Broken Shelf Cooler?

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PeeBee
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Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by PeeBee » Thu Nov 05, 2020 1:47 pm

A few weeks ago I fitted a temperature monitor in my shelf cooler's water bath. It was working.

A few days ago I was preparing the cooler for a new batch of beer (it manages the fermentation temperature). It was stuck rigidly on 17°C. Blast, it's bust. Fortunately the ambient temperature was about right anyway and continued without the cooler. Double blast because I had a shelf cooler fail on me only couple of years ago and had to replace it. Today I tried it again. I was reading 17.8°C, and after a few minute it was reading 16.0°C so it looked hopeful. Half an hour later I looked again … 17°C. Damn! A couple of minutes later it was reading 18°C. *$%?*@!

Eventually it dawned on me. The most likely component in this scenario was failing! This post is a lesson in fault finding, so: Bonus quiz question … who can confirm which component it was?
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

guypettigrew
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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by guypettigrew » Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:05 pm

The temperature monitor! If the cooler was doing hat it usually does--compressor noise, impeller noise etc. Which it must have been or you'd have noticed.

Guy

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PeeBee
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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by PeeBee » Thu Nov 05, 2020 7:55 pm

guypettigrew wrote:
Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:05 pm
The temperature monitor! If the cooler was doing hat it usually does--compressor noise, impeller noise etc. Which it must have been or you'd have noticed.

Guy
Nope! The clue is in what I've written. I do tend to be quite precise where I can.

It makes all the right noises, and appears to be performing right (the beer in the fermenter has dropped to 16-17C from 20-21C). I thought I'd turn it into a bit of entertainment as a break from Covid19 virus and flippin' Trump.
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

richard080561
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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by richard080561 » Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:11 pm

Your eye sight has failed?
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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by guypettigrew » Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:59 pm

So, you're saying the cooler was working fine, and the temperature monitor (is that a fancy word for thermometer?) was working fine.

But you're also confusing things by saying 'the cooler....was stuck rigidly on 17°C' in the OP. And suggesting the shelf cooler had failed.

If the temperature monitor in the cooler bath hadn't failed, and the cooler was apparently working OK, then the next possibility for the shelf cooler not getting the ice bath down to approximately zero id because you'd blocked the air inlet to the cooler.

Unless your description is deliberately misleading. Fake information, to paraphrase a well known US president!

The other possibility is you'd forgotten to top up the water bath before turning the cooler on. Human error which you're surely not capable of!

Guy

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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by Jocky » Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:38 pm

The display?

Or was the water bath empty?
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.

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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by PeeBee » Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:51 pm

Okay, getting close now! I posted this because there is something to be learnt. And some people could do with that lesson.

The broken component was …
Capture.JPG
Capture.JPG (10.46 KiB) Viewed 2111 times
My description had "I was reading 17.8°C, and after a few minute it was reading 16.0°C" and later "Half an hour later I looked again … 17°C".

What has happened to the decimal place? I spend days consumed by anxiety and the belief my ability to brew beer is sliding away, and all I'm doing is ignoring a decimal point. 1.7°C rather than 17°C is a lot healthier.



But there does remain a problem. The cooler just keeps running and it doesn't get cooler so never cuts out. There's no ice forming, it just runs and runs. Gawd knows what's up with it, but it doing the job I got it for so I just let it be.
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

richard080561
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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by richard080561 » Thu Nov 05, 2020 11:54 pm

PeeBee wrote:
Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:51 pm
all I'm doing is ignoring a decimal point. 1.7°C rather than 17°C
Are you saying that I was right when I said your eye sight is failing?
Richard M
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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by Trefoyl » Fri Nov 06, 2020 3:21 am

516B0481-F5CD-454C-A68F-CEC4C6977BFA.jpeg
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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by PeeBee » Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:48 am

Trefoyl wrote:
Fri Nov 06, 2020 3:21 am
:)

But I'd be wrong blaming me screwy head, or me screwy eyes (or over indulgence with the home-brew!). The moral behind this is you think what you see, you do not necessarily see what your eyes really can see! "Magicians" make very good use of this human "defect". Don't let it ruin your beer.
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by guypettigrew » Fri Nov 06, 2020 3:00 pm

Doesn't explain what's wrong with the cooler, though!

Guy

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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by richard080561 » Sat Nov 07, 2020 12:42 am

guypettigrew wrote:
Fri Nov 06, 2020 3:00 pm
Doesn't explain what's wrong with the cooler, though!

Guy
Nothing's wrong with the cooler. It's just a very convoluted way of saying that @PeeBee misread the temperature display.
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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by guypettigrew » Sat Nov 07, 2020 9:09 am

richard080561 wrote:
Sat Nov 07, 2020 12:42 am
guypettigrew wrote:
Fri Nov 06, 2020 3:00 pm
Doesn't explain what's wrong with the cooler, though!

Guy
Nothing's wrong with the cooler. It's just a very convoluted way of saying that @PeeBee misread the temperature display.
Yes there is, PeeBee said;
PeeBee wrote:
Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:51 pm

But there does remain a problem. The cooler just keeps running and it doesn't get cooler so never cuts out. There's no ice forming, it just runs and runs. Gawd knows what's up with it, but it doing the job I got it for so I just let it be.
It's not forming ice, not getting the ice bath to the temperature it should be and it's not turning off. Sounds like a problem to me!

Guy

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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by richard080561 » Sat Nov 07, 2020 10:04 pm

guypettigrew wrote:
Sat Nov 07, 2020 9:09 am
richard080561 wrote:
Sat Nov 07, 2020 12:42 am
guypettigrew wrote:
Fri Nov 06, 2020 3:00 pm
Doesn't explain what's wrong with the cooler, though!

Guy
Nothing's wrong with the cooler. It's just a very convoluted way of saying that @PeeBee misread the temperature display.
Yes there is, PeeBee said;
PeeBee wrote:
Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:51 pm

But there does remain a problem. The cooler just keeps running and it doesn't get cooler so never cuts out. There's no ice forming, it just runs and runs. Gawd knows what's up with it, but it doing the job I got it for so I just let it be.
It's not forming ice, not getting the ice bath to the temperature it should be and it's not turning off. Sounds like a problem to me!

Guy
May be it was getting down to temperature but PeeBee misread the temp. May be it isn't meant to from ice when working at the set temp. Maybe the ambient temp was such that it had to remain on to maintain the desired temperature.
Richard M
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Re: Broken Shelf Cooler?

Post by guypettigrew » Sun Nov 08, 2020 9:47 am

Guess we'll have to wait for PeeBee to drop by again to find out what's really happening!

Guy

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