Old Broken Fridge (regular over under) on Side as Fermentation Chamber

[sk888smooth]

I have read many articles of folks taking old broken fridges and using them as frozen bottle cooled fermentation chambers.

What I have not seen is anyone putting one of these fridges on its side, which would give you a lot more real estate to fill with fermenting wort!

I measured and I found a better bottle or ferm bucket with an airlock would fit perfectly in the chamber, but my glass carboy would require a blow-off tube.

I think there is even room for a bucket in the freezer section.

My thought would be to custom wire the damper that controls the flow of air from the freezer to fridge and put most of the ice bottles in the freezer and using a thermostat to regulate the temp in the main chamber.

Am I missing anything? Does this seem feasible?

Thanks!
Kory

 

[MindenMan]

That is a very bad idea. If you lay the fridge on it's side, you take the of chance killing the compressor. Instead of the compressor drawing in gas to liquify under pressure, you will draw in liquid, and since liquids don't compress, you will blow the compressor.

 

[Fordzilla]

Yep, you will blow up the compressor. Just get a chest freezer and wire up an STC-1000 for about $20.

 

[Tinhorn]

OP is saying its non working fridge and he will be using ice bottles for cooling not compressor

seems like it would work to me

 

[Fordzilla]

Guess I need to work on my reading comprehension a little. I think it could work as long as you had enough fans to circulate air. I wouldnt want to keep maintaining all those ice bottles myself though. I'd probably duct in cold air from a mini fridge.

 

[brandonhagen1]

I did just that theres a thread some where its titled ferm chamber idea there are a few pics

 

[sk888smooth]

Yes, the fridge is busted and the compressor no longer works. I may use some form of cooling device for the freezer once I get a hold of a mini fridge or something of the sort.

 

[MindenMan]

I have a question: when the fridge died, did it make a lot of clicking/groaning noises? If it did the fridge might not be dead. There is a thing called a "hard start kit" or similar to that, that adds a new start capacitor and viol'a it works again. I personally have done this fix to a number of refrigerators, and as I remember they ran for another year or so. Check here:
http://compare.ebay.com/like/121122922093?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar