hole from freezer to fridge section

I have an Amana standard freezer on top fridge that I use as a ferm chamber with a Johnson A419 controller.

It takes a long time to cold crash and get the wort down those last few degrees to pitching temp (it's summer time).

After doing a lot of searching (and not finding much) I finally just jumped in a cut a 10"x22" hole in the bottom of the freezer section opening it up to the fridge.

I was careful and didn't break anything. The controls are still mounted just above the fridge door. I removed the metal and lights and that gives me a little more vertical clearance for doing 15-20 gallon batches requiring 3 or 4 buckets. The lights are now mounted in the freezer section.

Questions:
- has anyone else done this? links to your build?
- should it work as I expect?
- moisture problems? smell? do I need baking soda or something to freshen it up.
- want to see photos?

 

Id like to see some pics ive never done anything like this but i like seeing others ideas.

 

ok, i'll post some photos. you know the disclaimer. you fridge is probably different from mine. your fridge might be destroyed, and/or you may be electrocuted doing what i did.

First off I unscrewed the temp control selectors. On my fridge they are just above the door opening on the fridge section. I removed the lights that were just snapped into the metal.

Then I pried down and removed the metal that covered the styrofoam between the freezer and fridge:


Now I can see where the wires were located.

I took a spade drill bit and made a hole right in the middle.

Then starting at that hole, I took a jig saw with a fine tooth blade and cut out the final hole.

I replaced the controls in with the original screws. And zip tied the lose wires and lights into the lower part of the freezer section onto the wire shelf.







There was a ground wire that use to be attached to the metal that was removed so I regrounded it to another screw:



I can report back in I brew again in two weeks to say how this has affected performance.

 

Thanks for the pics and explanation, I'm about to do something similar.

 

I see I had not reported back as promised. Today I am cold crashing two buckets of beer with a total of 8.5 gallons of beer:

At 1:45pm the fridge was unplugged and fermentation had fully completed... beer has been at 68F for a few days. I set the temp controller to 35F to cold crash.

Now, I just went to look (5:24pm), the probe in the thermowell is reading 40F.

So, it appears to have helped.