Refrigerator/freezer fermentation chamber question

[scb44]

The situation is that I have a large upright refrigerator-freezer with freezer on top...

Can I set up a fermentation temperature control, like brewpi, or the like and control my ale fermentation temperature in the refrigerator AND still keep the freezer frozen for all swmbo's frozen stuff at the same time?

Thank you for your input

 

[m00ps]

I dont think you can unless there is a separte power cord for the fridge and freezer. The controllers work by turning the unit on/off to keep a certain temperaure (which is much higher than they are designed for) The unit would be constantly shutting off both the fridge and freezer. The freezer may be a good deal colder than your fermentation chamvber, but i do not think it would stay frozen

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Craigslist for a chest freezer if you have the room.You can find them pretty cheap

 

[bsperr]

I think it could be possible. As far as I understand, the top-freezer refrigerators just have one compressor that cools the freezer section. The thermostat is located in the fridge section, which calls the compressor to cool the freezer section and powers a fan to blow some of that cold air into the fridge section. Once you've bypassed the internal thermostat, it seems like you could hook up one temperature controller to cycle power to the compressor and maintain the freezer at a one set point and set up another temperature controller (or just use a dual temperature controller with two probes) to operate just the fan and damper that blows cold air from the freezer section into the fridge to maintain the fridge at a different set point. There are a lot of moving parts on a fridge/freezer though, so you might just end up with a brick.

 

[scb44]

Thank you for the replies. I have learned enough to either use the fridge on a dedicated basis or get another unit...