Fridgerater Closet Idea

[fauxtoe]

I am new to this forum and new to brewing in an apartment and not a house. So one of the issues I'm having is finding a cool enough place to store my brews. I've been looking at buying 1-2 compact fridges to cleverly hide around the apartment but I had what I think is a good idea.

What if I were to get one mini fridge and remove the door. Then while using a digital regulator/thermometer have the closet door that it's in always closed. That way it is cooling a slightly larger area but it only really needs to lower it 5-10 degrees at most.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[jaytizzle]

I highly doubt that would work. And by highly doubt I mean it won't.

 

[NewBrew2]

To elaborate a little more on what jaytizzle is saying…

Any cooling you get from the fridge will be more than offset by the heat dissipated from the back of the mini fridge. You will end up with a net heat increase.

 

[stratslinger]

You'd have to insulate the heck out of the closet. In theory, if you could do just that, it might work. But you're talking insulating to the point of making that closet darned near air tight - probably not worth the expense and effort in a rented space.

EDIT: D'oh - didn't even think of the heat coming off the coils... Good point, that.

 

[najel]

You would probably want to get a spare door for the closet, cut it at the bottom so the back of the fridge can stick out, and insulate the upper part of the door. That way it might actually cool the closet. The only question will be how to get stuff into the fridge part.

 

[1KD1]

I'm having similar issues. I live in a house but turned the basement into an apartment for my mother. I am trying to turn a section of my office into a fermenting chamber. It worked out ok when it was winter but now that spring temps are here, it is getting much harder to control the temps.

I was thinking of purchasing one of the air conditioners that can sit in the middle of the room. They are expensive (about $300). I have never seen one of these air conditioners in action so I am not sure how good they cool and how the heat is transferred/released.

Anyone try this? I don't have an exterior wall to put a window unit air conditioner in or I would have went that route.

 

[helibrewer]

I'm having similar issues. I live in a house but turned the basement into an apartment for my mother. I am trying to turn a section of my office into a fermenting chamber. It worked out ok when it was winter but now that spring temps are here, it is getting much harder to control the temps.

I was thinking of purchasing one of the air conditioners that can sit in the middle of the room. They are expensive (about $300). I have never seen one of these air conditioners in action so I am not sure how good they cool and how the heat is transferred/released.

Anyone try this? I don't have an exterior wall to put a window unit air conditioner in or I would have went that route.

If you are in a house you own, you might think about a portable shed that you rigid foam insulate and use a window A/C unit.

I have this unit in my garage: http://www.restlesscellars.com/photos.php?view=preview&category=1&image=9 also run with a window A/C unit, I can lager at about 2C and using a FermWrap, I can have Ales going at higher temps in the same unit. I would think with a little effort, this could actually be an outside unit too...would want it in the shade I would think.

 

[fauxtoe]

Thanks for all the replies, I found this while googling:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/mini-fridge-collar-fermentation-chamber-179102/

Was searching in the wrong forum section. And I had the obvious duh moment when I realized the heat the fridge makes to cool the fridge would off set the cooling effects if open. Thanks again

 

[fauxtoe]

My reply seems to have disappeared but in short, I found this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/mini-fridge-collar-fermentation-chamber-179102/

 

[1KD1]

If you are in a house you own, you might think about a portable shed that you rigid foam insulate and use a window A/C unit.

I appreciate the idea but my home owners association only allows one shed and mine is full of crap. I don't have any shade in my yard either.

I hate to give up space in the garage, my garage is full of tools, motorcycles and one bay is saved for mom's car. I am already planning to build a keezer which will end up in garage...

 

[Naptown]

I think if you keep the doors open, the compressor can freeze up. That might be a realistic pitfall too.

 

[helibrewer]

OK, another option is to use the minifridge with the door open, but use 2" foam to "enlarge" the fridge to a size that will hold a couple carboys/fermentors. This will keep the cool section isolated from the compressor. I've seen this done online somewhere and I think it works quite well and you can control the size/shape of the expanded area.

 

[Raenon]

OK, another option is to use the minifridge with the door open, but use 2" foam to "enlarge" the fridge to a size that will hold a couple carboys/fermentors. This will keep the cool section isolated from the compressor. I've seen this done online somewhere and I think it works quite well and you can control the size/shape of the expanded area.

This, so much this. It's essentially the same idea as a keezer with a collar. As long as the area that you're keeping cold is relatively sealed, it's actually capable of cooling a fairly large space, especially if you're not trying to keep it down at the lower bounds, and not constantly opening it up. You'll just have to give it a little more time to cool off new carboys that are added.
You could then put that entire unit into the closet if you wished, but I'd recommend leaving the door open to vent.


Several other threads on here have also discussed basically gutting a refrigerator or freezer for the compressor and coils and mounting them on other boxes or even through closet walls, but the big point is that the hot coils can't be in the same place as the cold air, otherwise you'll actually have a net increase- the power from the compressor running has to go somewhere, and it's going to be heat.