Refrigerator Conversion for Fermentation

[kenjipsy]

Hi all:

Just bought a full size fridge/freezer and am trying to convert it for use as a fermentation chamber. Have a 2 stage controller and a Fermwrap (http://morebeer.com/products/fermwrap-heater.html?site_id=5) for heat, so want to store the carboy in the fridge and use the fridge for cooling, wrap for heating, managed by the controller.

My question is this, since I'll be using the FermWrap for heating, and since the temperature probe from the controller will also be present, how do I feed these wires out of the fridge? Has anyone found a good solution for this?

Could just feed them through the door, but it would leave a gap. Could drill a hole in the fridge, but seems like an extreme solution.

Any ideas?

Thanks all for your help

 

[MindenMan]

Generally speaking the cable attached to the probes are pretty small, and don't cause temperature changes. If your probe cable is larger than the wires in the antenna for your home stereo, then you might to notch the door seal.

 

[Hammy71]

Some fridges have a drain plug in the bottom. Mine didn't, so I cut a small piece of the plastic away from the inside wall of the fridge. Maybe an inch square. This way I could feel inside the hole for wires or refrigeration lines. Then I drilled a hole from the inside of the fridge to the outside. You hit one of the refrigeration lines, you might as well haul the thing to the scrap yard, so why risk drilling blindly from the outside. I also use a fermwrap for heating in my fridge. However, you don't need to wrap it physically around your fermenter. Mine is tywrapped across the back of the fridge. I added a small computer fan that comes on with the heat and is more than capable of warming the whole fridge. My basement is around 60 in the winter and I've had the fermentation chamber pushing 80 degrees for a Belgian Dubble. This way your can have two fermenters in the chamber without worrying about which one gets the probe or the fermwrap. Just a thought.