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phoenixs4r

phoenixs4r

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The girlfriend and I have decided to move our kegerator indoors, but in our rental there is not much room. I've googled and searched on here tearing apart a mini fridge and the pictures after destruction and the amount of delicate coils and stuff has deterred me thus far.

So, driving to the park the other day with kid and wife in tow, the best girl in the world spots a mini fridge sitting on the side of the road for free. Well shucks, a kid, wife, a 6'3 man and a mini fridge aren't going to fit in the car! Somethings gotta go!

And off they walked to the park.


FR-147RV_large.jpg


I totally forgot to take a picture of the fridge before we destroyed it, LOL so here's an example pic.

img20120708115334.jpg


Destruction:

img20120708124706.jpg


Significantly easier than anticipated. The entire thing is a shell within a shell, and they just pump styrofoam in as an insulater a glue. We just detached the outer shell with a little bit of muscle and a screwdriver as a crow bar, removed the interior plastic shell with brute force and careful box knife cuts, and broke the styrofoam into chunks with a skydriver and a putty knife.

Result:

scaled.php
 
This is the cabinet that it's going into, along with our little pantless helper! Freebie cabinet and countertop I got from work. They were going to throw it out.

scaled.php


Removed the counter top and looked inside. Figured I'd segregate the hot side and cold side with a piece of particle board I had laying around. Plywood would have been better, or even mounting the particle board on some 2x4's for some back strength, but meh, I didn't have any 2x4's and I don't have any money.

scaled.php


The piece added in the center is held in by screws on each side. Obviously not the most structurally sound, but meh. Again plywood or some 2x4 backing would make it bullet proof. Also, I am planning on adding another skin to the side of the cabinet made out of blackboard to hide the screws and the holes and allow our child to draw on something with some chalk.

scaled.php


This is the type of insulation being used, because I found it in the garage!

scaled.php


Painted, to prevent possible mold issues. We're going to throw one of those jars of damp rid or whatever, but just in case.

scaled.php


Back insulation installed, flattened cooler plate-coil-whatever screwed in

scaled.php


Mounted the compressor structure to the bottom of the cabinet, hot side coils remain as they came in the mini fridge

scaled.php


After a lot of hard delicate work, my girl slightly bent the coils so they fit in the hot side of the cabinet

scaled.php


Ran out of energy, back starting to hurt, put it all back together. We tested it, cold side gets cold, hot side gets hot, looks like we didn't mess anything up!

scaled.php
 
Reserved for the rest of the insulation installation, PVC tower build

Total build cost thus far: $0.00
 
So, seeing how I just went through a very similar build, feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Beyond that take your time with the insulation, do a lot test fitting and test fit how well your kegs fit in there before you glue it down. It looks like you don't have a lot of room there. Also, how do you plan on maintaining the right temp? There are a couple of options, depending on how handy you are. You can hack the existing thermostat but may not have as much control as you'd like. You can also build an ebay temp controller which is how I control my fermentation chamber.

The last thing to consider is how your going to get kegs in and out. If you use the doors, you'll need to bevel the edges of any insulation you use on them so they can still shut well (but the same goes if you use the top like a chest freezer).

Good luck!
 
The_Dog_42 said:
So, seeing how I just went through a very similar build, feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Beyond that take your time with the insulation, do a lot test fitting and test fit how well your kegs fit in there before you glue it down. It looks like you don't have a lot of room there. Also, how do you plan on maintaining the right temp? There are a couple of options, depending on how handy you are. You can hack the existing thermostat but may not have as much control as you'd like. You can also build an ebay temp controller which is how I control my fermentation chamber.

The last thing to consider is how your going to get kegs in and out. If you use the doors, you'll need to bevel the edges of any insulation you use on them so they can still shut well (but the same goes if you use the top like a chest freezer).

Good luck!
Click to expand...

We purposely kept the space to a minimum. With 1" insulation on all sides we have enough room for 3 pin locks, but we're shooting for 2 since we have issues with just keeping one full! Lol.

I currently have an eBay controller powering my current Darby kegerator I'm going to rip out and toss behind the cabinet. Going to be running a PVC tower with a blower motor from a computer to keep the tower cold, insulated as well.


I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do with the old Darby once this is done.
 
Yes the cooling panel could have definitely wrapped around a corny no problem.

And unless OK working my time isn't worth anything lol. The whole process took her and I an hour.
 
I know it is not fully complete but of curiosity, how well insulated would something like this be? Would it be on par as the original mini fridge? I ask because if so, I might consider doing something like this. It looks really nice!
 
Should be. The insulation of the walls of the fridge were only an inch thick, as well as the hot side coils running through it. This is the same thickness and the hot side coils are relocated. Our second faucet should be here this Friday and we plan on finishing the project this weekend.
 
About 90% complete as of today, I'll post pictures later. It appears to not be cooling though, which will be disapointing to say the least. been running about an hour, sitting at 60F (80F ambient)..... cross your fingers.

The cooling tray is icing over, and I have a fan recirculating the air. Perhaps its not air tight enough
 
Yes. Its slowly dropping temp. Think I need to add some more insulation
 
it won't get cold enough. The problem isn't the refrigeration, i believe the insulation used is inadequate.

Probably going to shelf the project for a bit. Need to research insulation and a new way to put the kegs in, as it stands currently its awkward at best.
 
ForumRunner_20120716_140545.jpg

This is how it finished. We removed the cabinet all together and grabbed our existing Danby kegerator and just put the countertop on it for now.

Thank god I had a back up, I'm off call and just counting down the hours for a beer tonight. We moved the cabinet kegerorater into the garage for further assessment and rebuild at a later date when we figure out the best rigid insulation to use ,as well as a less back strenuous way to load the kegs.
 
So from my research, it appears the type of insulation I used may be the culprit to why this project didn't work. Apparently I'm using an open celled type of insulation, when I should be using a closed cell type of insulation. The local homedepot sells some pink insulation that should work better. I'm curious if anyone knows if 1" is an acceptable thickness for the project or if 2" would be needed. Obviously 2" would be BETTER, i'm interested in if I can get away with 1" thick.
 
I can't help but wonder if your problem might be inefficient dissipation of heat from the condenser coil. When installed in the mini-frig, this coil is bonded with a metallic tape to the metal outer wall of the unit, which provides a very good heat-sink. Having the tube just loose like you have isn't going to cut it, and the icing of your evaporator plate is your first clue.

I'd try and find a way to increase the area of the condenser. Perhaps you can tape it to a sheet of metal screwed to the back of the cabinet, much like it was originally. H.D. or Lowe's carries this metallic tape.

Good luck, and hope this helps.
 
Thanks for the responses. The project currently sits in my garage collecting dust. Hopefully before Xmas it will be finished as I'm pretty much being forced to take a week off in December.

As far why it hasn't worked it is more than likely a combination of the condenser coils as the above poster mentioned and a lack of proper insulation. The crap I used wasn't good enough, but it was free so I attempted.

Bonwit said:
I can't help but wonder if your problem might be inefficient dissipation of heat from the condenser coil. When installed in the mini-frig, this coil is bonded with a metallic tape to the metal outer wall of the unit, which provides a very good heat-sink. Having the tube just loose like you have isn't going to cut it, and the icing of your evaporator plate is your first clue.

I'd try and find a way to increase the area of the condenser. Perhaps you can tape it to a sheet of metal screwed to the back of the cabinet, much like it was originally. H.D. or Lowe's carries this metallic tape.

Good luck, and hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice. I think I saw a spare sheet of stainless floating around the shop I'll attempt to tape them to when I redo this.
 
To tide us over in the meantime I literally shoved my old mini fridge under the counter and drilled a hole for the home depot tower. The tap handles were custom widdled by my GF from a branch she randomly found.

ForumRunner_20121127_184416.jpg

Edit: and on the drip drains was some of the most delicious beer battered fish and chips using Denny's rye IPA as the beer of choice. My first attempt at cooking faired pretty well.
 
phoenixs4r said:
Thank you for the advice. I think I saw a spare sheet of stainless floating around the shop I'll attempt to tape them to when I redo this.
Click to expand...

stainless retails heat, you be better off with aluminum or copper to act as a heat sink. Can't think of a good way to apply either right now, might need a beer for inspiration.
 

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