Broken fridge for fermentation chamber?

I came across a cool old fridge this summer and rebuilt it and repainted it. Got it all nice looking and then gave it to a guy I know to repair a leak in the refrigerant line. Ended up not being repairable, so I have been trying to figure out what to do with this nice looking, non functional fridge. I know people make fermentation chambers with bottles of ice and a fan and some insulation? I dont have anything to keep my fermenter at reasonable temperatures, especially when summer gets here.
I assume I could easily do the same with this fridge?



before

Couldnt you take the guts out of a small mini fridge and plumb them in like all the guys here that are building ferment chambers?

Yes you could do that. I don't know if you would need to insulate it though, seeing as it is already a fridge. Wouldn't be hard to do either a lot of the stuff used to make a chamber is already there. Except in this case I would put the ice above in the freezer part of the fridge opposed to below like a DIY chamber.

Or you could try to plumb a newer compressor and lines instead of repairing it, or going the chamber route.

This fridge has all the coolant lines going around the sides of the refrigerator. When the guy repaired the one leak we saw (compressor is still good) and got pressure to the rest of the system, pinhole leaks were springing up everywhere.

If I put the ice in the freezer, would that take the heat out of the fridge section you think?
There is maybe a 1 inch hole connecting the 2 compartments...

I would be tempted to cut a large hole out between the freezer / fridge section, and then just open the top door to drop ice bags / frozen water bottles in. I would hate to open that great big door and have all the cold air spill out when changing.

Or something like what you said in #4... maybe with 2 holes and a fan or two to circulate the air between two sections.

pattatat said:

When the guy repaired the one leak we saw (compressor is still good) and got pressure to the rest of the system, pinhole leaks were springing up everywhere.

Click to expand...

That bites!

In that case yeah I would drill a couple holes between the freezer and fridge and use a computer fan or two to circulate cold air from ice in the top, to the ferm chamber in the bottom.

If you put two holes in between the compartments. I would think that the the convection would sprial out of control and you don't really have any control over it. Buy this I mean as the air cools in the top it gets heavy sinking down one hole into the bottom and this pushes the hot air up into the top and continues until the temps are equal. I really like this idea and would like to do this soon to my chamber. If you have a kegerator I would put them side by side and use the kegerator instead of getting a new mini fridge. Also if you want to expand you could build a box to suit your needs then put the cooling lines into the box.

I have the same problem, but a side by side…

I have a 2.5 year old fridge that the compressor went out and no warranty. I don’t want to throw this nice fridge away. Could I buy a mini fridge and attach it to the top of the broken fridge and cut a through hole?

Just want to make sure it isn’t too much for the mini fridge.

I have been doing searches for this but have found nothing.


Thanks
Lil-Mac

Would there be some way to rig up the guts from a dorm fridge in there?

I've seen people take the freezer compartment from the little fella and use it to cool a larger space.

That's a sweet fridge, hope you find something 'cool' to do with it.

Happy Brewing.