Customer Reviews

Freezer Temperature Controller

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Since my chest freezer dials only allowed for temperatures of freezing and below, or 50 and above, I had no way of keeping my kegs cold enough to where I like my beer (35-40 degrees).
But this device has been outstanding. To limit the frequency of which it turns on, I placed the thermometer in a glass/bottle of water. That way, when the liquid gets to cold, that's when the thermostat kicks in and turns the freezer back on until the liquid is at the desired temp. Also saves the compressor so it's not kicking on as much.

This works!
My hubby and I live 100% off grid, we are using a small solar system, we needed a way to refrigerate our food without draining the battery bank (or our financial bank), in the beginning we simply used a small dorm sized cube refrigerator but that used a lot of power, we didn't use it very often.

I learned about converting a chest type freezer into a refrigerator using an external thermometer and decided to give it a try. We purchased this external thermometer here on Amazon (it's one of the cheapest prices I've found), we already had a small chest type freezer, we hooked it up and in the beginning it ran quite a bit, but once it got down to the temp I set, it shut off and now only runs about a couple of minutes an hour.

The way it works is simple, this is an external thermometer, you place the probe (that copper colored thing) into the freezer box, I placed mine about a foot from the bottom. Next you plug the freezer into the external thermometer, then you plug the thermometer to your power supply, set the temperature of the thermometer and you are good to go. I originally set it on 40F, then later dropped it down to 35F, I have used a point and shoot laser thermometer to test the inside temps of the freezer once it reached my set temp, and it is pretty accurate. Be careful with the probe, it can get kinked, carefully unwind it and place it inside your freezer box, some chest freezers have a drain hole in the bottom, you can run the probe through that, mine didn't have a drain hole so I just ran it in the back through the door opening, the copper wire is small and doesn't interfere with the door closing.

This works great for us, I decided on the non-digital thermometer because typically digital items don't like being hooked up to modified sine wave inverters (though this setup might not be a problem, it's digital timers that really have trouble), and it wouldn't take any extra power or need a separate battery in the unit, I set it on 35 degrees F and it works like a charm. There have been a couple of nights when we didn't have much power (several cloudy days in a row), our system ran low on power and we had to shut it down for the night, the freezer box kept the food plenty cold enough overnight, the next day when the sun came up, we turned it back on and had no problems.

Here are the pros and cons:

Pros:
1. It works great, the unit runs for a few minutes each hour. My dorm-sized cube refrigerator would run for 5-10 minutes every half hour (+/-), more often if I opened the door...

2. It's efficient, since it's a chest type freezer, when I open the lid, the cold air stays inside the box, and being a "freezer" it's much more insulated, think about grocery stores with their open freezer and refrigerated chests, cold air sinks and even without a lid, the food stays cold.

3. It doesn't take up much room, that's important when you live in a small sky castle...

Cons:
1. Being a chest type freezer, opening from the top, it is more of a challenge to store food inside, no shelves, I use plastic baskets, 2 medium sized stacked together and 2 smaller ones stacked together for the bottom of the unit. I just have to get creative about how I put my food in the box.

2. Another drawback to opening at the top, you can't stack anything on top of the unit, at least not for any length of time, you will have to move anything on top before you can open the lid. I placed a table next to the freezer that is the same height, that way I have somewhere to put things that I am placing in and removing from the freezer.

3. Condensation, these freezers do create condensation on the inside, so from time to time I have to take everything out and wipe it dry. I tried keeping towels in the bottom, but that was a mistake, the towels make a great substrate for growing mold and that smells horrible, so no more towels, I just wipe it out once a week or so... I also try to remember to wipe the sides when I'm getting something out of the fridge.

Wretha

Very easy to install - takes only about a minute to set it up. When measuring with a separate, digital thermometer, I concluded the unit is accurate to within 2 degrees Fahrenheit...or perhaps my digital thermometer is slightly off. Regardless, it works great - definitely recommend it for converting old fridges into a kegerator or for use in fermenting homebrew at a specific temp.

This thermostat control is very easy to use. You just plug your refridgeration device of choice in -- I am using a small wine refrigerator that I am using for aging hard cheese that I make -- and set the desired temp on the dial. I have a digital thermometer monitoring the temp inside, and the temp stays just where I want it, within 3 degrees of the set temp. This control unit seemed to have the best price point when I was looking for this product.

I bought this to control the temp of my mini-fridge that I use to lager beer in. Basically you plug this unit into the wall and plug your fridge's power plug into it. The thermostat probe is placed inside the fridge and basically shuts off the power to the unit when a certain temp is reached. Because of the way this unit works, you have to set your fridge to the coldest setting. This unit would also be great to turn a deep freezer into a fridge.

Keep in mind if your fridge isn't capable of getting to the temp you set then it will run all the time and possibly damage the compressor on your fridge. Also keep in mind the probe placement is important. If you put the probe in the fridge next to where the cold air blows into the compartment, its going to kick off the fridge before the entire compartment has reached the right temp.

I'm not using this for home brewing, but to use a chest freezer as my regular household refrigerator. It's much more energy efficient, partly because the cold air stays in place when you open it, and partly because it's better insulated. Until manufacturers start making home refrigerators in the chest configuration, the best you can do is trick a freezer into operating at higher temperatures. This product does the job. I stuck the outdoor sensor of my digital thermometer inside to check the temperature, and the dial was right on, with maybe three degrees of fluctuation each way.

If you use a chest freezer as your main refrigerator, be sure to get one with lots of baskets! Another issue is condensation. Upright fridges typically catch the water and drop it into an evaporation pan. Freezers don't have this, but they do have a drain hole. I keep the drain hole open all the time and stick a rag where the water comes out, and then use the rag to clean the floor.

This controller is being used to raise the temperature of the fridge in our garage so that my husband can carry on with his home brewing throughout the summer. It's that awkward time when nowhere in the house is cool enough, but the fridge in the garage is too cold. This controller is running the fridge consistently at a steady 67°F - just right for his ESB. He's delighted!

I bought this item so I could use a dysfunctional deep freezer as a brewing fermentation fridge. I set the controller at 68 degrees, and every time I opened to freezer to check my fermentation, the temperature gauge in the freezer read 68 degrees. Excellent control and super easy to use. I've only had it for a month, but it's been great. Hope it lasts a long time. I plan to do a lot of brewing!

This is the 2nd freezer control I've purchased and they are great. I homebrew and use one for a fermentation chamber, and one for a kegerator. The item is a bit pricey, but it works great. The only issue I have found is that the thermometer is off by a few degrees. I.E. I set the control at 40 degrees, but the internal temp of the fridge is closer to 43,44. Its no big deal as long as you are aware of it. I just take that into consideration when setting the temp.

I bought this controller to control the temperature of a non frost-free refrigerator for fermenting homebrewing. I've been using this for several months and found it's a simple set up that works great. I did find the temps in the frig would overshoot below my set point but found there was a tray used for a baffle between the freezer box and the frig compartment. After I removed the tray, this set up controls spot-on.