Piggy back fermenting chamber?

[spittybug]

I have a standard refrigerator in the garage in which I keep my kegs and have mounted taps on the front door. Pretty standard build and I love it. I also have a wooden, wheeled cabinet that I've lined and sealed with pink foam board that I ferment in. I simply keep the bucket in there with a couple of freezer packs and it holds temps fairly well. I can get it down to low 60's using it, but it takes diligence and lots of attention to keep a stable temperature.

My idea is to locate the cabinet right next to the fridge and attach them with two air tubes (well insulated and very short). One would have a small electric muffin fan inside it to move air. PID controlled with temp sensor in the fermentor chamber. The other tube is just the warm air return. So long as the air is moving, the refrigerator ought to be able to bring the fermentor chamber down to lagering temps since these are higher than the normal fridge temp. Don't you think? Ideally I would love to tap it from the freezer so that I could get REALLY cold air in there to crash or even freeze concentrate, but I'm of the understanding that the top freezer units are surrounded by the cooling coils and therefore the only safe place to drill holes would be through the door. While doable, this would make the hoses longer than I would want and make things unsightly. I don't believe that the side walls of the fridge have cooling coils....anyone know for sure?

I did some searching and didn't find anyone that had tried this. Surely someone has...... Anyone see issues? Suggestions? Thanks!

 

[spittybug]

I went ahead and did this. Works great. I found out from an appliance guy that the side walls didn't have coils, so it was safe to drill. I'm using a pair of PVC pipes and have covered them in expanding foam to insulate them. In one I included a union of two adapters to increase the diameter -<>- and put a temp controlled computer fan within it. Clicks on and off as necessary. I can get the cabinet down to lager temps no problem. First two beers out of my controlled cabinet were significantly better!!!!!!!!!

 

[Assoc]

Cool idea, can you post a few pictures.

 

[OleBrewing]

I have a similar plan in process. Got a trailor hous fridge for 30 bucks. Plan is to put on a plat form with extended ferm chamber, controlled obviously.
I will be drilling holes in the side of fridge for air distribution and running pvc pipes.

Its all a thought at this point though and haven't found time to do it.

Congrats on your ferm chamber.

 

[sikkingj]

Spotty bug, can you post some pictures of your setup, it sound interesting.

 

[spittybug]

Here are some shots. PVC pipes inside freezer, through roof of insulated cabinet, and of the whole setup. Don't mind the big ugly expanding foam blob, I was getting artistic and made it look like beer foam! One of the parallel pipes has a wide point (pair of adapters to larger pipe) in which the fan is mounted. Now all buried in foam. The temp controller on top simply turns that little fan on or off. Temp drop is immediate.

The only thing I need to do is make a couple of plugs to put in the pipes when the cabinet is not in us.