Temp Controlled Refrigerator question.

Hello,
I am going to turn my shed into a brew shed.
I would like to keep all my brew stuff in one place and it seems like a great option.
My question is regarding fermentation in my temp controlled fridge in the winter.

I am using a old "True" refrigerator I picked up cheap ($50) hooked to my custom temp controller using a small heater (750w personal heater) and the refrigeration works fine.
In the winter my basement gets around 50-55* and the heater does plenty fine heating that small area.
There seams to be no need for the refrigeration to come on at all in winter.
But in summer the refrigeration takes over fine and again the heat is not needed.

I would like to install my fridge to my brew shed and have pretty much all my stuff in one spot. (minus the kegs of final product)

Do you think that the space heater would be able to keep the temps needed inside the fridge that I want if it is really cold outside in winter?
I plan to insulate the shed so it will not be as cold as outside temps but still cold..

here is the fridge. (in it's raw form, I plan to make some more stable shelves out of wood.
The door is heat treated dual pane glass.

I am thinking the only answer is to test it out somehow but I don't want to drag it out of my basement to test it.

how can I test that this will work? or can someone tell me what you think?

thanks

shed



fridge

the one on the right.



I just bought a brand new gasket for the fridge as well so it is sealed tight.. (and well insulated I believe?)





thanks for your input

My gut feeling is that it would be fine, although I don't have any hard evidence to back that up. Its not that much square footage to heat. One thing you could also do is add another heater if one is working too hard (assuming the amperage is not to crazy).

Also consider getting some dehumidifiers in there. Maybe an Evadry unit. It really helps keep the condensation down. Keeps mold/mildew issues down. I'm really glad I got one for my ferm chamber.

thanks,
when you say condensation where are you getting that?
I have not seen any so far.
but I may if the fridge is out in the cold I guess.
let me know if you can.

I just had a little mold problem in my fermentation chamber. I figured it was from the liquid in the blowoff bucket evaporating a little. It was an old fridge as well, so the seal might not have been very good. If you don't see any, then you probably don't need it.

ok cool thanks, well I do have backing soda thing in there. lol

good luck with the brew shed. Hope it works out.

I am using an 8.8 cf chest freezer for a fermentation chamber located in my detached garage. The winter ambient temperature is about 35 deg. and I keep holding 65 deg. using only a 60 watt heater. The heater comes on for about 10 minutes every 4-5 hours.

I would investigate a smaller heater than your 750 watt one. If something malfunctions you might do some serious damage to the inside of your refrigerator with that much heat if it doesn't shut off. My small heater will only cook the beer and yeast at worst, not melt the inside of the lid.

ChuckO said:

I am using an 8.8 cf chest freezer for a fermentation chamber located in my detached garage. The winter ambient temperature is about 35 deg. and I keep holding 65 deg. using only a 60 watt heater. The heater comes on for about 10 minutes every 4-5 hours.

I would investigate a smaller heater than your 750 watt one. If something malfunctions you might do some serious damage to the inside of your refrigerator with that much heat if it doesn't shut off. My small heater will only cook the beer and yeast at worst, not melt the inside of the lid.

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thanks by the way, I wrote a reply to this (long winded drinking to much) and then when I clicked post I was not logged in! doh!

anyway what info you gave me was great./ it will work and hold the temp fine.
also I started looking into low watt heaters and see a few.
do you use a ceramic heat bulb type?

I thought the one I had was ok because it has a low and high. it runs 750w on high and I just keep it on low which is like no heat compared to high. lol

it is nice that it has a fan as well.

I have mine in an attached garage. Gets cold in there but probably never under 4o degrees. I use a 40 watt incandescent light bulb to keep it at a steady 68F. Looks like a pretty similar fridge to yours.

I'm using an old boot drier that I had laying around. A small ceramic heater bulb will be fine, as is a light bulb. If you're worried about light exposure, build a paint can heater.

What is a paint can heater?

eric19312 said:

What is a paint can heater?

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http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/Fermentation-Can-Heater

Simple to build & cheap if you can find a ceramic light socket, most that I've seen recently are plastic.

I was going to suggest a light bulb also. Try turning on the light in your oven. That little bulb (usually around 40w) will heat up the oven over 100*. A paint can heater is in escence an can of some sort over a light bulb connected to a controller. The can create a thermal mass and blocks the light from the bulb from hitting the fermenting wort. I'd be willing to bet a 60-75w bulb would do just fine. You could get a colored bulb and skip the can all together. Incidentally I was wondering about your glass door, is it in an area that's dark most of the time? I'd be concerned of letting to much light in and would cover the glass with something.

tbel said:

I was going to suggest a light bulb also. Try turning on the light in your oven. That little bulb (usually around 40w) will heat up the oven over 100*. A paint can heater is in escence an can of some sort over a light bulb connected to a controller. The can create a thermal mass and blocks the light from the bulb from hitting the fermenting wort. I'd be willing to bet a 60-75w bulb would do just fine. You could get a colored bulb and skip the can all together. Incidentally I was wondering about your glass door, is it in an area that's dark most of the time? I'd be concerned of letting to much light in and would cover the glass with something.

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well I was going to tint it but I like seeing the bubbles inside the air lock without opening the door.
Also no not much light.
Also I am using SS keg to ferment in, but when I put in the carboy or better bottle I can see your point and the problem.
Now in my basement there is no sun light coming in.
In my shed where this will be going there are no windows but I did plan to put one in.
So maybe I will end up tinting the glass to block UV light.

good info thanks all!

You can also just put a cover (towel, dark t-shirt, old blanket) over the carboy, if needed.

I use a light bulb as a heat source as well. I ferment in a plastic bucket, but clarify in a glass carbon. Are we saying here the light emitted by the incandescent bulb is detrimental to the beer? I was under the impression this was a fairly common practice?

It's mostly UV light that skunks beer, so I wouldn't worry about it. Some people do though. My thoughts are that a bulb in a paint can is less likely to contact my hand while moving the fermenter in and I would be less likely to break the bulb.

Brian, you got a True fridge for $50 - and it worked (cooling function)?!? That's an amazing buy. I'm kind of in the market for one, but in Maryland, they're closer to a grand.

kartracer said:

Brian, you got a True fridge for $50 - and it worked (cooling function)?!? That's an amazing buy. I'm kind of in the market for one, but in Maryland, they're closer to a grand.

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Yes! My wife saw it at a little shop.
I called the shop they said it was dropped off to them and they didnt know if it worked.
It was raining at the time and she said she couldn't plug it in till tomorrow.
She said a few others called about it.
I said i would be down if it stopped raining.
It did so I went and she had plugged it in and it was cool as can be inside!
I asked what she wanted for it, she said what would I pay I said 50 she said ok deal.
lol so I paid for it and picked it up the next day on a trailer.
It only needed a new gasket and I got one from ebay for 32$ free shipping.

I had thoughts of selling it for 500 on CL but decided against it. lol

Nice story. I'll have to tell my wife to keep her eyes open!

I just built the paint can heater and found the 15 watt light bulb to be the perfect size. With the 40 watt bulb and the 60 watt bulb the heat kept creeping up to about 70 degrees in my fridge even though I had set it to 62. My theory is there was a lot of residual heat still stored in the can and in the open metal freezer box in the fridge that I'm using, and that hot metal kept elevating the temperature even after the light bulb had long switched off. With the 15 watt bulb the can only ever gets warm and everytime I look the temperature is perfect in there. Plus im less worried about hot spots or fires or a melted fridge this way.

I just made one more addition to my setup: I wanted a cheap small circulating fan to move the air around the fridge while heating or cooling. Found an Arctic brand usb fan on Amazon for $6 and connected to an old usb phone charger plugged inside the fridge and it works beautifully!

Also a correction: I'm back up to 40w on the bulb (very cold nights recently ... The 15w was struggling) but the fan seems to have fixed my residual heating problem with the higher wattage bulb.

hmm so much issue with the bulbs and size of bulbs creating more heat...
??
is it staying steady at 65degrees?

It's working perfectly now. Here is a picture of the setup. The fan made all the difference.

Do you know if an old freezer would work as well as a fridge as a fermentation chamber? My main issue will be keeping the heat down rather than up.

Puddlethumper said:

Do you know if an old freezer would work as well as a fridge as a fermentation chamber? My main issue will be keeping the heat down rather than up.

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It would work just fine Puddle.

Freezers with STC-1000 controllers are all I've used to ferment in and they work nicely.

BigFloyd said:

It would work just fine Puddle.

Freezers with STC-1000 controllers are all I've used to ferment in and they work nicely.

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Thank you sir. I saw one on Craig's List and liked the dimensions. Will see if its still available.