Haier fridge conversion help needed - lagering

Hello,

I've been lurking here a while and have learned a ton so far about brewing. I am very new to brewing, have my first batch in primary, brewed it up Friday (Sierra Nevada clone). I have a feeling this is going to be a lifelong hobby (ok... obsession).

I acquired a Haier HSE04WNABB mini-fridge this weekend for free and am trying to figure out how I could use it for lagering. Have any of you made any modifications to this fridge to fit a 5 gallon carboy? If not, do any of you have any general advice on how to make these modifications?

It has the shelf in the bottom where the condenser is located in back, and a freezer that will get in the way of an airlock. I might be interested in converting this to a kegerator in the future, depending on how far this goes, so I would like to keep that in mind if I do modify it, but am mostly concerned about fitting a 5 gallon carboy in here for lagering.

Is it even worth trying with this model? Here are some pictures and a link to the Haier website with this model:

http://www.haier.com/Products/product.asp?proID=709







Thanks for any advice, links, etc.

Keep in mind that this is just my opinion. As to a 5 gal carboy, it's really not going to fit. It's just to small and the shelf can't really go away. In the future as a kegerator, it's possible. But if it were me, it would be a great bottle fridge and maybe a 3 gal keg fridge.

I just found the perfect small scale lagar locker, a small 3.8 cu. ft freezer on craigs list for $75.

I have a Haier 28 bottle wine cooler that I use for bottle cooler and I can cram a 3 gal carboy in there if I use a blowoff tube, but it's just too much of a pain in the rear.
I scaled down from 5 gal batches to 2.5 gal so my needs are a bit different than yours.

Your only option in terms of depth is going to be to extend the fridge but taking of the door and building an insulated extension. There are several examples on this site.

Height is less of a problem. B3 (morebeer.com) sells these silicone carboy caps with a dry airlock that I really like, they only add about half an inch of height. The only problem is that they are like $11 so if you need a bunch it is a bit of a capital outlay but you wouldn't need more than two if only the carboys going in this fridge need them.

Good call remilard.

remilard said:

Your only option in terms of depth is going to be to extend the fridge but taking of the door and building an insulated extension. There are several examples on this site.

Click to expand...

Here's mine: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/4-6-cu-ft-fridge-10-1-cu-ft-fermentation-chamber-conversion-88554/

Thanks for the replies, although I would love to build a fermentation chamber, I just don't have the space right now. I might try to build an insulated extension/collar, but have never built anything like that before.

That's the fridge I use (got it free).

I just bought a sheet of 2" foam board, cut the pieces and glued them together with spray on adhesive. I caulked the seams and taped them up with aluminum duct tape. I removed the fridge door and taped the box over the hole where the door was.

Mine is big enough for two 6 gallon better bottles and a couple of kegs. However, if space is an issue, you can make it a lot smaller, just big enough for your carboy.