Kombucha brewers

Those STC-1000s... what would brewing be like if they weren't so cheap. I have never seen one with multiple colours on the display before though.

I renovated an ancient fridge with one of those and its funny to see a fridge from the 50's (I think) with an STC1000 and a computer fan to cool the condensor. WIth new wiring its better than ever.

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Harrow said..

FormulaNova said..
Those STC-1000s... what would brewing be like if they weren't so cheap. I have never seen one with multiple colours on the display before though.

I renovated an ancient fridge with one of those and its funny to see a fridge from the 50's (I think) with an STC1000 and a computer fan to cool the condensor. WIth new wiring its better than ever.

It's a STC-3008, which has two independent controllers in the one package. The red and blue don't have any meaning other than there is simply a different colour display for each circuit. Isn't the price incredible for what you get....they've thought of everything....programmable calibration, alarms, even selectable delay intervals between compressor starts. I used to make stuff like this from scratch and you'd pay more for just one of the LED segment displays from Jaycar than this whole thing cost including delivery.

Yeah, its good but its also a bit sad. I still play with electronic kits, but its easier and cheaper to just buy modules now from China and throw it all together.

I think the STC1000s were copied from somewhere originally, but I could be wrong. I think they were originally for aquariums.

In typical chinese knock-off fashion, I had some STC1000s that were 12v operated, and they used different controls to the typical STC1000s even though the case was identical.

Even for Arduinos its cheaper to buy a complete board than it is to use a microcontroller and separate powersupply and oscillator. Its just the way things have gone with mass production.

But back to the controllers themselves, yes, they are pretty good. For homebrew I had one controlling a small fridge with a relay running the compressor and another running an incandescent light bulb as the heater. Temperature stability was excellent and you just set it and forget it.

Going further off tangent, there have been a few projects around using a chest freezer as an efficient fridge, and you can use STC1000s to do that, by just replacing the thermostat with one or just using the freezer as is and wiring the STC1000 before it.

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Harrow said..

FormulaNova said..
Going further off tangent, there have been a few projects around using a chest freezer as an efficient fridge, and you can use STC1000s to do that, by just replacing the thermostat with one or just using the freezer as is and wiring the STC1000 before it.

Haha, great idea....then I could stop yelling at the kids to "close the friggin' fridge door". (Now if only there was a way to deal with them never turning off the lights as well. )

There is a way to do that too. Buy a Samsung Smartthings hub, and their motion sensors. You then need to get some compatible light bulbs.

Now, set the motion sensor up in that room so that when there are people entering it triggers. These things are good as they use Zigbee and can run on a coil cell for a long time. You just stick them in place.

Then set the bulbs up to turn on when there are people present and then turn off 2 3 minutes after their is no motion. Either that or you can set it up to turn on a bulb to remind you to yell at the kids to turn off the friggin light. Whatever works.

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Harrow said..
I just use old Remedy Kombucha bottles for my kombucha brewing and have been placing bottles in my upstairs bedroom to speed up the 2nd fermentation, but I didn't allow for the unusually warm weather we had last week. I wonder how many PSI are needed to do this to a plastic bottle? It felt like solid concrete, luckily I wasn't using glass!

Reminds me of when my dear old mum used to make Ginger Beer, she would place the bottles in the laundry cupboard in an attempt to contain the shrapnel when the inevitable one or two would explode.

Harrow that setup is awesome... can you post some links to what you bought? I have been really keen to do this but get a bit distracted trying to work out exactly what i need.

also - what happens when your fridge is full/ you go away? Can you shove the scoby in the fridge and leave it for an extended period then ramp up again?

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hashbrown said...
Most addictive drink ever guaranteed to lighten your wallet - so please for the financial well being of your family do not sample.

Or make your own for nix.