FV temp monitoring in an insulated enclosure - to thermowell or not, that is the question.

[stripeyjoe]

Hi all,
On my latest brew, fermenting in an All Rounder in a fridge with a 40w tube heated controlled by an InkBird, I did an experiment…
Day 1: temp probe in thermowell, approximately in centre of FV.
Day 2: temp probe stuck to the side of the FV with bubble wrap over the top.
this is the temp chart:

You can see that the thermal mass of 19l of wort causes large swings and overshoots as, by the time the wort at the centre of the FV has reached the correct temp, the rest has cooled down or heated up too much.
Do others see this behaviour and, in an insulated enclosure, is it better to be reading the average temp as, over time, the wort will be trending to that? Any heat generated by the fermentation will also add to the average temp inside the enclosure and, if it goes too high, the cooling will kick in.
I have my inkbird set for +/- 1C with a 10 min delay on the refrigeration.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

I was intrigued to see the responses, then I saw there were none where do you take your readings from now?

 

[stripeyjoe]

I still use the temp probe taped to the side, under some foam. I stopped using the lid with the thermowell in as more to clean!

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Good to know. That's what I have been doing with my normal bucket-type FVs but have just got an allrounder with thermowell.