Fermentation Chamber with Unisar Hot/Cold Fridge?

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jgarretson

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I saw this Unisar fridge at Target for $50 and was wondering if it might work for a fermentation chamber cooling element? It's tiny plus it heats and cools and with it hooked up to the aquarium temp controller from Ebay, maybe it's a simple solution?

Thoughts?
 
wow, that is a good find. I have no idea if it would be able to keep a larger area cool enough, but maybe a "son of a fermentation chamber"? I am very curious too because I would love to be able to lager too. Hopefully someone else comes along and approves it.
 
Reading fail!

10.25Hx8Wx11.25L. Those are inches brother. You doing 1 gallon batches? Even then it's too small for a 1 gallon jug.

Interior dimension are 8x5x5. that might be large enough for a starter.

Or, do you plan to dissect it?
 
I'm not even worried about lagering but something to keep temps from getting really warm in a chamber to fit 2 or 3 carboys is what I'm looking for.
 
Reading fail!

10.25Hx8Wx11.25L. Those are inches brother. You doing 1 gallon batches? Even then it's too small for a 1 gallon jug.

Interior dimension are 8x5x5. that might be large enough for a starter.

HAHAHAHA - I think you have the reading fail here, OP wants to know if the cooling element can be used for it.
 
Uh, yeah. I'm looking to fit this into a wall of a larger fermentation cabinet. You know, build a box, insulate it and fit this fridge into the wall and use it to cool and heat the larger space.
 
This is a thermoelectric cooler not a traditional fridge. And it is a small one at that, only holding a six pack of cans. I can tell you that it would take several hours just to bring a six pack of room temp cans down to drinking temp. I can tell you that because I have a very similar cooler for use in the car. I do not believe it will have the cooling capacity to keep a space sized to fit a few carboys very cool at all. In fact I'm not sure it could keep the heat generated by active fermentation of a single carboy in check.
 
This is a thermoelectric cooler not a traditional fridge. And it is a small one at that, only holding a six pack of cans. I can tell you that it would take several hours just to bring a six pack of room temp cans down to drinking temp. I can tell you that because I have a very similar cooler for use in the car. I do not believe it will have the cooling capacity to keep a space sized to fit a few carboys very cool at all. In fact I'm not sure it could keep the heat generated by active fermentation of a single carboy in check.

But I'm not needing this fridge to bring the temp down to the 40's. I'm needing to add a bit of cooling to keep fermentation temperatures in the 60's and 70's.
 
By all means give it a try but, Peltier based coolers tend to be very inefficient and not very effective for large volumes. And you could prolly svae some money by sourcing the Peltier chip, fan, and switch separately.
 
But I'm not needing this fridge to bring the temp down to the 40's. I'm needing to add a bit of cooling to keep fermentation temperatures in the 60's and 70's.

I understand that, I guess what I am saying is that peltiers are really inefficient and a small one like in these fridges probably don't have the capacity to keep the heat produced by the active fermentation down to the 60's and 70's.

Read Yuri's thread for much more detail but be aware he is using a pair of peltier devices (one hacked out of a cooler) with a heat pipe directly in contact with the fermenting beer. He seems to have gotten so so results.
 
Okay, perfect. That's why I asked the question because I'm not too familiar with these cooling devices. I wasn't sure if I found something good or if I'll be better off picking up a small fridge from CL. Looks like the more certain path is to get a fridge from CL and build my chamber around that. Thanks for the input guys.
 

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