Side-by-Side Kegerator/Ferm Chamber

[SanPancho]

The dividing wall is empty (to my knowledge), but I just used the existing hole going from the freezer to fridge. I picked up this fan which blows enough to get the fridge down to 30 degrees (as cold as I've tried it). That fan was a great plug and play into the existing hole, much better than a big square one (IMO)

i actually already have a fan just like that. its what i use in my freezer chamber to get the air moving.

you have a pic of your mounting for it?

 

[MG_OR]

This was definitely one of those solutions that I thought I would fix up to look better/cleaner but it's working well so...

 

[SanPancho]

ha. yeah, i'm with you. have neither time nor inclination to worry about "pretty" just yet. function, then form. maybe.

 

[SanPancho]

so on my setup i removed ice maker and air channels, as well as gate for the fridge vent. but my vent was way up in the corner high and tight.

took some cutting to get it to cover the majority of the vent. i ran the freezer temp probe into freezer section since it seemed like a good idea to put it back where i found it. then i used some of this window/door sealing putty stuff to seal it up under the louvers and stop as much airflow as possible from the freezer side.

right now i've got my inkbird set to 65F, and fridge side is in the low 50s. i'll wait until tomorrow and see if it comes up to ambient, hopefully at least into the 60s. at that point i think i'm good and dont really need to worry about heating. mostly do lagers and sours, so if its not a lager i'll just leave it out in the basement, possibly with a heat wrap depending on the yeast.

the only thing that sucks is that the fan is making a kind of rattling noise when its running. i'm not sure exactly what it is, dont really want to take it all apart and look but i have a feeling the fan may not like to be upside down, which was the way i had to turn it to make it mate up with the vent opening.

fingers crossed, but so far it looks like i can have the ferm chamber on one side and a 24/7 freezer working on the other side. basically keep all my brewing crap in one place and make the wife happy im not taking up space in the kitchen.

lets see what she says when i bring in the kegerator!

 

[SanPancho]

You are looking at potentially a more complicated solution than me as I never went so far as to separate out the existing fan (and have no clue how to tap into the wiring on that - I never found a schematic, just trial and error). I believe you need the existing fan running when the compressor does (to pull cold air across it), but I'm no expert on refrigeration. I didn't have an independent fan to move air from Freezer to Fridge, just some ductwork that pushed air over when the fan/compressor kicked on. If you have an independent fan that may work though.

My plan (now since I'm using the freezer as a freezer) is to disconnect the ducting (so the cold air is only on the freezer side) and use the Inkbird to control a computer fan to pull air from the freezer and take temp readings on the ferm side. I'll see what temps I can get with just the fan, then see if I need to add heat or need more cooling or what. The hope is to use the fridge as ferm/lagering chamber as needed.

what temp does your ferm side sit at? i'm finding that the fridge section seems to just want to stay at 40ish. i cant really feel any cold air leaking in from the freezer side but i'm guessing it must be happening because that's where the ferm side keeps settling.

 

[YeastFeast]

what temp does your ferm side sit at? i'm finding that the fridge section seems to just want to stay at 40ish. i cant really feel any cold air leaking in from the freezer side but i'm guessing it must be happening because that's where the ferm side keeps settling.

@SanPancho Hey, did you ever figure this out? I plan on doing the same thing as you. I want to keep the freezer as-is and cool/heat the fridge side (fermenting ales) with my Brewpi controller using a fan with dryer vent for the cool and my homemade reptile bulb for the heat.
I had everything working great with a small wine fridge fermenting in a brew bucket but I have a conical now and need a bigger chamber!

 

[SanPancho]

@SanPancho Hey, did you ever figure this out? I plan on doing the same thing as you. I want to keep the freezer as-is and cool/heat the fridge side (fermenting ales) with my Brewpi controller using a fan with dryer vent for the cool and my homemade reptile bulb for the heat.
I had everything working great with a small wine fridge fermenting in a brew bucket but I have a conical now and need a bigger chamber!

Yeah. Long story short, you can either Hotwire the existing damper controller if you can figure it out, or just remove it and then rig up a fan with your dryer vent cover over the hole.
best advice—
FIND ALL AIR LEAKS AND SEAL THEM.

seal the main damper vent tight, seal any return vent (but might need to open back up when crashing ), and seal any other ports you find. ( look for one near the veggie bins at bottom). Do your best to have no cold air coming in unless you’re calling for cooling with fan on.
See here
Side by side fridge- a freezer and a ferm chamber- initial success

 

[SanPancho]

Phase II will add another fan for a push / pull, also adding another controller and using the TSS2 to add heat and control the fan for strictly the fermentation chamber.

did you ever add the 2nd fan? was it worth the time/energy to put it in?