So, I'm on my way to building a keezer, and I always wondered how one adjusts the freezer's temperature control to deliver cold delicious beer. Most plans require a secondary thermostat to override the factory thermostat, which usually costs $20-$100. Turns out you can simply hack the factory thermostat's coarse adjustment screw and essentially convert your freezer to a refrigerator.
I learned this from a homebrewtalk.com post:
Typical keezer conversion instructions shown here on HBT and elsewhere indicate that an external temperature controller is required. However, this is not true. The frugal and patient DIYer can spend that money elsewhere.
The vast majority of chest freezers used for keezer conversions utilize a simple internal electromechanical thermostat. These thermostats are preset by the factory to operate with a typical range between -20F and 20F depending on the position of the user accessible dial. Keezer temperatures are in the 40F range, depending on taste. It is the inability to readily set the internal thermostat to keezer appropriate temperatures that drives the need for an external thermostat.
What is not widely known is how these electromechanical thermostats work, and that these internal freezer thermostats have a coarse temperature adjustment screw which can be used to widely adjust the temperature setting of the thermostat, even above freezing to keezer temps. The coarse adjust screw on the unit pictured above is in the 5 o'clock position relative to the fine adjust dial shaft. They are usually recessed within the unit and may be covered with tape. Some units have them on the side, but I have yet to find one without a coarse adjustment screw.
Submitted September 09, 2015 at 12:30AM by c_r_a_s_i_a_n http://ift.tt/1XHvHMl Homebrewing
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