The horror! Help me save my bar.

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cabot

cabot

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So I built a bar in my basement a few months ago.

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and everything has been dandy. I run the fridge on 1 - 2 out of 8 and it holds a pretty constant 38 degrees. That was until a few days ago.

I was downstairs and looked at the indoor outdoor thermometer display, and it was 45 degrees! Wtf!? I opened the bar fridge and saw the freezerplate on my mini-fridge had about a half inch of ice on it. Assuming that was the problem, I unplugged the fridge for the day and let it all melt off. Plugged it back in yesterday evening, and left for the night. Got home this morning...45 degrees...no ice buildup on the freezerplate, but a puddle of water in the bottom of the fridge. What is going on!?

I bought the mini fridge brand new for the bar build, so it has only been running for about 2 months as well.

Any ideas!? Thanks guys!
 
A few things...

It sounds like your cooling fan isn't getting enough air flow into the fridge. This could be caused by lack of space around it. If you've got it in a tight space under the bar...there's your issue.

I'm assuming this is a manual defrost. Usually mini fridges have a mall collection resevior under the freezer. This resevoir needs to be drained every once in awhile since you don't have a drain. This may also be what's causing your problem. Try defrosting it again, then empty this pan.
 
I will check/do both of those things. The odd thing is that it worked completely fine for 2 months in the same exact location. Better than fine actually, it worked great! I'm just wondering what has changed.
 
My kegerator is like a mini fridge and needs to be defrosted on occasion. To reduce the frequency of this event I have started storing a Damp Rid container in side. This collects the moisture and keeps it off my chill plate. Thus no/limited ice inside.
 
Keep the ideas rolling in fellas, I appreciate it! I'm out of work at 4:30 EST and my evening will be spent troubleshooting this fridge. As you can see from the photos I posted, it's impossible to remove the fridge (unless I was going to replace it, because its such a PITA), but the rear coils are exposed, and therefore easy to clean (and also not dusty :( )
 
Has it always froze up on the plate ? if not you may have a gasket leak or a bent door hinge . I have one behind my bar just for bottled beer and after a while I noticed that the beer was getting warmer couldn't for the of me figure it out. I took the fridge out and put on top of the bar I noticed the bottom of the door was below the fridge frame I aligned it with the very professional way of just bending the hinges .

I came to realized that when someone went to get a beer they would open the door and lean on it as they bent over to look into the fridge pushing the door down
 
Springer,

This sounds like the most plausible case. I removed the original fridge door and fashioned a new door, and I fashioned the gasket myself. I have never been completely confident with it, but it had been working...so now that I think, I suppose if something were to fail, my homemade gasket should be the first place to look! Thanks
 
After looking at your pictures, I have to wonder if you're pushing that fridge harder than you should. You're trying to cool an area 2-3 times as big as the fridge. I'm not suprised it gave you problems after two months. I'm also suprised it was ever able to cool below 40. The insulation job you did looked pretty solid though. I think you'll continue to have problems until you address this.
 
More great points. I shut the whole thing down when I got home and dried it all out. I double checked all the insulation for leaks, etc. I then removed the gasket from the door that I had made and put a new one on, much cleaner, much more sturdy, the door seals tighter now. Turned the fridge back on..we'll see what happens.

Suthrncomfrt, I believe the space the fridge is cooling isn't much of an issue. The little fridge was keeping that space at 38 degrees on it's lowest setting. When I had it set on '3' it was bringing the temp down into the 20's. I am still getting ice on the freezerplate so I know the fridge is getting cold enough...I put all my eggs into the 'there was an issue with the seal on the door' basket...if this turns out to not be the case then I will very reluctantly start looking at the fridge.

Door warping, didn't even think of that. Its a maple door, shouldn't be able to wrap very much, but it could be!
 
springer - Man I know that was not me, but it sounds like something I would do looking at a great selection of HB, trying to figure out which to taste first, second, third, .....
Too many decisions in life and just 1 bad one will screw you up. I don't want to take any chances and not taste the full perfection of a home brewed beer. :)

And to be on topic for once, how is the air flow around the outside coils if there are any. Or the the heat exchange walls with the coils inside. You might want to consider additional fans anywhere that might not be getting the proper amount of air flow to radiate the heat.

Of course pictures would help, I am not a fridge or freezer guru like most here.
 
springer said:
I took the fridge out and put on top of the bar I noticed the bottom of the door was below the fridge frame I aligned it with the very professional way of just bending the hinges .

I came to realized that when someone went to get a beer they would open the door and lean on it as they bent over to look into the fridge pushing the door down
Click to expand...

Apparently this is a common problem. I bought a Haier Kegerator a few months back from a local guy who sold scratch and dent. I picked the unit up and had a long chat with him. He was very knowledgeable and had sold several hundred. He alerted me to the problem with the hinge bending from people repeatedly leaning on the door when they opened it, and gave me a great solution to address it.

On the Haier, the hinge has a 7mm threaded hole that extends through the bottom of the hinge. He said just get a 7mm screw and put it though a small round piece of wood, or even like the knobs you can buy to put on cabinets. Cut the bolt to size and attach the screw into the thread in the hinge so the round piece of wood rests on the floor and supports the hinge.

I bought the stuff to modify mine but haven't gotten around to it yet, but I bet a lot of Mfr's use a pre-drilled hinge that is threaded all the way through. You'd just need to verify the thread size if your's is similiar.
 
Kauai_Kahuna said:
springer - Man I know that was not me, but it sounds like something I would do looking at a great selection of HB, trying to figure out which to taste first, second, third, .....
Too many decisions in life and just 1 bad one will screw you up. I don't want to take any chances and not taste the full perfection of a home brewed beer. :)

And to be on topic for once, how is the air flow around the outside coils if there are any. Or the the heat exchange walls with the coils inside. You might want to consider additional fans anywhere that might not be getting the proper amount of air flow to radiate the heat.

Of course pictures would help, I am not a fridge or freezer guru like most here.
Click to expand...

He did post pictures. I thought the same thing you did until I saw the pictures. The fridge really isn't enclosed enough to be having those kinds of problems.
 
Looking at the pictures, I see the coils from the fridge back up to another cabinet, but with a door closed that may not be allowing the heat to radiate out well.
Once again, the one thing I know about fridges is keep the cold air in, and get the hot air away.
If the compressor is cycling on a lot, that may be the cause or the system may be in need of a recharge.
Best of luck, I really like the bar set up.
 
This kinda scares me, I just built pretty much the same thing as cabot. Same fridge and roughly the same amount of space. Mines only been going for a couple days, and it is set on 2 and it stays 35 deg in there. I have a fan inside the fridge right in front of the freezer plate, and one on the back that blows across the fins. Both run all the time.
 
Update:

I was at a wedding all weekend out of state, got home last night. I have pretty much deduced that the fridge was stuck in its defrost mode...as the thing was staying at 45 degrees, no matter what I changed...I re-did the gasket on the door, much cleaner now but it doesn't seem that was an issue.

I normally run the fridge on setting #1...which apparently wasn't enough to kick it out of defrost. I turned it up to #4 (out of 7 or 8) last night, and lo and behold, this morning the fridge was at 30 degrees. I then turned it back down to 1.5'ish and it is once again holding strong at 38 degrees. Being a fridge n00b, my only guess is that I didn't have it set high enough to kick out of defrost once it got into it?

Regardless, I'm pleased (for now) and hope that it continues to run strong. The rear coils do kick out into another cabinet, which as no door so it's wide open, and I have a fan blowing over those coils to remove heat. Here's hoping I don't have to post about a pesky fridge ever again.

Thanks all for your suggestions!
 
cabot said:
Update:

I was at a wedding all weekend out of state, got home last night. I have pretty much deduced that the fridge was stuck in its defrost mode...as the thing was staying at 45 degrees, no matter what I changed...I re-did the gasket on the door, much cleaner now but it doesn't seem that was an issue.

I normally run the fridge on setting #1...which apparently wasn't enough to kick it out of defrost. I turned it up to #4 (out of 7 or 8) last night, and lo and behold, this morning the fridge was at 30 degrees. I then turned it back down to 1.5'ish and it is once again holding strong at 38 degrees. Being a fridge n00b, my only guess is that I didn't have it set high enough to kick out of defrost once it got into it?

Regardless, I'm pleased (for now) and hope that it continues to run strong. The rear coils do kick out into another cabinet, which as no door so it's wide open, and I have a fan blowing over those coils to remove heat. Here's hoping I don't have to post about a pesky fridge ever again.

Thanks all for your suggestions!
Click to expand...

Good deal, you had me sweatin'.
 

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