Temp control for fridge with full freezer function?

[RoomTenONine]

I have an old fridge that I use for my 2 kegs. My wife keeps extra food in the freezer on top. I need to install a precise thermostat for the fridge part, but want to keep the freezer fully functional. Is this possible? Most of the talk I hear about precise control thermostats involve a fridge/freezer being fully converted with no freezer functionality.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Catt22]

I have an old fridge that I use for my 2 kegs. My wife keeps extra food in the freezer on top. I need to install a precise thermostat for the fridge part, but want to keep the freezer fully functional. Is this possible? Most of the talk I hear about precise control thermostats involve a fridge/freezer being fully converted with no freezer functionality.

Thanks in advance.

It ain't gonna happen, or at least not with your run of the mill combo refrigerator freezers. The evaporator coils are usually only in the freezer compartment and an intermittent fan is used to circulate air past the evaporator to cool the refrigerator compartment as needed. Depending on what temperature you have the refrigerator compartment set to on your external controller and the ambient temperature, the freezer compartment may or may not stay below freezing and it likely won't be consistent as the ambient temperatures fluctuate. Surprisingly, when the ambient temps are on the high side, the compressor will run more frequently and the freezer compartment may actually stay colder than when the ambient temperatures are lower. So, with mine, the freezer will stay below freezing (but not below zero) in the hot summer, but not in the colder months. The solution is to buy your wife a small chest freezer for her to use. You can also get some benefit as that would be a good place to store your hops. Use the fridge exclusively for your beer whether as a serving fridge or a fermentation chamber.

 

[RoomTenONine]

Thanks. Unfortunately that was my suspicion. Good news is I've already sourced a near-new freezer chest for $20 on CL.

When i covert the fridge to the digital 'stat, how much of a variation from the fridge section should I expect the freezer to be? I assume I can keep bottles/cans in there pretty easily.

 

[Catt22]

Thanks. Unfortunately that was my suspicion. Good news is I've already sourced a near-new freezer chest for $20 on CL.

When i covert the fridge to the digital 'stat, how much of a variation from the fridge section should I expect the freezer to be? I assume I can keep bottles/cans in there pretty easily.

Good score! It will depend primarily on two things, your target temp in the refrigerator portion and the ambient temp where the fridge is located. If your target temp in the fridge portion is low enough (lagering or serving temps), the freezer compartment will get to freezing or below. OTOH, if you are keeping the fridge portion at higher temps for fermentation, the freezer compartment won't normally reach freezing unless the ambient temperatures are quite high. The temps will be difficult to predict and likely won't be very consistent. Generally, if the fridge is at serving temp or below, the freezer compartment will reach freezing temps, but not when the refrigerator compartment is held at warmer fermentation temps of say 64F or thereabouts.