Danby Brewers Edge II and LED

[NoodlesWIU]

Here's my question before installing the Brewers Edge II on my new Danby and cutting the wires to the Danby Controller. If I cut the wires as directed in other posts and splice them so the control of the compressor is given to the brewers edge, and then I plug the Danby cord into the female plug of the Brewers edge, wont this shut off the power to the whole unit including the Blue LED on the front of the Danby when the brewers edge reaches its set temp???

I like seeing the LED easily with a reading of the unit's temp without having to look at the back of the unit to check the Brewers Edge II display, which so far I think the Danby LED is pretty accurate, I just want a 1 to 2 degree cycle of the compressor to keep my beer at about 34 - 35 degrees. Instead of the their range of around 4 - 5 degrees I think the Danby is set to cycle the compressor at.

[psychodad]

If you wire it correctly, you will still have the LED display. The only wires you are going ti cut into are the ones after the control board that go to the compressor. The other Danby innards are still powered up.

[NoodlesWIU]

You are correct, you cut the wires that go to the control board, and splice accordingly to bypass that controller, but the problem I am trying to figure out is the power cord for the Danby will go into the female recepticle of the Brewers Edge II right?

Which as I understand it, the female recepticle only becomes Hot (gives power to whatevers plugged into it) when the temperature reaches above the user pre-set temp of the Brewers Edge II.

So technically no power is getting to the Danby for the compressor to run, or the LED when the temperature is at or below the preset temp on the Brewers Edge II because the female recepticle isn't "hot".

So an example would be, I have my Brewers Edge II set to maintain 37 degrees with 1 degree of tolerance. So technically if the internal temp gets to 39, the female recepticle becomes "Hot" giving power to the danby which is now wired to always run the compressor because we bypassed the controller and now the LED is lit. Temp now goes down to 37 as the compressor runs, the brewers edge II shuts off power to the female recepticle which the Danby unit is plugged into. IE no power to the Danby = no LED lit up because whats powering it?

Am I missing something here???

[psychodad]

To easily hookup the Danby to the Brewer's Edge, you will cut and connect the compressor circuit into the incoming AC supply, plug the Danby into the Brewer's Edge and then plug the Brewer's Edge into the wall socket. This will leave you without the LED display.

To preserve the LED display, you will need to cut the cord on the Brewer's Edge, dissect the wires and wire it in as I did my Dayton switch.

I wish I could find the pictures I took when I did mine.

[lunkhead]

The BEII is not the best choice for the danby as it is a plug in contoller and not a wired in unit. The danby will kick on when the BE tells it to but will revert to the higher initial temp setting. But it can be done. It would be best to buy a standard cord 3 prong plug with no connector at the other end, just the black, white and green bare wires at the other end. It would be best to do this at the compressor. Find the red wire coming down from the control board and cut it before it goes into the overload protector. Cap the red wire going to the control board. Take the black wire from the new cord and splice it to the red wire going into the overload protector. Next you need to cut the white wire in the danby near where it comes in from it's power cord. Take these 2 ends and the white wire from the new cord and splice them all together. Put a ring terminal on the green wire on the new cord and screw it with existing green wire where it's screwed to the frame. Plug the danby back into the wall outlet and the dispaly will turn on but the compressor won't because you've rerouted the red wire to the new cord. Plug the new cord into the BEII out plug then plug in the BEII, set the temp, enjoy cold beer. You will have to leave the original danby cord plugged in to power the temp display but it is what it is with this type of controller. But there's no defrost cycle either.

[jaeckleint]

Bypassing the controller will leave the led working only when the BEII is suppling power, off when it cycles off. With the control board bypassed the danby will not revert back to the preset... you took the control away from the danby.

[NoodlesWIU]

jaeckleint - that was exactly what I thought. Though I think I will do the easier of the two methods, and leave out the display. I bought a warranty with it through sam's club so it is my intention to no cut, or drill anything. I noticed in images there is a connector for the circuit to the controller board, I think I will simply pull that apart, and use a piece of spare wire to bridge between the red and black terminals on the adapter to complete the circuit to bypass the controller WITHOUT having to cut and splice any wires.

This way if my Danby ever does crap out, I can simply pull out all my mods, and it looks just like it did when I bought it.

I am a network engineer who works with computers and servers all day so I think im more enjoying the mods and getting that perfection out of the unit than I have been enjoying from drinking the beer that comes out of it yet! *laughs*

[cubby_swans]

Originally Posted by NoodlesWIU

jaeckleint - that was exactly what I thought. Though I think I will do the easier of the two methods, and leave out the display. I bought a warranty with it through sam's club so it is my intention to no cut, or drill anything. I noticed in images there is a connector for the circuit to the controller board, I think I will simply pull that apart, and use a piece of spare wire to bridge between the red and black terminals on the adapter to complete the circuit to bypass the controller WITHOUT having to cut and splice any wires.

This way if my Danby ever does crap out, I can simply pull out all my mods, and it looks just like it did when I bought it.

I am a network engineer who works with computers and servers all day so I think im more enjoying the mods and getting that perfection out of the unit than I have been enjoying from drinking the beer that comes out of it yet! *laughs*

Well, your engineering side definitely shows. Abundantly. I'm a programmer/analyst and work all day on computers too, but I spent $1 + tax and 5 minutes installing a resistor on my Danby, and when I set it to 36, my beer pours at 36.

[lunkhead]

Guess I like to tinker too much. I wanna cut and splice. And have the display work.

[psychodad]

As long as you know what you are doing, you cannot tinker too much.

[str1der]

I always heard if you tinker too much you go blind.

[NoodlesWIU]

Yeah I was an idiot and pulled out the connector for the display as well thinking maybe I can test wiring it another way and noticed it was labeled with the +5V, and a decided to use a DC power supply completely forgetting its +12V power supply and not like my computer power supplies that have +5 and +12.... Yeah I fried the display.......

Not having dirlled anything I quickly ran it back to Sams club, and exchanged it for a new one. They didnt even check that I brought in all the parts! So I kept the full CO2 tank, and have an empty as a spare now. *laughs*

The problem I have with the resistor mod is that the fluctuation of temperature will remain the same in the unit and is several degrees variance with the Danby controller. You set it at 36, and it will fluctuate to 34 or below all the way up to 39 degrees even with a blower setup I have. My goal is to keep the beer line temp at the same temp as the internal liquid temp of the keg. It takes much longer to change the temp of the internal temp of the keg, than it does the beer line because of relative surface area to cool. So if my Keg is stable at 36 degrees, but my temp of the refrigerator's ambiant air goes up to 39 degrees for 20 minutes, that beer in the hose will go up to 39 pretty quick! End results 2 different temperatures of beer, and... FOAM!!! until you have cleared the length of the beer line.

[NoodlesWIU]

PV=nRT baby

[cubby_swans]

Originally Posted by NoodlesWIU

Not having dirlled anything I quickly ran it back to Sams club, and exchanged it for a new one. They didnt even check that I brought in all the parts! So I kept the full CO2 tank, and have an empty as a spare now. *laughs*

SWEET!

The problem I have with the resistor mod is that the fluctuation of temperature will remain the same in the unit and is several degrees variance with the Danby controller. You set it at 36, and it will fluctuate to 34 or below all the way up to 39 degrees even with a blower setup I have. My goal is to keep the beer line temp at the same temp as the internal liquid temp of the keg. It takes much longer to change the temp of the internal temp of the keg, than it does the beer line because of relative surface area to cool. So if my Keg is stable at 36 degrees, but my temp of the refrigerator's ambiant air goes up to 39 degrees for 20 minutes, that beer in the hose will go up to 39 pretty quick! End results 2 different temperatures of beer, and... FOAM!!! until you have cleared the length of the beer line.

At a setting of 36, with the resistor, mine goes from 34 to 37. I've never once seen it above 37 unless I just put in a new keg and/or I had the door open. It's been my experience that these Danby units don't all function the same, but in mine, I don't think there's an adequate amount of time or temperature fluctuation for the beer in the keg or lines to change noticeably. The temperature variations I have are really no different than I would get out of a temperature controller.

[NoodlesWIU]

Thats awesome that that is all the fluctuation you have! Is there a way to install the resistor without cutting anything? IE I want it to look like nothing had ever been changed if I decided to take out the mod. Obviously so I could still have an intact warranty should it break.

Oh also I emailed the Miller Brewing company about a week ago asking what their recommended CO2 pressure was for Miller Lite, and here was the response I got. Basically they are saying anywhere from 14-16 PSI.

-------------------------------

Thank you for contacting MillerCoors.

Miller kegs have an internal keg pressure of 12 - 13 PSI. In general, a minimum of 2 - 3 PSI above the internal keg pressure is required to keep the CO2 in the beer.

We appreciate your interest in our products.

Sincerely,

MillerCoors Consumer Affairs Department

[cubby_swans]

Originally Posted by NoodlesWIU

Is there a way to install the resistor without cutting anything? IE I want it to look like nothing had ever been changed if I decided to take out the mod. Obviously so I could still have an intact warranty should it break.

yep, I have an extended 3 year warranty from Best Buy, so the last thing I wanted to do was cut and solder and potentially void the warranty.

I have pix in this thread of what I did (post #10). Of course, there's no guarantee you'll get the same results. "danby's are like a box of chocolate...."

Very Newbie Mods Danby dkc645BLS

[lunkhead]

Originally Posted by NoodlesWIU

The problem I have with the resistor mod is that the fluctuation of temperature will remain the same in the unit and is several degrees variance with the Danby controller. You set it at 36, and it will fluctuate to 34 or below all the way up to 39 degrees even with a blower setup I have. My goal is to keep the beer line temp at the same temp as the internal liquid temp of the keg. It takes much longer to change the temp of the internal temp of the keg, than it does the beer line because of relative surface area to cool. So if my Keg is stable at 36 degrees, but my temp of the refrigerator's ambiant air goes up to 39 degrees for 20 minutes, that beer in the hose will go up to 39 pretty quick! End results 2 different temperatures of beer, and... FOAM!!! until you have cleared the length of the beer line.

I don't think your going to find this to be too much of a problem. If the line temp gets over 41 - 42 deg you may see some foam. Besides trying to keep 1-1/2 oz of beer (6' of 3/16"ID line) the same temp as the keg, well good luck. The external Johnson Controls controller I use has a +- 2.5 degree temp differential, so I have a 5 degree swing in temp, but after the compressor shuts off the temp will drop another degree. So it kicks on at 38, off at 33 and drops to 32. Beer temp into the glass is 36. That little bit at 38 has not been a problem for me.

[Scott Zuhse]

Miller Lite is a 2.6 v/v (volume) product which exerts 12 PSI @ 38 F. With the two PSI "Push Pressure", apply 14 PSIG to the keg to dispense. Adjust one PSIG for every two degree difference in temperature. Up for warmer, down for colder.