I recently got myself set up for kegging. The only thing missing was a refrigeration unit. my original plan was to build a keezer. But after a month of watching the classifieds and not finding what I was looking for I was starting to get impatient.

I had read several "under the workbench" fermentation chamber build threads on this forum and that got me thinking. I can build my own keg fridge . I had just built (partially) a workbench in my shop/brewspace and I had a window AC unit that had been sitting in my parents garage for years. So this past weekend I was visiting my parents and picked up the AC unit.

Once I had it home the urge to get started on building it was irresistible. On Sunday I went out and picked up some foam insulation board and started putting it together. I had no real plan in my head other than its outside dimensions 2' wide 4' long and 30" deep this was dictated bu the size of the lid which was a 2' x 4' sheet of plywood which was going to be part of the workbench top.

I was planning on documenting my process but in the excitement of building I did not take a single picture during the build process.
I did take pictures of the finished(ish) product which I will post when I get home tonight.

The AC unit can drop the temperature in the cooler by approx 1C/min. and it warms at approx 1C/20 min. I have a wireless inside outside digital thermometer so I stuck the outside unit in my cooler so I could monitor the temp from my computer room.

I am controlling the temp using an outdoor timer which runs the AC for 6 min every 2 hours this results in a air temp swing of about 5C.

In my testing to figure out the timing. I turned the AC on and checked the temp every few minuets. After a few minutes it got down to 4C, I checked back after 5 min and it still read 4C. Which I thought was odd. I checked the AC unit and it the compressor was running and it was blowing warm air out the back.. Strange... I checked the temp again and it was now reading 8c I was tarting to get worried that the AC unit was dead. The temp was rising suspiciously fast.. I took a closer look at the thermometer display. I then noticed at the far left of the display an small faint minus sign! By this time it was down to -13C !!

Richard