ferm chamber idea

so i have a fridge with a freezer on top that quit workin about a month ago i was thinkin instead of hauling it away i might be able to make it a ferm chamber by turning it on its side and cutting out a hole in the separation fridge/freezer and mounting a mini fridge by removeing the freezer door and sealing it up good do any of you think that this will work sorry for the long post thanks

 

Hm it might work, the operating refrigerator _must_ however be in the normal upright position (it cannot be operated laying on its side).

 

ya i was going to put the fridge freezer that quit working on its side then was going to seal a mini fridge in the freezer door after removing the door sounds sound to me it will just look like an L

 

I think that would work just fine if the operating fridge is in its upright normal position. I've seen people build 'extensions' for their fridges inexpensively from say 1" or 2" thick foam insulation too, that might be a little easier to manage since its so lightweight.

 

thanks thats what i wanted to here i will post pics when i start the build

 

With something like that you'll probably want a small fan maybe in the small fridge to come on at least when the small fridge runs to help circulate the cool air throughout the chamber.

 

Definitely leave it upright. I bet you'd start cursing yourself every time you opened the door and either had to crouch under it or stand to the side while trying to get a fermenter in there.

 

Maybe another option though it would involve more cutting and maybe weaken the fridge too much, put the fridge on its back so the door opens like a chest freezer, chop out the top above the freezer and between the fridge and freezer then seal the working fridge into where you choppped out the top of the freezer.

That might also make for a possible dual temp zone fermenter. If you just cut say two holes between the freezer and fridge section and put two fans there (one to suck and one to blow), you could have a temp controller for the fridge side to come on and draw cool air out of the freezer section to maintain its temp, while the mini fridge keeps the freezer section cool. The freezer section would always have to be colder or the same temp as the fridge section though.

 

not a bad idea porcupine73 ill think on that thanks

 

Do you have to buy additional parts for this franken-ferm? If so I would just try to score a chest freezer off of Craigslist.

 

no add parts i have everything i need except the metal tape

 

so the begging of the project i did not take as many pics as i would have liked but got busy and forgot about pics but here are some more when im done

 

Hm interesting. Yes I think if you can get a fan in there to circulate the air that should work out. That little fridge I think I have that same model, usually those types just have that metal plate inside that the refrigerant runs through. If the fan can maybe blow/suck right across that it should help to circulate the cool air. I think that will be the biggest potential issue, keeping the coolness circulating throughout the fermenter. That and probably condensation buildup but that's always a problem.

 

That's not too shabby! Excellent "thinking outside the box" project. If there was only a way to get that door out of the way completely when opening it.

 

It seems like if it had some 2-by lumber underneath it it would lift it up enough for the door to almost completely open. But it looks like there really isn't room to put that underneath there, looks like the bench had to get notched out pretty good to fit it under there.

 

Or maybe flip it around so the door opens up and attach some eye hooks to the door and wall, the you could use some sort of cord to keep it up when moving things in and out of there... Just throwing that out there.

 

the door does open all the way and sits flat on the floor my table saw was in the way. it is not really a mini fridge it is a ewave wine cooler so i might need to get a better one but as of now its siting at 58* and its not sealed up yet

 

Ohhhh ok, is that the wine cooler that uses the peltier junction? That might not work too good for cooling that much space, especially if it gets hot in that area.

 

the what junction

 

Peltier junction, it's a solid state way of moving heat from one side to the other. A lot of the wine chillers and the beverage coolers use those. But they are limited to maybe 40F drop over ambient and usually they don't have a lot of cooling capacity. As opposed to a true refrigerator with a compressor and refrigerant.

 

i see and im not sure the chamber is sitting at about 60* with out being sealed up but i want to get an actual fridge anyway for lagering purposes the cooler was just sitting collecting dust anyway so i used it for now

 

The cooler might be enough if its cool in the garage or shop where that unit is. Like if it's only 60 in the shop and you want it at 50 it might be able to do that. It's when it's like 80 in the shop and you want it 40 in the fermenter it is probably not going to be able to do that where a regular small refrigerator might be able to do it if a fan is blowing across its evaporator.

 

ya ill get a mini fridge soon still need a fan to thanks for all the help i will post more pics soon

 

Great thread, guys. I was thinking of building a Frankentherm with a mini fridge, blue foam, and plywood. Does anyone have any temperature control ideas that are cheaper than the Johnson Controls unit that homebrew suppliers sell

 

stc 1000 from ebay seller mixtea $20 you have to wire it yourself but thats not hard

 

Yes absolutely, the STC-1000! It has both heat and cool contacts, and you can get them even shipped from the U.S. for maybe $23 shipped. There's several threads with diagrams though it's pretty easy to hook up.

 

That's what I did, most of the parts you need for the build I'm sure you can get cheap or in my case free! I built my entire fermentation chamber and controller for a little under 60 bucks. I just had to be patient trying to find a cheap chest freezer. Finally got one for 25 bucks off Craigslist. Also on that note I would get a chest freezer to use with a controller, more range for lagering and cold crashing etc.

 

The STC 1000 looks like a great unit. Nice that it can run heat, too, as my cellar can get below ferm temperature range in the winter. Thanks!

 

so for an update, everything is working better than i could have hoped all is good