I am getting ready to brew next weekend and I have a chest freezer that I want to use for fermentation for the first time. I just bought a new Johnson A419 and it's all wired up and ready to go. But I have a question on it before plugging it in and trying it out before I brew. It comes with factory settings for cooling (jumpers). I want to set it at 68F. Do I change the jumpers in it for heating mode cut-in at setpoint, heating mode at cut-out or leave it at cooling cut-in? Also, do I need to do anything else to the freezer when I plug in the A419? Thank you.
The only time you need to change the jumpers to heating mode is if you are gonna hook the controller up to a heat source (ferm wrap, space heater, hair dryer). I have to do this in my 55 degree basement for ales, but if your fermentation freezer is in a semi warm environment you should be good with the cooling mode. I suggest setting the DIF to the lowest number ( 1 or 2?) which will kick the cooling/heating on when the temp sways 1 or 2 degrees past your SP temp. The instructions are super confusing unless your a nuclear physicist. I also suggest putting some insulation over the temp probe after taping it to the side of the fermenter unless you have a thermowell.
All good advice above. Also, one of the settings adjust how long it takes to turn on after it has just turned off. Not sure what it is called. Mine is set to 12 minutes. If you are trying to get it to kick on, just set it to the temp and leave it be. It may not be kicking on because it is waiting for the set minutes to pass. Learned this the hard way. I thought it was defective. Turned out it was a broken TFO (the frickin operator). I use this. It's leftover pipe insulation. Should last forever or until I lose it. I wanted to share something on Photobucket with you! http://s1275.photobucket.com/albums...D06AFA20_zps96a1000b.jpg&evt=user_media_share
