Sirron plate chiller problem?

Yeah, ground water temp is the first thing to check. The water will only being your wort down so far, and of course, not below its own temp.

 

I presume you mean 82 degrees? (the post is reading as 82 percent)
I would say that yes, you did the right thing to put it in the fridge to cool down. the one thing to watch for is the cooling wort and air in there sucking back through the airlock. the couple times I had to do something similar, I put a solid bung in to seal it while it cools, then swapped for the airlock when I pitched yeast.
That all said, in this case, 6 degrees isn't a huge variation, and as long as it got down there, you probably could have just pitched and put it in your fermentation area (presuming the temps there are right)
There's a couple ways in the future to ensure your chiller gets it down. First, I would say to check the incoming water temp before starting to chill, and if it is significantly warmer, you'll want to supplement the chiller, probably with ice.

 

something is not right here.

there is no way your well water is 82 degrees. not in New Jersey or anywhere. ever.
but, your holding tank may possibly be at 82 degrees. that is also very unlikely. do you live in a sauna? and if your well water is 82, then you couldn't have cooled the wort to 74, right?

i think your thermometer is fubar. get a new one. preferably one that costs more than three dollars. Taylor makes some fine dial thermometers for food service that are rugged. if you are serious you want a Thermoworks Thermopen or RT600C.

Cheers.

 

+1 on a faulty thermometer. As billandsuz said, there's not likely your ground water - tap or well - is 82 degrees, especially in New Jersey. And, even if it was, there's no way 82 degree water can chill your beer to 74 degrees.

 

I have to run my ground water through a copper immersion chiller sitting in a bucket of ice water before going to my Shirron plate chiller in order to get the wort down to pitching temps, especially during the summer.