Dorm Fridge for Fermentation Chamber?

I've seen a lot of posts about people creating a boxed chamber with a dorm fridge but what about just using a dorm fridge if you can fit a bucket in it?
I can fit an ale pale in this small fridge I have but I would have to bend up the freezer portion a little bit. I'm planning on buying a digital temp. controller.

Is there any reason this wouldn't work? Wouldn't it be very efficient compared to using a full size fridge (I realize it's a trade off for space limitations).

I wouldn't be able to fit an airlock on the fermenter but would that be a real issue? Would the freezer portion cause any issues being so close to the top of the bucket? It just one of those small freezer portions to slide ice cube trays into. I guess I'm just looking for some practical advice on why this would or would not work. Thanks!

I haven't done it myself but I know there is at least one thread on here where someone converted a dorm firdge to a kegerator, and had to bend the freezer part up. From what I gathered, you need to do it when it is warm (pipes aren't brittle), and go very slow and careful, if you break one of the pipes in the freezer portion, the whole thing is toast.

I'm looking for a dorm fridge to do the same thing as you right now.

depends on the size; on mine I only had to remove the door shelves and inside shelves. Bucket or carboy, with airlock, just fit under the freezer portion. Sanyo Eclipse bought a few years ago at CostCo.

This is exactly what I did a few weeks ago. I buddy of mine gave me an old dorm fridge he found while trash picking. I took the freezer hardware out and just straightened out the metal freezer/cooling plate. Also had to take off the door shelves to get the door to shut with the carboy in it. Added a temp controller.

Just gave it a trial run last week and so far so good. Fits a 6 gallon BB carboy with an airlock.

Be careful to actually put your fermentation vessel inside the fridge first to make sure it fits. On most dorm fridges, the compressor hump on the bottom keeps it from fitting a carboy, so they won't work.

Eric

With a quick trip to Home Depot or Lowes, you can turn a dorm fridge into THIS:






I also connected a small heater/fan and a LOVE controler to me FREE craigslist dorm fridge. It's a pretty simple yet extremely useful DIY project.

that's pretty cool!

erikrocks said:

With a quick trip to Home Depot or Lowes, you can turn a dorm fridge into THIS:

I also connected a small heater/fan and a LOVE controler to me FREE craigslist dorm fridge. It's a pretty simple yet extremely useful DIY project.

Click to expand...

That's pretty sweet man. What's the lowest temperature you can hit with that setup?

I did a couple of lagers last winter, but i scored a chest freezer on craigslist, so now I just stick to ales in this chamber. You can blow out a dorm fridge pretty easily.

What model number or size is that mini fridge?

I have three dorm fridges...one was my kegerator at one point, but when I made my keezer I converted it.

I can keep three beers are independent temps. They fit a 13G vittles vault that I use to do 10G batches.

I can get it down to upper 30's if I give them time...they definitely don't lower quickly


I have Love Controllers on the doors.



All I had to do was bend back the "freezer" and cut out most of the door trays.