Walk in cooler project.

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lakeshorebrewer

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I just finished my small walk in cooler. The intent was to be able to control the fermentation temps as needed. I have a smaller home without AC and no basement. Since I have a decent sized entry way, I built a 5 x 3 1/2 x 8 cooler in it. I figured that since the total area is so small, I could use a cheap $99 window unit to cool it down. Sure enough, after 2" of foam boarding around the sides and top, plastic barrier on the outside and a small adjustment to the A/C unit I can get it to 40 pretty quick.

I basically disconnected the temp sensor on the coil so it would run when powered on. Then I used this thermostat initially for the cooling. I think I might get a second one for heating in the winter and hook it up to a light bulb.

This was an easy one to justify since I also wanted to be able to store apples, potatoes and whatever else might make sense. All together I kept the entire project under $500 with all new material. I bet if you had access to seconds on foam boarding and other material it could be done for half or less. I'll post some pic's tomorrow.
 
Looking forward to the pics.

I use a fridge with a Johnston controller as my fermentation chamber but I am about to retask the fridge into a kegerator so I have been thinking about the very thing you just did.
 
Sorry for the delay. Had a bit of a technical issue.

Here are a few shots of what I ended up with. Still need a little painting to do, but the construction and operational parts are all set. I put a wire shelf up kind of high so I can stack totes or bins as necessary below. Everything on the floor can move, so I'm not stuck with a certain arrangement. I had some leftover hardwood flooring panels that I used and I think it will help in keeping things clean.

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Hey I like it, and if it works it's good.
You sure about the wiring though right? It looks a little loose, but then again I'm not really that careful myself.
 
The wiring is standard manufactured plug end cables that are sealed and out of any water hazard. I think it'll be fine. The circuit feeding the cooler is on a GFI breaker just in case. ;)

I wasn't going for show as much as a place to treat the beer right.

Thanks for the comments.
 
Nice work! You may have pushed me over the edge to get something like this done....

Interesting temp. controller...did you find it locally, or on the interweb?
 
Thanks Wrenchman. I found the temp controller on the web at this link . I'm sure it's at other spots as well. I was looking for something quick and easy.
 
Is there a formula to figure out how many BTUs you need for a given cubic feet? I have a box I built that is about 81 cubic feet. It is kind of a crawl in cooler but it will work for my conical fermenter and up to 15 5 gallon buckets.

Thanks
 
I've tried to find one that I had seen before but with no luck. There are a bunch of calculators out there that will estimate your recommended "air conditioner" size. They are only estimating based on a nominal temp 70 or so I would bet. For a chill room type of thing this would not work for you obviously. I'm pretty sure the smallest common AC unit your going to find is a 5,000 BTU. Of the $90-$125 range. :)

If you are looking to setup more of a cold storage room from scratch instead of a cooler, there is a unit called the coolbot that can get you down to 32 degrees. This is where I got the pointers to sealing up the space correctly. Pretty cool stuff....no pun intended.
 
Is there a formula to figure out how many BTUs you need for a given cubic feet? I have a box I built that is about 81 cubic feet. It is kind of a crawl in cooler but it will work for my conical fermenter and up to 15 5 gallon buckets.

Thanks

I'd say your formula should be based on R-value than size.. the formula I used is in my thread (see sig). I had a 10k BTU AC in my walk-in which felt right for its size.
 
I have a place to lager I just need something I can get my fermenter in and ferment lagers. I'd think a 5K AC unit should get my crawl in cooler down to the low 50's w/out much trouble. I will reference the other thread too because I think John Beere rewired his.
 
I hit 40 with mine easily while it was 80 degrees out, just didn't try to go lower. I know it's not 95, but it's the warmest we've had since I put 'er online. I'm sure a 5k will do it for ya.

Word of warning though. I mentioned in my original post about an adjustment to the AC unit. The unit out of the box would not go below 60. There was a sensor on the coil that basically shutdown the compressor when it hit. By bypassing the sensor, the unit will run nonstop. My initial run was to go from 70 to 50 on "hi" cool. I ended up with an ice shield on the coil. Use "low" and step it down to your "keep" temp and things will go fine.
 
I will try it that way. I hope to squeeze out a little time tomorrow to get started. I already have the box built and insulated. I've been using it to ferment Belgians in the winter so I've been heating it to this point. I may run by Lowe's and grab another sheet or two if the foam insulation. I have 1 3/4" now and I may double it. l'll try to take a few pics once I'm done.
 
Here are two pics. I didn't think to take a picture of the inside before I closed it up to check how cold it would get. It got down 58F. I need to move the unit's thermostat and rewire it for my Love Controller. I looked and it looks just like the schematic on those other threads. It is around 40 cubic feet. I can get my 10 gallon conical in it and who knows how many 5 gallon buckets. I plan on brewing tomorrow and depending on how I feel I may wire it first or just use it as is since it is an ale. I'll try to get an interior shot. I have 4" of EPS which I think is about an R-16.

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Looks like your ready to cool things down. No doubt the 5k unit will keep a temp low and steady for ya. I used spray foam out of the can to help seal in questionable areas. I think it made a big difference. When I was inspecting the joints and filling them in, I didn't realize how many small gaps I had. Did you put a plastic barrier on the warm side?
 
No I did not use any barriers. I took some osb and attached 2" EPS foam to it. I have since added another 2" of foam which should be good enough. I have another area that I can lager in. I've got 3 or 4 kegs in it now and can fit up to 5. This new area I can get 4 5 gallon buckets in there at a time or two and my 10 gallon fermenter. It is good enough for now. But I still need to rewire the thing. I got the units thermostat set so it stays +/- 4F. That is to much of a swing for me. The Love Controller should solve that problem. Did you remove the units thermostat?
 
I sure did. I had to remove most of the outer metal, but it was easy to find. The web made finding the wiring diagram real simple. Not much to it disconnecting it at all. I basically just hardwired the connections that the thermostat opened when it hit 60. That's also why I mention to take it down in steps since the unit will not be able to tell when the coils icing up.
 
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