Anyone turn dorm fridge into a lager device?

I've read online that people have actually taken a small dorm fridge, carefully unscrewed the top freezer portion and laid it against the back of the fridge and gotten cold enough temps to actually lager their beer.

Anyone here done this that can share some tips or advice? I'm surprised that even this would get you down to the mid 30's in temps but maybe.

I'm going to temperature control the lager fermentation in the 50's but I'm wondering about the actual lagering process. Possible you think with this setup?

Yes, I took the door off of one and put it sideways under my mini-bar counter top and built the rest of the space out with foam boad and installed the door on the front. It trippled the size and kept the space at about 40F. However, it ran all the time, got hot and eventually crapped out. In the end it would have been alot cheaper and easier to buy the chest freezer and convert it, which I eventually did.

Just realized the post said Lager, not "Larger" as i read it. I don't lager, but I could fit about 6 C-Kegs in it.

Yep, sure have. Got one for free, so I figured what the heck. Just bend the plate back very slowly and carefully, and you are golden. I then made a little 'stool' out of some scrap wood to make a flat space in front of the compressor ledge (same height). Took off the door shelves and It worked great. There's not enough height for an airlock, and it's pretty tight space to use plastic tubing for a blowoff w/o pinching, so I used the bend part of an old racking cane and connected tubing to that going to the blowoff bucket.

I bent the freezer down and cut the door to fit bucket's in mine. I got it for free. Mine goes down to 27F.



The box holds the fermenter on the compresser hump. A five gallon carboy fits too, but not 6.5.