Safety advice for fermentation fridge

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consum
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Safety advice for fermentation fridge

Post by consum » Mon Feb 11, 2019 12:21 pm

Hello all,

I have just finished off my fermentation fridge using an stc-1000 for temp control and am wondering if my method is safe enough. In order to make it suitable for cold crashing I bypassed the thermo control unit by pulling the compressor and door light connection spades out of the thermometer and placing all three side by side and double shrink wrapping them together. I decided to go this route because I dont want to permanently alter the internal workings and figure someday I can just cut the shrink wrap and reconnect the compressor and light the the thermometer. I used the diagrams on this: https://www.brewpi.com/fridge-hacking-guide/ page to help.

So I'm wondering if having placed the spades side by side in contact and shrink wrapping them is safe enough? It is cooling as I type and there appears to be no residual heat being produced at the shrink wrapped connection...but it is in a cold fridge so not sure if thats the safest way to check...

Any advice?

Heres a pic:
photo_2019-02-11 11.17.28.jpeg

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themadhippy
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Re: Safety advice for fermentation fridge

Post by themadhippy » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:32 pm

if youve only placed them side by side and relying on the heatshrink to keep them in contact then its not ideal,why not cut off the crimps and use bit of terminal block,if you need to restore the fridge replacment crimps are cheap
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Kev888
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Re: Safety advice for fermentation fridge

Post by Kev888 » Wed Feb 13, 2019 11:30 am

Yes as themadhippy says, it isn't great; I wouldn't be happy with it myself.

If you 'really' don't want to remove the spade crimps, then make a short wire link with two male crimps. Or get a 'piggy back' male that lets two females connect to it. and insulate all of course.
Kev

Mattpc
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Re: Safety advice for fermentation fridge

Post by Mattpc » Tue May 14, 2019 9:00 pm

I don't understand why it needed to be this complicated. Surely you have a heater of your choice attached to the heat side of the STC and the mains plug of the fridge attached to the cool side of the STC. No internal modifications required?! Or am I missing something?

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Kev888
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Re: Safety advice for fermentation fridge

Post by Kev888 » Tue May 14, 2019 9:12 pm

The OP mentioned making it suitable for cold crashing, i.e. chilling after fermentation in order to help the beer clear. You would be quite correct in thinking that this will still work at fridge temperatures, so yes no modification is really needed. However, it takes longer than if the beer is very cold (disproportionately longer) so many people do bypass the fridge thermostat in order to get it colder than normal.
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Re: Safety advice for fermentation fridge

Post by Mattpc » Tue May 14, 2019 9:15 pm

ok I thought I might be missing something. Thanks for clearing that up.

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