Fridge/Freezer Question

[Tubbster85]

So I might get the go ahead to buy a fridge/freezer to ferment in and put the keg in when done fermenting. The only stipulation is that it has to have the freezer on top. Not knowing a whole lot about fridges/freezers other than it holds food and delicious beers, if I do use it for fermenting and have the Johnson control unit or equivalent on it, will the freezer still freeze while the fridge part is controlled at a certain temperature?

 

[thargrav]

It won't work - keeping the fridge at brewing temperature will make the freezer too warm.

 

[BetterSense]

It won't work - keeping the fridge at brewing temperature will make the freezer too warm.

 

[Tubbster85]

Is there a way to make it work?

 

[metal850]

Is there a way to make it work?

No.

 

[bleme]

I have seen people fix a side-by-side so the freezer side is serving temp and the fridge side is fermenting temp. That is about as far as you can push it.

 

[nebben]

Not really. The freezer and refrigerator are both getting cooled by the same compressor. A Johnson controller or similar turns the power on and off, without any special stuff.

I have read a few builds where folks will put a heat exchanger in the freezer and that is hooked to a pump and thermostat, in a closed loop system which cools a fermentation chamber and still keeps the freezer intact. It takes the refrigerator part out of the equation for fermentation control, and could allow you to store chilled beer in bottles or kegs in the refrigerator.