get to cold?

The fridge works intermittently, suspect it's the defrost cycler. Going to speak to a repair guy today. If it can't be fixed for under $100 I'll start looking for cheapie on gumtree.

Which FV should I attach the stc probe to?

 

[Dave70]

If its like mine, thats not how it works. Cold air is forced down from the freezer compartment. The walls themselves are only insulators with no chilling elements.
I leave my probe sitting in a longneck of sanitized water inside the fridge. A check with the laser thermometer confirms its always within a degree or 2.

Nice god dam fermenter you have there.

 

[TheWiggman]

I'd personally attach it to the SS Chronical. The stainless fermenter will transfer heat more quickly so it will chill faster than the HDPE fermenter. Otherwise the temp of your SS vessel will overshoot.
By the looks the evaporator is at the back of the fridge behind the steel panel.
Yes, having it near the back of the fridge will make it cold (because that's the whole idea). A fan or similar will certainly aid in distributing the cold air more evenly. If you don't I would be confident that the HDPE vessel will always be cooler than the SS.

When you say it works intermittently what do you mean? If you turn it on and leave it does it maintain everything inside at 4°C?

 

[GNU]

It maintains a nice sub 5 degrees and then a couple of days later it's sitting 20 degrees. Confirmed this further by leaving a glass of water in the freezer. As some days frozen some days defrosted

 

[TheWiggman]

Odd. Well considering you'll want it around 18 for most brews it's shortcomings may not matter. Could just be the thermostat, which is easy to hotwire if you're setting up a controller.

 

[bookers]

The fisher paykel fridge you have is a frost free, so no problems with the FV touching anything, main problem with those fridges is either a fan in the freezer or in between the fridge and freezer or defrost element in freezer section, been repairing this stuff for 20 years, your problem sounds like an odd one though