Removing that darn freezer compartment

[orion2598]

Awhile ago I bought a keg fridge from some college guys. They took a regular upright fridge with the freezer on top and removed the seperation between the fridge and freezer. This made for one giant compartment which now houses my 5 kegs and works great with a temp controller.

I have another fridge I am using as my ferment chamber, but the fridge area isn't tall enough. I would like to do the same thing and remove the seperation between it and the freezer compartment so I can get more height in there.

Does anyone know how to do this, or should I just take a sledge to it? Is there anything I should be worried about other than shocking myself!

Thanks!
Greg

 

[Dwain]

Welll, most "regular" refrigerators have their evaporator coil in between the freezer section and the refrigerator section. I think you would have to move that coil. Maybe to the back wall of the unit, then remove the divider. Also, most of the newer refrigerators are frost free so they have a defrosting heater attached to the coil. I'm not sure if you could just unplug the defroster or not. If you do some searches, you can see where different people have moved the coils. Post back and let us know what you end up doing. Luck - Dwain

 

[ClaudiusB]

orion2598 post pictures and you will receive a lot of good advice from our members.
Guessing how your fridge looks is not the best idea.

Cheers,
ClaudiusB

 

[orion2598]

Great idea, wish I had thought of it.

Will do later tonight.

Thanks!
Greg

 

[orion2598]

Here you go.

I can clearly see a copper tube in the third picture when I tried to open the divider between the fridge and the freezer. Am i screwed?

Thanks again!
Greg

 

[orion2598]

Looking at the manual, it would appear that the fridge and freezer are totally different chassis. If that's the case my chances of combining them look slim. Does this seem right to you?

 

[orion2598]

With the help of my dremel, a screwdriver, and a little luck, this turned out to be pretty straightforward. The two compartments were just plasic with about 2 inces of foam in between. A little cutting and prying and we're done!

There was only 1 wire in the whole setup for the on/off door switch. Pretty easy to find.

BTW, this makes one heck of a mess so don't do it indoors!

 

[EvilTOJ]

Well that's cool! I didn't know you could do that.