Vintage GE Kegerator

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Nice work so far. You have for sure done much more work to yours than I did. Just stuffed a 3rd keg in mine to cold condition.

What kind of energy usage are you seeing from yours? I'm curious how much mine will hurt my electricity bill...
 
You know it's hard to tell right now because my electric pellet stove heater for my house has been running for the last 2-3 months. It really isn't as terrible as you would think for a big hunk of vintage steel. I run mine on one of the aquarium eBay temp controllers and the thing rarely runs.
 
You've made my day. I know the thing works well, but I hadn't tested the energy usage before tearing it apart. At this point, the only thing that could have derailed my enthusiasm is starting it up and having the compressor run constantly.
 
Haha, Yeah I scored mine from some old ladies screen porch and it looked like Henry Ford dropped the thing off. Brought it home and it fired right up.
 
I've read in a few places that the vintage refrigerators tend to use less power than modern fridges. They don't have defrost cycles and the other bells and whistles of modern fridges, plus they tend to be a fair bit smaller. Or so they vintage fridge lobby tells me...
 
Or so they vintage fridge lobby tells me...
That's what I've seen as well. Then again, it seems like I've read just as much about how inefficient they are. Mine has a butter compartment inside with heaters attached to it though, so I've got to wonder how worried about efficiency they were...

The big factors are insulation and the efficiency of the compressor. With the new R19 household insulation, I should be good on that front. When I get it back together I'll plug it into my kill-a-watt and get some real reading to post.
 
A heated butter compartment? That's awesome! But probably not super efficient, I guess.

I have a hard time believing running an old fridge is going to create a significant change in your power bill, though. As long as you disconnect that butter warmer... :D


That's what I've seen as well. Then again, it seems like I've read just as much about how inefficient they are. Mine has a butter compartment inside with heaters attached to it though, so I've got to wonder how worried about efficiency they were...

The big factors are insulation and the efficiency of the compressor. I know I'm good on the insulation with the new R19, but we'll have to see on the compressor.
 
Great documentation, Kerber! How much further along are you now that it's June? I'm about to embark on my own vintage kegerator project and would love to pick your brain or see the rest of your renovation. I bought a 1954 Frigidaire Imperial Climamatic (I love the full name--you just don't get that any more, either) for $100 on Craig's List. If the pics attach properly, you'll see I have a lot more junk in the door to try and contend with. But I'll probably start my own thread for that--don't want to hijack yours!

IMG_0585.jpg


IMG_0587.jpg
 
Great find, schmidty65!! That looks like a real beauty.

My fridge has been coming slowly but surely. Work has been nuts and I've been spending a lot of time outdoors, so it's been on the back-burner for a while. All I've really got left is to paint the door, kickplate, and rear condensor panel.

While it's been waiting, I've also been working on rebuilding it's brains. The mechanical thermostat is being replaced with an arduino, temperature probe, and solid state relay. That will be communicating with a server to log data and present a webpage where the temperature can be viewed and set.

Jmx8O.jpg


I picked up that relay without testing the compressor current draw. I'd rather not fry anything, so I've still got to test to make sure it can handle it before completely buttoning it up.

There are a lot more plans on expanded functionality of the arduino/webserver architecture, but I best not get ahead of myself.
 
Well, we just had an offer accepted on a house, so I best try to bring this project to a checkpoint before the move. I finished wiring and testing the electrical this week. Hopefully I can get the door painted and installed in the next couple weeks.


The new brains are all assembled.


Checking out the arduino via serial monitor.


Final testing.


Looks like those coils are doing the trick!


Here's the power consumption while the compressor is running. ~180 watts! With the new insulation and the speed with which the coils cool, I should see some really good efficiency on this.
 
Looking good; jealous of your modernization skills. You'd think I'd have retained more of my Electrical Engineering degree than I did. Use it or lose it, I guess...
Can't wait to see the progress on your door and reassembly!
 
You'd think I'd have retained more of my Electrical Engineering degree than I did.!

If you've never played with an arduino, do it! There are a few vendors out there who make modules that are compatible with it. From www.sparkfun.com, I was able to get the arduino and relay module. From that point, it's just a matter of wiring.

The arduino is arguably overkill for this project, but it leaves a lot of ability to do add-ons. One such upgrade in the (hopefully) near future is keg level monitoring :D
 
Sorry for the radio silence. I'm in the process of buying my first house, so attention has been elsewhere. I've been documenting and planning out all the little projects I'm going to have to do. Can't wait!

As for an update...
Tech:
I've got an old guruplug server from work which is going to be mounted underneath with the arduino. It will handle data logging and serve up the web interface for the fridge. I had seriously considered just having the arduino communicate with my desktop and have that do the web-related tasks, but I want this to be self-contained for now.

Here's the webpage so far. I've just got the logging up, but it's a start.


Painting:
One change I've made on this door is leaving out the priming coat. The appliance epoxy recommends skipping priming, but I didn't notice that warning until after finishing the main cabinet. When I was putting it back together I had issue with a couple spots chipping. Who knows if that was the primer or the cold ND winter temps when it was curing. Either either way, I followed the directions this time. Unfortunately, this means that I'm having to deal with more visible defects in the surface (small dents and the like). On top of that, one of my paint cans had a screwy paint head and spit a bunch of huge gobs of paint onto the door. This past weekend I pulled it outside and got to wet sanding. After that I brought it back in, cleaned it up, and hit it with a good new coat of black epoxy. After it's had it's week to cure, I'm going to decide whether I want to wet sand and finish before painting on the chalk-board accent and putting it back together. I'll post some pictures when I get it ready for the next bit.
 
Well, the time is here!




I've still got to paint the front kickplates and do some detail work, but it's up and running!

Also, I'm happy to say that this 1950's fridge is incredibly efficient! Here's a 2 hour period of the temperature holding ~45 F


Here's the power consumption breakdown, for those interested in old fridges.
  • 4 watts idling (webserver consumption)
  • 170 watts cooling
  • 2 min running time each cool cycle
  • ~7 min running time per hour

When I get a chance to step away from projects on the new house, I'll be adding all sorts of goodies with keg volume and the like!
 
Looking awesome, Kerber! I've been remiss about getting my pics/info about the drip tray up; maybe I'll try to do that soon.
Are you satisfied with the 45 degrees? I have a little digital thermometer in mine, and it seems to be reading the high/low each day at 45 and 43, respectively. That's with the original old thermostat. I was thinking about ripping into it and replacing with a digital so that I could set it a bit colder...
BTW: Hope that blog on wet sanding was helpful--I know it saved my @$$!
:mug:
 
Thanks! I think it's crazy that we came on the same solution for the drip tray. No way did I want to put more holes in this, so I was planning on mounting with neodynium magnets and felt as well.

Are you satisfied with the 45 degrees?
I really am! I find I much prefer my brews a little warmer, as I get a lot more of the subtle flavors that are lost when you get frosty cold. In fact, I've got an oaky IPA that has some amazing flavor after setting out to warm up a bit. If I'm going to have my beer so cold I can't taste it, then I could just as well be drinking commercial stuff.

Thankfully, the final coat on the door turned out well enough that I didn't feel the need to wet-sand it at all. I might have if it weren't for other projects, but I'm happy with how it looks as it is.
 
this is truly beautiful work!
2 quick questions:
1) did you redo the GE badge on the door? if so, how? it almost looks brand new.
2) i have an old westinghouse fridge that has hinges that looks almost identical to yours. how did you take your hinges apart? i don't want to start prying away at mine and risk ruining them.

again, awesome job!:mug:
 
1) did you redo the GE badge on the door? if so, how? it almost looks brand new.
Honestly, I didn't have to do a thing to it! The badge was in perfect shape, so I just got the clips off and mounted it on the wall in my workshop until I was finished.
2) i have an old westinghouse fridge that has hinges that looks almost identical to yours. how did you take your hinges apart? i don't want to start prying away at mine and risk ruining them.
Again, I didn't have to do anything with them. They have a couple really tiny chips, but overall they are great. On mine, I'd get them apart by removing the chrome endcaps and pulling the pin out.
 
Again, I didn't have to do anything with them. They have a couple really tiny chips, but overall they are great. On mine, I'd get them apart by removing the chrome endcaps and pulling the pin out.

how did you get yours off? just pry them? that's what I'm afraid of ruining.:confused:
 
how did you get yours off? just pry them? that's what I'm afraid of ruining.:confused:

To get the hinges off of the fridge, I popped off the screw cover plate, then just removed the screws. If you're wondering how to get the actual hinges apart into separate pieces - I'm not sure beyond just conjecture. Mine were in good enough shape that they didn't require complete dis-assembly.

Hope that helps.
 
Very nice! Thanks for documenting all the steps. My in-laws have an old style fridge freezer like this in their basement that I'm hoping/praying will come my way when they move to a smaller home. Thanks to your posts I'll be able to know what I'm dong when converting!
 
Is the thing in the freezer a damprid knockoff? or something? mine's been up and running for 2 1/2 months and it's an inch thick with ice already.
 
Is the thing in the freezer a damprid knockoff?

It's along the same lines as damprid, but I much prefer it. It's basically just full of silica balls. Once it's absorbed all the water it can, you plug it in and the built-in heater will renew it overnight. It's working really well for me! It's called the Eva-dry E-500.
 
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I don't think I've ever been presented with the occasion to utter this phrase, but: That is the sexiest fridge I've ever seen. I'm quite jealous of your craftsmanship, and envious of the end product - and I technically don't even brew yet, let alone keg!
 
I don't think I've ever been presented with the occasion to utter this phrase, but: That is the sexiest fridge I've ever seen. I'm quite jealous of your craftsmanship, and envious of the end product - and I technically don't even brew yet, let alone keg!

Thank you, BattleGoat! Once you get started, you'll find there's a LOT less time for other hobbies... haha. My wife picked me up a kit for my birthday last year. BEST GIFT EVER.
 
Why did you only go with two taps?

Unfortunately, there is only enough space in the fridge for 3 kegs if I place the CO2 tank externally. At this point, I'm not big on the idea of having a CO2 tank sitting out, so I opted to go with 2 kegs and a 5lb CO2 tank inside.

At some point in the future, I may try to find an end table or something of matching style that I can hide an external tank inside of.
 
If you don't mind, can you shed some light on the arduino setup? How did you wire it, which arduino setup you bought off of spark fun, How do you monitor etc. Maybe even some helpful links I could use to set one up for my vintage GE fridge. I'm new to the arduino stuff. Thank you in advance! I'm jealous!
 
Well, we just had an offer accepted on a house, so I best try to bring this project to a checkpoint before the move. I finished wiring and testing the electrical this week. Hopefully I can get the door painted and installed in the next couple weeks.




Here's the power consumption while the compressor is running. ~180 watts! With the new insulation and the speed with which the coils cool, I should see some really good efficiency on this.

Once you set Watts x Hours run (per day) x 365 (days per year) = total watts divided by 1000 = Kw x your cost per Kw will give you your cost per year.
 
Once you set Watts x Hours run (per day) x 365 (days per year) = total watts divided by 1000 = Kw x your cost per Kw will give you your cost per year.

I got a good idea of the runtime here.

Here's the power consumption breakdown, for those interested in old fridges.
  • 4 watts idling (webserver consumption)
  • 170 watts cooling
  • 2 min running time each cool cycle
  • ~7 min running time per hour

Using that same formula, I had originally calculated it would be
180watts*2.8hr*365day/1000*$0.0683=$12.56/year

Since winter has set in, my runtime is even lower than that! I guess it pays to have the refrigerator in the cooler lower level of the house. Over a 4 hour period today, the total runtime was 6 minutes!
 
If you don't mind, can you shed some light on the arduino setup? How did you wire it, which arduino setup you bought off of spark fun, How do you monitor etc. Maybe even some helpful links I could use to set one up for my vintage GE fridge. I'm new to the arduino stuff. Thank you in advance! I'm jealous!

I'm jealous of the great time you're going to have learning about micro-controllers! Right now, the setup is really straight forward and any specifics to the following bits can easily be found on the Arduino forums.

Temperature is read from a DS18B20 digital temp probe wired to an Arduino Uno. Once a second, it check is compressor needs to come on or not. If it does, it flips the data pin high that's connected to a solid state relay.

Connected to the Arduino over USB is a Guruplug linux computer. The Guruplug runs a python script that talks to the Arduino over serial to log termperature, status, and set the temperature.

The web interface is using highcharts to call a php script that returns the last few days of data. At the end of it, you get this
.
 
Thanks for the reply Kerber!

What are your thoughts on using the same temperature sensor with usb adapter into a Hackberry A10 ( https://www.miniand.com/products/Hackberry A10 Developer Board) instead of an Arduino Uno. I'd use Python for Android to run the Python scripts (http://www.dbaportal.eu/?q=node/192) or I could just boot into Linux and run Python through there. I'd have to have a power supply and relays but outside of that I should be good on the hardware side right?

I'd just need to figure out how to use Jquery/web.py to retrieve the data and display it on a website. I know this post is off topic so feel free to discard if you're busy lol
 
What are your thoughts on using the same temperature sensor with usb adapter into a Hackberry A10 ( https://www.miniand.com/products/Hackberry A10 Developer Board) instead of an Arduino Uno.

Glad to provide some assist :)

The biggest reason I wanted to use an Arduino is just for the bulletproof reliability of a microcontroller. Reading the temp into linux/Android and controlling it from python should work just fine. The problem would be the first time the thing locks up or gets corrupt NAND and decides your compressor should stay on. While this may never happen - having an Arduino to control the baser functions is a good precaution.

Eventually, I plan on moving the logging and webserver to a general purpose home automation linux box and communicating wirelessly.
 
Kerber, an analog mind here in a digital world, but what is the advantage of this to justify using 1/3 of the cost to run per year aka $ 4.50 Is it just a cause you can or can it actually serve a purpose.
 
...using 1/3 of the cost to run per year aka $ 4.50...

I'm not sure I'm following. Are you referring to the constant 5 watts draw from the linux computer? The point of going digital with the setup is so that I can log and track my temp, as well as keep it within ~0.5 degrees of my desired temperature.
 
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