I am seriously considering starting to keg. I had some money set aside for some other homebrew stuff but after my wife visited the space a few times and was able to pull her own pints she wants to be able to do it at home (I love to see her excited about beer!)
I have a small freezer I can get for free and I have a friend who has a 20lb co2 tank he is willing to loan me indefinitely. What I'm looking at is a temp controller, keg(s), regulator and hoses... what is a reasonable price to pay for these things? Cost is all over the board and after searching I figured you guys would know best.
My other question would be, where do you get your tanks filled and how much is it? My friends tank is in good condition but it does need to be static tested or whatever they do to these things... thoughts? Thanks guys!
Alright, the new controller is in and works like a charm! Looks like my old one was a dud. Now I just need to get my tank filled and wait for my beer to ferment. SO EXCITED!!!
So I ended up sending the guy a picture and he said it was hooked up properly and a new one is on the way as we speak. He said nothing about shipping the old one back which would be nice just cause I don't want to have to take this to the post office. Anyway, new one should be here soon along with my co2 tank and other stuff. Now I just need to brew something to put in these kegs.
You could also use a temporary email account, such as mailinator.com (Not sure if this will allow the use of attachments and they only keep messages a couple hours), or just a throwaway gmail, etc.
Oh... my... god. Why haven't we done this? http://thechive.com/2013/09/17/guys-rig-up-buddies-plumbing-with-beer-wh...
Send him a picture...if you have the correct voltage going into contact 1 and contact 2...then I think you just had some bad luck. At least he is letting you return it - that's good.
That thing should light up if you have power running through it. The rest of the wiring is controlling the switch to power your outlet.
As I said ealier if you have terminals 1 and 2 connected and are reading 110/120 and its still not powering up, you have a dud.
I checked all my connections, took a voltmeter to them and I get power going into the unit, it just doesn't turn on. The ebay guy said he'll send me a new one but wants me to email him a photo at his personal account. Like I said, I don't ebay much and I just don't feel comfortable using my personal email to talk to this guy. I have assured him that I hooked it up right and that others who have purchased this same controller from him and looked at it and said it's right but he wants a picture. Suggestions?
The gorgio and stc models use the same temp sensor I believe. For those sensors polarity doesn't mater. Bill: you are probably using a johnson or ranco. Polarity does matter with thos...PID as well.
Tom: if you have terminals 1 and 2 wired and your sensor it should at least light up...if not you need to look at your cord. If all checks out...you may have a dud.
re-seat your white wire that is in terminal two...in your photo it looks like either you stripped too much back or the wire is out slightly.
hard to do this without the thing in front of you...
Did you use a pre-wired cord...or did you use a cord that required putting a plug on?
sensor wire polarity should not mater.
I was able to zoom on your photos a little bit. It looks like you have everything right (from what I can see). Try connecting the wires so that they are controlling only 1 outlet. Do you get any lights on the controller when its plugged in?
if you have no lights...your not powering it. Terminals 1 and 2 are power....1=black 2=white.
I can't really see that well....is your neutral going to terminal 2 and neutral on the receptacle? Also make sure all your connections are good.
Ahead of you on that one... still do dice.
Bill said:
Actually, I don't think I can send him and image through e-bay and I'm not taking this conversation out of ebay either... looks like he's not getting a picture.
I tried it again with the thermo hooked up, no go. I think I'm gonna send the guy a photo and see what he says.
I had it hooked up, I took it off cause it was in the way but I'll try it again.
The ebay sell, mixtea, said if I send him some pictures and he deems it faulty he will send me a new one... I don't do much ebay, is this the way to go?
connect your sensor wires...
The white are coming out of the main power for the unit and the outlet installed in the box.
I got the stc-1000, 110v.
It's important that you got both the right model (stc-1000 or gorgio) and the correct voltage rating. Is your model a 240V or 120V?
If you followed the wiring diagram correctly...it will work properly. The only other thing I can think of is the model/voltage.
check it against the diagram... If you don't spot any problems take a picture. Also, which model do you have?
Got it, that's what I thought. I've hooked it up to the specifications of the diagram and can't seem to get it to turn on... I have power coming out of the wall but my unit won't turn on. I have the hot coming in to the power in and the cool and directly to the switch. I have the white coming into the power in and to the outlet and the ground to the outlet and my unit just won't turn on.
Hot (black) should connect to the terminal on your receptacle that is labeled <hot>. The reason that the neutral wire is on the bottom screw is because you are energizing both outlets.
question, in the diagrams, the white wire is connected to the opposite outlet... is this how it should be or dose it matter? example, hot wire connects to the left side on top, white connects to the right side on bottom. I only ask because there are two screws for black and two for white.
My boss has tons of old kegging/tap stuff hanging around the House of Glunz but most of it isn't stuff I want to use. I'm gonna see if he has an old brass tap tower or something similar. He has boxes of sanke connectors and taps but they are really old, beat up, and the seals are most likely shot. Right now I'm trying to get him to hand over 3 carboys he has just sitting around and a prohibition era bench capper.
Nice! I just finished my keezer itself (it looks pretty and is dispensing beer). All I need to do now is wire the box which will house the temp controller and I'm all set.
Welcome to kegging!
Progress is being made! I am picking up three kegs today and I just ordered the stc-1000 or whatever it is. Only thing I need now is to get gas and liquid lines, picnic taps for the time being and to get my boss to buy a new c02 tank and regulator so I can borrow them for a really long time. Collar/tower/coffin and taps in the near future but picnics will work for now.
Thanks, Adam, for that link!!!! I've been dragging my feet on my keezer because I didn't know how/where to mount the temp controller (which I, too, purchased on eBay) and this little box seems to be the solution; the link seems to be very clear.
Controller seems doable... what about getting the co2 tank tested and filled? And where do you guys get kegs and how much are they? I'm looking at 2-3 kegs to start with.
one more drawing...
Thomas: this is the one that you will prob use if you go with the stc-1000 and a freezer.
So I had some down time at work...and thought I'd draw up how my controller is wired. I also included wiring for the type of controller that is in the ferm room (Jim this is the controller you have too). So I attached drawings for STC1000 (heating, cooling, heat/cool) and for the Gorgio - which is a single stage controller.
The way that I drew everything up was using a electrical outlet. The power cord pictured in the drawing goes into the wall (standard 120V wall outlet). The freezer plugs into the electrical outlet that you wired.
Let me know if you have any questions...or if you spot something incorrect. I did this from memory between meetings.
Allow me to second David's recommendation. I purchased the "ebay temp controller", also known as the STC1000 or whatever, for temperature control for my fermentation chamber. I put it into a radio shack project box, along with an outlet, according to the instructions in the thread I linked above. Total cost was around $36, plus around 2 hours in labor. Most of that time was cutting the holes in the project box, which was much more difficult than the actual wiring of the controller. I have very limited electrical experience, and I was able to correctly wire the controller on the first shot with the help of the HBT thread. Let me know if you have any specific questions I can help you with.
The way I wired mine, I interfaced an outlet. That way I didn't need to cut the power cord for the freezer. There are two controller outlets. I can plug in a computer fan in the other to help air circulation and create a even climate. The fan turns on only when the compressor is on.
You'll only need to do a little very simple wiring for this...but it does require some.
It seems easy enough without an ssr, just wire the freezer power cord to the controller. Does this unit come with a power cord or do I need to make one?
you shouldn't need a Solid State Relay (SSR) unless you are pulling more than 5amps...check your freezer. It should say on the back near the compressor. I'd guess that you are fine. Most fridges or freezers don't pull over 4 amps.
This will require some very simple wiring. I can post details if you end up buying one.
I installed a similar controller in the ferm room. Only difference is that the ferm room controller is a single stage. The STC1000 I believe is dual.
Temp probe is about 3-4 ft long, if I recall the spec sheet correctly
Does this work just like the Johnson controller? Does it need wiring and an SSR? This seems really cheap for it to be all I need...
How long is the temp probe cord on that one, David?
I like this for temp control