Side by side fridge Kegerator

I’m going to throw this out there in the hopes that someone has an idea of I overlooked something. I’ll put up some pics later as it may be difficult to visualize.

I’m in the process of converting a side by side fridge/freezer into a kegerator on the freezer side with 2 taps through the area where the water/ice dispenser was and fridge for bottle storage or cold crash on the fridge side. I currently have a Love TSS2-2100 that is capable of controlling two temps independently. I was able to wire it up to keep a consistent 42F on the freezer side. Compressor and fan are switched on/off when temperature gets too hot/cold.

The problem I am running into with this model of fridge (old Whirlpool 1990’s model) is it doesn’t appear to have two thermostats to control fridge and freezer temperatures. Inside the fridge there are two knobs labeled for freezer temp and fridge temp. The freezer temp knob only controls a metal rod that manually opens or closes the vent from freezer to fridge side to supposedly make the freezer colder which doesn’t make any sense. The fridge control knob doesn’t control a damper and seems to only control speed (also probably on and off) of the fan on the freezer side which blows cold air up and into the fridge.

I was having problems wiring the LOVE to the fridge thermostat so I decided to try letting the fridge control its own temperature however it was only able to get down to 55F. Partially because the freezer is only at 42 so its more difficult to cool the fridge and partially because compressor and fan shut off when the freezer shuts off so the fan can’t keep blowing coldish air into the fridge. I can probably rig it to get the fan independent of the compressor to cool the fridge even if the freezer is at temp but I am thinking it still won’t have enough power to cool below 50F.

Ideally the fridge would be set at a similar temp to the freezer side so I could just cut a hole between the freezer and fridge. To speed up cooling I could add a computer fan to blow cold air into the fridge and control it with the LOVE.

Anyone have experience with computer fans?

I just used a 12V computer fan wired with a power supply that came from some kind of battery charger or cordless drill (you know the little 2" square cube type). Just make sure it is rated for near 12V and can handle the current draw of the fan (mine is 13.5V 220 mA if I remember correclty). I have it wired into a home thermostat as part of a fermentation controller, but you could integrate with your LOVE instead so the fan wouldn't always have to run.

Looking at just getting an AC computer fan since it will be easier to power off the fridge. Anyone have ideas what CFM to use? Range is anywhere from 30 to 100.

ArtVandelay said:

Looking at just getting an AC computer fan since it will be easier to power off the fridge. Anyone have ideas what CFM to use? Range is anywhere from 30 to 100.

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I've been using a 110v AC muffin fan in my converted freezer and in one of my refrigerators too. I use the 80 mm fans. I'm not sure of the CFM rating, but it's on the high side IIRC. The are rated at 22watts, so they don't use any significant amount of power and I have them wired to run full time. They are working out very well for me,.