New fridge hooked up!

[Chris]

The new keg fridge has arrived as of last night after the demise of my previous one all those months ago.

410L LG, 2 years old (still on compressor warranty). Just fired it up, and it's sounding good- my last fridge sounded like a cessna on take-off.

I'm not really planning to fridgemate it, just do the digital thermometer with probes inside. Has anyone else done it this way?

[Chris]

Also, does anyone know where to pick up a cheap, but effective thermometer with temp probe wire?

[Kevnlis]

eBay? I got mine from China for like $15 or something, works quite well!

[rwh]

Mine was $100 (incl. postage) but it's NIST certified.

http://www.extech.com.au/control/products/4039p.php

[drsmurto]

I used a regular mercury thermometer for the first few weeks to see what temps i could achieve with the dial in the fridge. Dont need one after that really.

The link rwh provided has been bookmarked for an eternity waiting for me to finally fork out for one but mainly for use in the mash tun and HLT.

[Chris]

This one is only really for keg cooling at this time, so I only need a cheapie. Might use my brewpot thermometer for a while, but it means opening and closing the door.

[Trough Lolly]

The new keg fridge has arrived as of last night after the demise of my previous one all those months ago.

410L LG, 2 years old (still on compressor warranty). Just fired it up, and it's sounding good- my last fridge sounded like a cessna on take-off.

I'm not really planning to fridgemate it, just do the digital thermometer with probes inside. Has anyone else done it this way?

My fermentation fridge also doubles as a serving fridge - I just hook up the Adloheat THF 0-40C fridge controller and probe (Colin sells them at BYOAH), and use an el cheapo digital thermometer ($24.50) that's magnetically stuck to the outside door to tell me what temp the outside of the fermenter is that I stuck the probe against with bluetack...Quite technical, really!!

The thermometer was bought from ibrew in QLD - http://ibrew.com.au/html/equipment/Thermometers.html

Mind you, after all that shennanigans, I now brew lagers in the garage during winter where it's 10C all day long!!

Cheers,
TL

[Chris]

Got a thermometer from Tandy that'll do the job. It's on velcro patches

Will have to give Col a visit.

[Trough Lolly]

No probs - admittedly the fridge controller is a very unsexy grey box with a rotary dial that you use to adjust the thermostat temp and it means yet another probe cable between the fridge door and seal, but it does a good job and once you've got it stable at 10C or whatever you want, it's reliable and handles up to 10 Amps no probs.

Very handy for hand tool challenged brewers such as me!

Cheers,
TL

[James L]

i got mine from Dick smiths. It has the velcro patches so you can attach it to the door. it even tells you the ambient temp outside too...

[Chris]

That'd be the same one as mine James. Tandy is owned by Dick now, and stock all the same stuff.

[James L]

i also bought one of those fridge/freezer dial thermometers to hang inside the fridge so i can get a comparison. You'd be surprised how different the results can be...

darn scientists always have to do things in duplicate...

[Chris]

I'm calibating atm with my brew thermometer. It's looking pretty even so far, but I'm sure differences will appear.

[Chris]

Do you recon I would need to reinforce the bottom of the fridge? If so, what have other people done?

[James L]

I was thinking about doing that too, as the plastic shelf that came with the fridge is starting to bow,... I reckon a piece of Marine Ply that is wide enough to fit into the slots in the fridge cut to size would be good. nice and sturdy, but i dont know how good it will be if it gets wet. You'd need to drill holes in it to allow for the cool air to travel lower than the shelf level or you could drill a small number of holes to allow for a temperature variation so you can maybe make starters for you lager yeasts (10C).

thats what you were talking about right? reinforcing the shelf? i'm sure the bottom of the fridge (aka the base) will be fine. get some new feet for it if you want. ones with levellers, so you dont have to pull up and redo the paving outside to make it level.

[Chris]

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

I might use some MDF to use as shelves. And drill air holes.

[regan]

i used an iron bar to replace the shelf, it holds 40kg+ without bowing.

[Chris]

That's not a bad idea. Will look into it.