Tempmate Or Fiddle With Thermostat?

[RobB]

Sick of my stockpile of bottles and my whinging during every bottling session, SWMBO has practically ordered me to start kegging.

I plan to have the whole system taps and all housed within a chest freezer. I rarely drink more than one, so I want the taps to be cold from the start to avoid foaming.

I am hoping to get some opinions on the best method of temperature control for a chest freezer. A tempmate/fridgemate style of controller is one obvious option, but I have also seen this discussion (14th post) which mentions winding out the existing thermostat until it is set to fridge temperatures (Im looking at about 6-7 degrees to achieve a happy medium between ales and lagers).

Is there any downside to fiddling with the freezers thermostat? If it is as simple as twisting a knob, I could easily reverse the modification should I run into warranty issues. I would probably prefer to go down this path rather than buying another temperature controller and upsetting the seal where I run the probe in.

 

[jonocarroll]

Go the Fridgemate/Tempmate. If you're using a chest freezer, won't you want to build a collar for the taps anyway? In that case, run the probe wire through the collar and leave the seal as-is.

Fridge thermostats seem to be vastly unreliable, and unable to match the dial-in-a-beer-temperature of one of the above controllers.

 

[Pennywise]

I'd go the fridgemate, the cable from the probe is very thin and doesn't break the seals enough to be any concern, and in a chesty the cool air will stay low anyway. Also I'd go the fridgemate because if it's a new unit what's 40 bucks to save any issues on warranty work?

 

[argon]

I'd be going down the tempmate road mate. No fiddling around and has plenty of flexibility if you want to increase/decrease temps. Messing around with a freezer thermostat is just asking for trouble i reckon.

 

[Bizier]

Fridgemate, no question. No need for tempmate, you don't need fermentation level of control, just correct serving temp. Plus it will be easy to change to suit the weather and styles on tap. You will never look back on your decision. Welcome to the rest of your life.

 

[drsmurto]

Fridgemates on my keg fridge and ccing fridge, ebay 'tempmates' on my fermenting fridges.

Cheap and easy.

 

[XavierZ]

Or search on Ebay for :
Mini Digital Temperature Controller Thermostat Aquarium

f

Fridgemate, no question. No need for tempmate, you don't need fermentation level of control, just correct serving temp. Plus it will be easy to change to suit the weather and styles on tap. You will never look back on your decision. Welcome to the rest of your life.

 

[edddy57]

I have a fridgemate on a chesty set at 4 degrees. No problems. Have a wooden collar and I just dangle the probe over the collar and cable isn't thick enough to worry the seal. The freezer hardly has to work as the insulation is better than a fridge and the cold stays at the bottom with a chesty

eddy

 

[RobB]

I kind of knew what the answer would be, even as I was typing my original post. With lots of keggy purchases on the radar, I was trying to wriggle out of yet another item to buy.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[michael_aussie]

No one has actually answered the question whether or not adjusting the freezers thermostat will get him in the right range.
If adjusting the thermostat allows him to run at say 4 degrees, why wouldn't he do that initially??

Until I purchased my controllers I used a max/min indoor/outdoor digital thermometer. It gave me temperature READINGS as accurate as my controller. If you have an accurate READING of the freezer temperature, you can tweak the thermostat until you have your desired temp. After that you should rarely have to touch it.

Follow the KISS principle.