Refrigerator expert help needed for the meat locker

yzzi

So I'm on day 2 of the first dry age run in the meat locker and this is the second day my temp has crept up to 45 degrees when it's set to maintain 34 degrees. Yesterday I thought my issue was a piece of plastic bag underneath, once I removed that it cooled down quickly and held fine. Today I checked and it's doing the same thing except no plastic underneath. It's worked great up until actually putting meat in it, lol. The controller is a set at 2 degrees Celsius and the compressor is on. The compressor delay is set to 3 minutes, is that too long for a fridge?

I'm using this controller
Elitech 110V All-Purpose Temperature Controller+ Sensor 2 Relay Output Thermostat Stc-1000 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008KVCPH2/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_JJQvub0QS05P2

And I wired it by taking out the original fridge thermostat and wiring this in its place. Thanks for your help, I'm getting nervous with this piece of meat being above 40 degrees like this.

yzzi

Btw, the fridge has been running great as far as I have seen. It runs in the garage and the past two days have been the coldest days in Florida. I just went out and adjusted the leveling feet. It was a bit crooked and it's pretty level now.

stv8r

Hard to say what's going on without being there, but as far as a compressor delay goes, they come two ways.  A delay on break (meaning when power is interrupted) is purely to protect the compressor from restarting under a load. A delay on make would be a delay at the beginning of the cycle on a call for cooling.  Either way I can't see where that would make much difference as the box should maintain temps for quite a while as long as the gaskets are good and the door is closed.  If it ran fine prior to changing out the temp controller, then that is definitely your most likely suspect. Could be a temperature differential setting maybe? (how far above the setpoint it allows the temp to get before bringing the compressor on) which is intended to prevent short cycling.  Checking your programming and make sure that differential is set for just a few degrees.  Good luck.

Canugghead

I'm no fridge expert but I've tinkered with my old simple fridge's electrical system many times, not the freon/compressor components though.

What kind of fridge is it?  If it's self-defrost then there's a mechanical timer that kicks in every so often ... meaning the fridge turns off and the defrost heater kicks in, perhaps that's causing the temp spike? It would be neat if you have a Stoker to graph the temp over a 24-hour period. Just my 2 cents.

yzzi

Canugghead said:

I'm no fridge expert but I've tinkered with my old simple fridge's electrical system many times, not the freon/compressor components though.

What kind of fridge is it?  If it's self-defrost then there's a mechanical timer that kicks in every so often ... meaning the fridge turns off and the defrost heater kicks in, perhaps that's causing the temp spike? It would be neat if you have a Stoker to graph the temp over a 24-hour period. Just my 2 cents.

Hmm, that makes sense. I never did bypass or remove that. It's interesting that it happened about the same time yesterday. I'll look that up and check.

stv8r

If its a mechanical defrost timer, it will actuate an electric defrost heater to de-ice (or defrost) the evaporator coil.  In normal operation that would never account for such a temperature rise.  Not trying to troll, only trying to help
:P

yzzi

No trolling! I'm guessing the heater is usually located in the freezer part then? How much would you say it impacts temp?

henapple

@NPHuskerFL‌ can probably help out....

Canugghead

I meant electro-mechanical timer, if it's purely mechanical you'll have to wind it manually 

Another dumb/naive question ... how did you obtain the 45 degrees reading, if it was from the ST-1000 temp probe, was the probe near the defrost heater by any chance?  btw, don't take me seriously, I'm just a curious amateur 

">

yzzi

I was researching the defrost timer and it seems to make sense to me that a 30 minute outage of the compressor not kicking on would allow the temp to rise that high (not from the heater, just the compressor not kicking on for that long). I'm going to turn the fridge off for 30 minutes and see how high the temp goes.....regadless, I'm going to bypass the timer.

yzzi

Canugghead said:

I meant electro-mechanical timer, if it's purely mechanical you'll have to wind it manually 

Another dumb/naive question ... how did you obtain the 45 degrees reading, if it was from the ST-1000 temp probe, was the probe near the defrost heater by any chance?  btw, don't take me seriously, I'm just a curious amateur 

">

I have a weather station sensor inside the fridge on the same level as the meat on the other side as the controller temp probe. Both were high so I'm sure of that.

Canugghead said:

I meant electro-mechanical timer, if it's purely mechanical you'll have to wind it manually 

Another dumb/naive question ... how did you obtain the 45 degrees reading, if it was from the ST-1000 temp probe, was the probe near the defrost heater by any chance?  btw, don't take me seriously, I'm just a curious amateur 

">

Canugghead

I am wondering if disconnecting the heater alone will suffice?

yzzi

Yep, so after 22 minutes of no power the fridge crept to 41 degrees. I'm just going to wire so that the timer is bypassed to always have the compressor on for the controller to fully control.

NPHuskerFL

The controller is a POS but, let's roll with it. Did you set the differential, set point, defrost and dead band. If yes let's go back to basics.

Canugghead

That's cool (pun intended)!  I guess to minimise frost buildup you want to refrain from opening the door too often.

NPHuskerFL

Is the compressor running? Confirmed? Or is it off on thermal overload?

Canugghead

I think OP unplugged the fridge deliberately, to simulate a defrost cycle.

yzzi

The controller is a POS but, let's roll with it. Did you set the differential, set point, defrost and dead band. If yes let's go back to basics.

Hey the controller was $15, but it does work pretty good for now. 

Differential set to .5 degrees C

Set Point: 2 degrees C

I don't have a setting that I know of for the other two things.

yzzi

Canugghead said:

I think OP unplugged the fridge deliberately, to simulate a defrost cycle.

Yep, I unplugged everything for 22 minutes to see how high the temp would rise. It rose to the levels I was getting so I think that confirms the defrost switch is turning on the compressor and letting the temp rise for 30 minutes give or take. It's working like a champ right now.

NPHuskerFL

Canugghead said:

I think OP unplugged the fridge deliberately, to simulate a defrost cycle.

I was getting to that. On the controller it "should" give the option of NO dft cycle. On a reach in cooler it is A not needed and B undesirable. We should have a target temp of 33℉-41℉. I like to set my cut in temp at 38℉ and cut out at 32℉ so during the off cycle the air alone is enough to keep the evaporator coil clear of frost and maintain good temp.

NPHuskerFL

Ok. Good. If it's holding proper temp no reason to reinvent the wheel. Glad it's working brotha.

NPHuskerFL

yzzi said:

NPHuskerFL said:

The controller is a POS but, let's roll with it. Did you set the differential, set point, defrost and dead band. If yes let's go back to basics.

Hey the controller was $15, but it does work pretty good for now. 

Differential set to .5 degrees C

Set Point: 2 degrees C

I don't have a setting that I know of for the other two things.

It wasn't a dis on you just the controller as I've changed out plenty of them. Some of them had a "hidden" tech configuration that would allow it to be fine tuned. If the control didn't come with the specs &/or the way to do this you can call support an and they can help. But, again if it's working. Cool. :-bd

Canugghead

If I may digress, my adventure with fridge ... the freezer section frosted up and the fridge section was warm ... took it apart and found that ... timer, heater, defrost thermostat all OK ... evaporator fan motor dead ... it was a long three-day weekend and I was too cheap to place an emergency service call ...

temporary solution: duct taped a computer fan, operated it with a transformer on timer 

 the fridge ran colder than new!

NPHuskerFL

@Canugghead‌ Love it!!! Improvise,Adapt & Overcome. =D>

yzzi

@NPHuskerFL‌, thanks for the info. I'll have to do more research that. The controller holds temp steady really well. I've had it running since the beginning of July. Now that I have a small fortune of meat in it I've payed closer attention. I think I've caught it both times when the compressor was on the defrost mode for a half hour. I'm going to rewire that and go from there. I originally haven't suspected the controller because both times the temp was high it was in active cooling mode, just the fridge wasn't cooling down. I think I'm being paranoid too. If I screw this up, my wife won't let me drop this kind of cash anytime soon on meat ;-)

yzzi

@canugghead,that's pretty sweet. Good troubleshooting skills! Thanks for your ideas.

CtTOPGUN

 Eliminating the defrost heater or timer is fine for short term. But as the frost builds it will begin to impact temps if self defrost is defeated. Figure 4-7 days before it gets bad enough to affect airflow. A better idea is to load up the box with items(even containers of water) to help stabilize the temps. Use these thermal masses in both the freezer and the refrigerator.

 

  Jim

yzzi

CtTOPGUN said:

 Eliminating the defrost heater or timer is fine for short term. But as the frost builds it will begin to impact temps if self defrost is defeated. Figure 4-7 days before it gets bad enough to affect airflow. A better idea is to load up the box with items(even containers of water) to help stabilize the temps. Use these thermal masses in both the freezer and the refrigerator.

 

  Jim

Hmm, if I knew that 30 minutes ago I would have left it alone. I just bypassed it. We'll see. Maybe if frost becomes a problem I'll put it back in.

NPHuskerFL

With meat (beef & pork) at an all time high I don't believe I would consider it paranoid. That's just smart to keep an eye on your investment. I am anal when it comes to this. I had my new R-I-F set at -10℉ + each time I'd add more meat etc I'd hit the flash freeze for 3-6 hrs. A week into it my bride calls and says hey our Titos is frozen. What :-O ?! So, being inquisitive I actually called Fifth Generation and spoke to a gentleman for a bit and he put this into research with the distillery. He called me back about two weeks later and advised me that yes it was in fact possible to freeze it under these conditions (I had since changed my set point to -6℉ and still hit flash freeze when I vacuum save meat etc and put in the box but, the Titos was no longer freezing up).

Canugghead

@yzzi - what top gun said makes sense, my apology for misguiding you, please keep us posted because I may embark on a similar project some day.

yzzi

Will do. What's done is done. At least it'll confirm temp swing. If it frosts up really bad I'll put it back in. At least I can sleep well knowing my ribeyes okay.