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do you think you actually could fit a carboy in there Kyle ?

I believe someone on here has a similar setup.

Dirt Chicken wrote:do you think you actually could fit a carboy in there Kyle ?

It looks to be wide enough.

The depth of the basket and chamber in the pictures looks like it's the height of a wine bottle, not much more.
If you could make it fit a carboy it would be very cool.

I just bought this sucker today - it holds a carboy to a level that all the liquid would be contained. I think if I insulate the top, it'll be kick ass. Built in temp control too - provided it can keep up with fermentation...

Jayme wrote:I just bought this sucker today - it holds a carboy to a level that all the liquid would be contained. I think if I insulate the top, it'll be kick ass. Built in temp control too - provided it can keep up with fermentation...

How much did you end up getting it for?

I just paid the asking price. It was in mint shape, and I looked - it was in fact $400 something new. I don't mind paying asking price in those sort of situations.

True. Especially isn't bad if the built in temperature controller works to stabilize the temps!

That's my hope! And if not, no big deal - I'm in the midst of building a couple temp controllers for 2 other fridges anyhow. This 2 bdrm apartment is getting crowded..

Jayme wrote:This 2 bdrm apartment is getting crowded..

I feel your pain. I've got my 2 tower kegerator in our living room & the fermenting fridge in the dining room....

Awesome, dude. I'd love to see it some time. To make it really cool you could also get this and put the fridge inside it.

Hahaha I would 100% do that if the R2-D2 was maybe $40... I'll let you know when I get it up and running. Where the carboy top sticks out a bit, I think I'm going to build a lexan cover with a gasket to just fit around it. The nice thing about the ring around the side, is a glass for blow off should fit in the little condiment rack. It's on wheels too!

I have bubble wrap type insulation if you want to do a quick and dirty top to get started.

Sandy

Just thought I'd give an update on this thing... Got it hooked up on the weekend. First issue was I realized I can't use the internal temp controller for ales - the highest is goes is 15C... Which is fine since I have 2 more of the aquarium temp controllers that just need to be put in cases. So I have assed got one geared up to work (only to realize there must be multiple models of those cheap aquarium controllers... the 220V version that I'm using now can go as low as 0.3C swing - this one is 1C which I'm not happy about! I'll probably be selling those soon if anyone is interested..) At any rate, I got the controller hooked up, put bubble wrap around the carboy, it turned on and right away the temp started to drop. All good, went to bed. Got up the next morning to see the thing sitting at 20C (set for 18C). I came to realize if you kill power to the cooler, it doesn't come back on automatically - you have to press the power button again! Yeeeearggggg! Sooo this thing is going to be pretty much useless, unless I only use it for lagers and can trust the internal temp control. Alternatively, I could try to open it up and put the external temp controller across the compressor AC line so it doesn't cycle the power to the control circuitry every time. Sigh. Can't win them all I guess!

Interesting. Just thinking. You could also add a heat belt to the carboy and plug that into a power bar along with the chamber power. Then plug that into the heating side of the controller. That would give you the boost you need to do ales.

Yeah I thought about that... It would be an efficiency nightmare though! And I'd have to be sure the heat belt is powerful enough to bump it up by 3C with the cooler still going. It might be a short term solution though. I'm just glad I tried it out on a beer that was already through primary fermentation the night before I was going to put a new beer in it! Otherwise I wouldn't have known about this little kink..

Jayme wrote:I came to realize if you kill power to the cooler, it doesn't come back on automatically - you have to press the power button again!

You should have bought C3PO as well. He could stay up all night and kick R2D2 when he falls asleep.

This is true. Perhaps I can just force Gavin into a C3PO costume and get him to do it

Jayme wrote:I came to realize if you kill power to the cooler, it doesn't come back on automatically - you have to press the power button again!

Do you think you could open it up and short out the power switch?

Either that or disconnect that switch and insert a relay off the 115vac.

Sent from my Nexus S

It's a momentary push button. Without opening it, I assume it's got some sort of a micro controller in there that's looking for a pulse. I think though if I just trace the relay or whatever they've got in there turning the compressor on and off, I could patch in there. The other thing about the control portion is it resets with the power also. Not that it should be a big deal as I'm using temperatures above the maximum any how. Though I may at some point use it for a lager. At any rate, I think the internal controller would best be left on all the time. I'm going to move the beer out sometime this week and see how easy it will be to open up.

Nice alarm clock Jayme!!

Jayme wrote: