repairing a Cornelius Maxi 310 cooler

OUCH!! thats a lot!! im totally unaware of the regulations, so will keep my fingers crossed for you, when you arrive let it stand for 12hours+ to let any coolant settle with gravity after transit before you test it

they can be a bugger to drain of water too. if your thinking of siphoning it out, dont get a mouthful of it as its probably foul.. good luck..

Was able to check it in on the flight, no problems. Got it safely over to Argentina, with a couple of dents in the side, but works fine!
Anyone know how to adjust the thermostat on these? I see this machine was used for Carling Premiere before, so assuming it's set to around 7 degrees oC, but i see no where to change it on the thermostat.
Had an idea to try using it to cold crash the beer we make, but thinking about it it's probably not gonna be big enough to bring 250 liters of beer to 4 degrees.. Probably stick to making a home made walk in fridge with a window AC unit.

Generally the shelf chillers run for a couple of hours or more building up an ice wall within the waterbath, so the waterbath maintains a circa 0C temperature and the icewall provides a reserve for when demand is high. If used like this the only control on temp you have is the speed of flow through the hex coils and the option to slow or rurn off the recirc/agitator.

For personal domestic use i find running to build up an ice wall is OTT and only need to run for a short period to drop the waterbath to 0C without any ice wall build up, This provides plenty of chill for an evenings sampling

If in a domestic environment then replacing the thermostat to set a custom target waterbath temp should be fine, that with flow control to limit the speed the beer flows through the hex coils should allow you to hit any serving temp you choose.

If you end up running the compressor to chill for just short periods its worthwhile considering wiring the recirc or agitator with a simple on switch you can throw during a pour to maximise the chill effect and minimise the hot pocket effect, depending on target serving temps..

The maxi is working nicely, given it a few test runs for 5 hours or so and seems to keep going.. the agitator motor was making a funny noise but i sprayed the motor with some oil and seems to be quieter now..
Was wondering, as i'm about to set it up to cold crash my beer with an external coil around the fermenter and insulation, are these machines capable of being left on for a few days, maybe even a week whilst i'm cold crashing? I'm worried about that agitator motor burning out.

they are designed to run 24/7/365..

Fil said:

they are designed to run 24/7/365..

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Out of interest if they are meant to run 24/7 what is their power consumption. Ie watts p,/h?

I have a maxi 110 used for chilling a fermenter that stoped working, every thing seems to work it just doesn't get cold. Anytone have any ideas? Blade where are to in the country if you can help?

Godsdog said:

Out of interest if they are meant to run 24/7 what is their power consumption. Ie watts p,/h?

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I donth think these are A or A+ rated products for energy efficiency when used conventionally and it depends on the use they get (volume of beer poured through), the waterbath containing an ice wall is insulated so it retains the cold mostly, the ice wall works as a cold sink due to the extra energy required to shift from solid to liquid state.

the chiller i use for serving gets a quick 30-45min run of an early evening which is sufficient to reduce the waterbath temp to 0C and is sufficient to chill more than i can sup of an evening, if entertaining i may run it more conventionally, in which case it can run for 3 hours+ to form an ice wall before cutting off, only cutting back in when sufficient ice has melted to trigger more chill.

So if comparring to running a keg fridge, as your unlikely to be in n out of a keg fridge daily i think the manufacturers running guide costs should be a pretty fair representation unless built by a car manufacturer

and compare that to the cost of running for 3/4 of an hour at full pelt each evening you fancy a few beers, and factor in running for the duration of any parties you host.. but if supping 3-4 evenings a week during the spring/summer imho modest running of a shelf chiller can work out quite cost effective compared to the 24/7 running of a fridge

My kegs sit in an outhouse so benefit from a natural chill in the shade most of the year, so 3-4 months per year i need to switch the chiller on a lil in advance of running,

if planning on running like me its advisable to wire the agitator or recirc pump up to run independently of the main power so you can run it durrin a pour to maximise the chill effect and avoid hot pocketting the effect of heating the water sat around the tubes

a segment timer to turn the thing on in advance of your arrival of an eveing works well, or for less than a fiver you can buy a sonoff wifi switch to turn on/off a a/c power switch via the web/mobile phone as you head off home.. ( and if adventerouse you can reprogram the esp8266 at the heart of the sonoff device , but tbh it works pretty well out of the box ..

https://www.fasttech.com/product/4586500-sonoff-wifi-wireless-smart-switch-for-mqtt-coap

My post on P1 of this thread is about using an MF re-circ cooler through cooling pods, whilst having a 'dead' Maxi 110. I now have to confess that I got fed-up of old tat from Ebay/wherever, 9 parts dead after years of use in some pub cellar.

I kept my cooling pods, and got a small worktop freezer from a Gumtree ad. It just about fits into the space available. I put in the largest container I could fit into it - about 15L - and filled it with water. A submersible pond pump in the container circulates the coolant around the pods - pipes taken through the skin above the compressor. A control unit fashioned from a WH7016 and a project box maintains the temperature.

Result is cold beer from kegs kept at room temp, and a system where I can understand/repair/replace the different parts without needing a refrigeration engineer. I don't care how 'Heath Robinson' it sounds - it works!

Cheers
Chris

Hi, going back to an old thread here.. but I'm currently using my maxi 310 to cold crash a 300 litre fermenter by recirculating the water through an immersed stainless steel tubing inside the fermenter.
Problem is I can only get the beer down to about 6 oC, but need it to go closer to 1oC to effectively drop all the yeast and proteins out of this particular beer.
Does anyone have any instructions as to how to convert it to glycol? I have an inkbird temp controller could use to override the current thermostat, but no idea where to connect it on.the maxi 310.
Any help much appreciated!

Its not that tricky, but has a few risks attached.

place the temp probe either in the waterbath ensuring you dont foul the recirc pump inlet. Or inline in the coolant feed to the IC hex (close to exit from the chiller).

then simply add the glycol, trying to keep it at a level and temperature that doesn't get too viscose and thick as this can labour the recirculation pump and result in premature wear and failure.. Afaik Pump wear is the #1 mechanical risk, Toxic glycol getting into the brew is the other risk worthy of consideration of course.
Last time i looked an ebay 'refurbished 2nd use pump was circa £40...


i assume you have the fv lagged with insulation, perhaps look at upgrading it and the coolant pipe wraps?


and step down to colder temps by 1-2 degree increments or finer, checking the viscosity of the coolant, and listen for pump strain.

as for ideal dilution rates i cant help there but im sure google will

Actually we have a stainless steel tube that's immersed in the fermenter which we circulate water through from the maxi. The fermenter is insulated with 3 layers of 1cm thick insulation foam.
Do you happen to know how to rewire the maxi? ie the wires from the thermostat that switch on or off the compressor? That's all i'd need to control right? Plan would be to try and drop it to around minus 2 or 3, without burning it out!

if your not confident with a multimeter determining the internal wiring its probably not a good idea to have a go..

the compressor should have a neutral and earth connection you can trace back to the power in lead. the live feed (brown wire from the power in lead) to the compresor will be switched by the thermostat and probably turned into a black wire by the time its connected to the compressor. So to power the compressor by a ndary controller, wire live from the mains supply through the new controller to the live terminal on the compressor.

Dont forget the agitator or recirc pump, whichever fitted will also be switched on its live connection.

but if not 100% confident get a sparky to do it.. btw im not qualified in anyway to give electrical advice...