cimirie
Well-Known Member
So, after almost a year of planning, several months of half-assed material collection, and two weekends of cutting, screwing, painting, and assembling, my thorough conversion of a plain old armoire to a kegerator is complete!
I will enthusiastically post photos, when my "hiccup" is cured.
I took the guts from a mini-fridge (coils and compressor on the outside of the body; old style), and transplanted them into the insulated cooling chamber (the cooling plate, anyways; the rest is set up in the back). I have that hooked up to a Johnson Controls A419ABG-3C digital temp controller.
Everything hooks up, starts up, and starts cooling. The problem is, the "cooling tube" (I think its called a suction tube) running from the compressor to the cooling plate begins to develop a layer within 3 minutes of running.
The fridge I gutted to get the cooling guts is about 10 years old, but hasn't been used at all in about 7 (sitting in my parents' basement). I fired it up for a party about 6 weeks ago to make sure it was working just fine. It ran for a week with zero frosting and efficient cooling.
Either it has started having problems in 6 weeks of disuse, or I missed something at install, or both.
SO, I'm at a loss. I ran the unit for 3 hours and it dropped the chamber from 75 to 68 and it will go no further. Plus, I know it can't be good to run with 1/2 layer of frost around any tube.
Anybody have any ideas?
I will enthusiastically post photos, when my "hiccup" is cured.
I took the guts from a mini-fridge (coils and compressor on the outside of the body; old style), and transplanted them into the insulated cooling chamber (the cooling plate, anyways; the rest is set up in the back). I have that hooked up to a Johnson Controls A419ABG-3C digital temp controller.
Everything hooks up, starts up, and starts cooling. The problem is, the "cooling tube" (I think its called a suction tube) running from the compressor to the cooling plate begins to develop a layer within 3 minutes of running.
The fridge I gutted to get the cooling guts is about 10 years old, but hasn't been used at all in about 7 (sitting in my parents' basement). I fired it up for a party about 6 weeks ago to make sure it was working just fine. It ran for a week with zero frosting and efficient cooling.
Either it has started having problems in 6 weeks of disuse, or I missed something at install, or both.
SO, I'm at a loss. I ran the unit for 3 hours and it dropped the chamber from 75 to 68 and it will go no further. Plus, I know it can't be good to run with 1/2 layer of frost around any tube.
Anybody have any ideas?