Fermentation temp control

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simon12
Hollow Legs
Posts: 445
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2014 2:58 pm

Re: Fermentation temp control

Post by simon12 » Sun Jul 30, 2017 12:40 am

At that volume you will likely not need heating unless the room get seriously cold as fermentation will generate alot of heat and by the time its finished you will want it cold anyway.

drtablet
Sober
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2018 2:30 am

Re: Fermentation temp control

Post by drtablet » Sun Jul 01, 2018 7:32 am

Hi Guy,
I read your reply-post with great interest.
I'm about to setup a MAX210 to cool my fermenter (with an inserted coil). My initial thoughts were - " I How can I use the pump to circulate the cool bath water when I need it while keeping the water bath cool". I thought of somehow activating the pump without the compressor.
I very much like your idea of using an additional separately powered pump and would like to do something similar.
I'd love to tap into your experience with some questions.

1) Can you show me a pic of how to connect the circulation pipes. From your description I imagine plumbing it this way assures the internal pump is not/never activated.
2) What is 12v submersible pump submersed in? Nothing? Is it just an inline submersible pump that's not actually submersed in anything?
Do you have a pic of how this is plumbed in and also the type/model/etc. I'd activate this using a STC with the temp probe inserted in the fermenter.

The 2 Q above are what I'm really interested in, but if you have comments on the additional Q below that would be helpful too.
3) How would you have more than one “line” off this to control two or more fermenters?
4) What do you think about adding a little glycol to the bath to help me cold/crash quicker?

I've just joined this forum specifically because I want to get this right and no one in Australian forums I can find have the level of experiences in this, at least with a MAXI 210/310.

cheers,
Craig
Blue Mountains - Australia



[quote=guypettigrew post_id=819746 time=1501078899 user_id=5521]
Let me have a little rant about how people use Maxis, please?

This is my experience of using a Maxi, having come from a position of complete incomprehension about how they worked a year or so ago. Much helpful advice was provided on this forum and I finally bought a second hand one. I developed a way of using it to control the fermentation temperature and to allow for fast chilling at the end of fermentation.

Turning the compressor on and off is not the best idea. Firstly it doesn't do the compressor any good. Secondly, if it's off for any length of time the ice bath will melt and no way will it get back down to temperature fast enough.

The compressor produces an ice bath at about -0.4C. There are cooling coils (three in the case of the Maxi 310) sitting in the ice bath.

The coils in the ice bath need to be the source of cold water for the coils in a ferrmenting vessel, not the python pump outlet on a Maxi.

Here's how I do it. Water is pumped to the input pipe on the Maxi so it goes through the chiller coil. The output pipe from the Maxi is connected to one side of the coil in the FV. The cold water flows through the coil in the FV, back into the pump and back into the chiller coil again. It's easy enough to set up as a closed circuit once the air is purged.

I use a 12v submersible pump to run the system, controlled by the temperature controller from Ss Brewtech. This turns the pump on and off depending on the temperature in the FV. The hysteresis setting on the system is variable. Mine is set to give +/- 0.5C. Good enough for me.

Doing it this way means the Maxi is left on all the time and the pump just comes on when the temperature in the FV gets too high. There's always an ice bath, there's always water at just below 0C available to go through the chiller coil in the FV.

This doesn't allow alternating hot or cold water to be pumped through the coil in the FV, but the Ss Brewtech chronical system provides for a separate heater pad at the bottom of the FV, also controlled by the temperature controller.

As an aside, the heating function on the US 7 gallon chronical is provided by a 60 watt heat pad round the conical base. This can, possibly, be scaled up for larger volumes.

Hope someone finds this useful!

Guy
[/quote]

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