Fridge Temperature Controllers

[Doc]

I picked up an old fridge a few months ago.
I want to setup a temperature controller for it to brew lagers and to do lagering.
What do you guys use as temp controllers?
My LHBS has units for sale but they want $120 odd dollars for them.

TIA,
Doc

 

[GMK]

Doc

Grain & Grape in Melbourne has them for $87.00.

If you order one....please let him know that Ken from Canberra put you onto it.

By the way...once his current stock runs out...they will be going up by 15%.

 

[Wasabi]

Doc,

I use a small digital thermostat that I bought from Jaycar and it was under $40.00. I'll check the part number tonight.

I use it in a non working fridge for brewing in winter, its wired up with a few light globes and keeps the temp pretty constant.

It can be set to normally open or normally closed (according to the chinglish instructions), but mineis set to turn the lights on when the temp drops below X. I think by just using different contacts you can set it to open the circuit if the the temp goes too high.

Mind you it has to sit inside the fridge as it doesn't have a probe arm, so you'd have to disable the thermostat in there and wire the new one accordingly.

 

[Stratis]

Doc

Grain & Grape in Melbourne has them for $87.00.

If you order one....please let him know that Ken from Canberra put you onto it.

By the way...once his current stock runs out...they will be going up by 15%.

I bought one from Grain & Grape at that price last week.

It's doing the job. My only issue with it is that the thermostat can only be set to every 5 degrees. eg, 0,5,10,15,20 etc... , but not in between

 

[BigGameHunter]

Is that one of these. Thermostat, Heating Make your own fermentation box. 0 to 40 degrees C or 30 to 110 degrees C.

 

[BrentonSpear]

BigGameHunter,

I think that it is. I will be getting one of these soon for the freezer conversion.

To the guys that have one from G & G, I assume that the dial is marked in 5 degree increments but if you set the dial between 0 and 5 it will register as it is just a pot resistor?

 

[RegBadgery]

G & G is a great shop - one of the very best.

cheers
reg

 

[PostModern]

To the guys that have one from G & G, I assume that the dial is marked in 5 degree increments but if you set the dial between 0 and 5 it will register as it is just a pot resistor?

Good question. If it clicks between the settings, it'd be a rotory switch and all you see is all you get. If it's a pot, the dial will turn smoothly and they've just marked out the 5 points on the dial.

I made the same mistake once when I first got into photgraphy. I was told to bracket shots by the quarter stop and complained that my lens' aperture ring only had clicks on the half-stop... "You can set the ring between the clicks..."

Um, yeah.

 

[Batz]

I can't remember the brand of mine , but it had temperture fan controller or something similar on the packet.
Very pleased with it, it holds a temp within a couple of degrees , does not click and cost me around $100 up here

 

[Doc]

My lager fridge uses a Johnson Controls thermostat that I acquired through a fellow brewer who managed to salvage them from his work.
The dial allows you to select the temp you want. I find that the temp you get in the fermenter is about 1 deg C higher than you set on the controller when fermentation is active.
I wired it into the fridge in place of the thermostat that came with the fridge.

Here is a picture of the controller.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Doc]

and a picture of it wired in.

Beers,
Doc