refrigerator floor pad/protection

[theinterneti]

I'm using a stand up fridge for my fermentor and I'm trying to get around building a shelf inside. The fridge comes with our rental and so it's vital that I don't damage it. I'd like to get two 6 gallon buckets in there on the floor. It's tight, but they should fit width wise. I'm quite worried about that amount of weight being applied to the floor of the fridge without something to distribute the weight.

Any proven alternatives? Like a board with some sort of foam pad on the bottom? Maybe some 2x4's laid out over a soft base to protect the plastic floor of the fridge? A bunch of two liter bottles capped with air in them glued to the bottom of a board? So many ideas flying around in my head, most seem like they wouldn't work.

 

[day_trippr]

I have three fridges used for fermentation and conditioning and for each I removed all of the shelves and installed 3/4" plywood platforms with supports underneath where needed. Aside from all the gas and electrical lines I ran into all three of them I could revert them to their original states in about five minutes - nothing is glued or screwed down, relying on gravity and inertia alone You just need to remember where you stashed all the inside stuff.

These two I use mostly for fermentation, the one on the right had the molded-in supports on three sides perfectly located 3/4" above the hump, the other only had the side supports in the right places hence the substantial support.

Cheers!

 

[theinterneti]

Hmm, I think that even I can manage something this easy.
Sadly though, my fridge rails have tops and bottoms and a little notch. So I can't pull something as easy as what you've done on the right. Is that just glue you are using on the left, or are there some screws in there?

side questions - it appears that you have your thermo leads insulated and strapped down to the side of your carboys, I have mine suspended in the middle(ish) of the fridge. Is that bad?
What are the ball lock QD's for? Maybe you also keep kegs in these?
Do I need to add a heat source? My fridge is in the house and so I thought the ambient heat would be sufficient as a heating source.

 

[theinterneti]

Hmm, I think that even I can manage something this easy.
Sadly though, my fridge rails have tops and bottoms and a little notch. So I can't pull something as easy as what you've done on the right. Is that just glue you are using on the left, or are there some screws in there?

side questions - it appears that you have your thermo leads insulated and strapped down to the side of your carboys, I have mine suspended in the middle(ish) of the fridge. Is that bad?
What are the ball lock QD's for? Maybe you also keep kegs in these?
Do I need to add a heat source? My fridge is in the house and so I thought the ambient heat would be sufficient as a heating source.

Forgot to mention. I've see quite a few super helpful posts that you've made over the years. Thank you for your contribution to the community and being so helpful!

 

[day_trippr]

On the fridge to the left the two vertical risers are screwed into the sleeper, but otherwise I didn't screw any of the platforms into either unit. The large plywood shelves fit into the respective fridge molded supports that were originally used to hold the lowest shelves that had the rails for the bottom bins.

If you can't pick up a set of molded supports with the platform, what I did for my third fridge might work for you (sorry about the focus, I used an ancient phone I keep in the brewery as an mp3 player).

This fridge has the bottom shelf supports a couple of inches too high to comfortably fit kegs under the controls that stick down a few inches. So this shelf relies on the fridge floor and uses risers for support. There's also a thin lateral riser at the rear sitting atop the compressor hump holding up the back of the shelf.

Again, nothing screwed/glued/taped to the fridge, so it'd be easy to revert back to its oem state...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

I use a program called "BrewPi" that runs on a Raspberry Pi SBC and which controls multiple Arduino UNO remote "minion" units that manage the temperature inside each fridge via dual relays, one for the compressor and the other for a small heat source (I used to use 40w light bulbs but now use 40w ceramic heat bulbs). BrewPi uses both a "Beer" temperature probe as well as a "Fridge" probe to decide when to turn on what, so what you're seeing are "Beer" probes pinned to the carboys under 1" thick closed cell foam pads using velcro straps.

Do you need a heater? I ferment year 'round in a usually unheated, mostly above grade 1st floor, and in January it can get well below the best temperatures for the ale strains I use. So, yeah, I need heaters, but again, small scale - anything larger actually makes the control less stable.

Each of my three fridges has a 4-way manifold with gas drops, for purging, maintaining positive pressure during cold-crashing, and for charging kegs...

hth!

Cheers!