I've had pretty decent luck over the years buying used fridges and freezers from Craig's List for under $125, including a pair of 17cf top-freezer fridges acquired in 2004 from two different sellers. One of those finally bled out and died about a month ago, and being down to a single fermentation fridge has been a pita as it halved my production bandwidth at a time that I'm ramping back up from surgically-imposed down-time (spinal fusion = no heavy lifting for a full year, but I'm all better now, thanks 
).
Anyway, back to Craig's List I went, looking for top-freezer units =/> 17cf, and readily finding a pair of contenders for $150 or under. The first seller never got back to my inquiries over almost two weeks from my first attempt, but the second replied the evening of, and by the next morning we'd lined up my visit, and the day after that I picked the 18cf unit up and landed it on our lower level deck.
I had a sketchy feeling about this unit as the house it lived in took "rustic" to a harsh level and it seemed unlikely the owner would have bought a replacement unless the original fridge was exhibiting symptoms of an imminent demise. But he had plugged the fridge in overnight per my request and an IR thermometer check of the interior showed good numbers for the freezer and food compartments, and no obvious issues were seen nor heard.
Single handedly loaded and unloaded this thing without leaving any scars...
As I transported the unit on its side it had to be allowed to rest upright for a full day before energizing the compressor, so I went ahead with the "conversion" effort and hoped it would come to life when I was finished. After bringing it inside and bleach-bombing it inside and out it was ready to be outfitted for fermentation/conditioning chamber service. First step was cutting and fitting some 3/4" plywood pieces to form a platform. The bottom piece picks up the oem mounting points and the second maximizes the platform space.
Quicky verification that there's plenty of z-axis space. This should easily handle up to six full corny kegs which would be roughly 300 pounds.
After pulling all of the part diagrams for this Kenmore fridge to ascertain the layout of tubing and wiring the next step was to start making holes through the back wall. This unit has an external condenser and internal ducting from freezer to food compartment so there was nothing traveling near the corners. Nevertheless I drilled just barely through the liner from the inside using a 1/8" bit then used a probe to verify no plumbing or wiring was behind the each of the holes I needed before widening the holes.
Inside...
Outside...
Next I mounted a 4-port manifold to the side wall and drilled the back to install a 1/4" MFL bulkhead for the incoming gas line. This will be used for both providing positive CO2 pressure during cold-crashing fermentors as well as carbonating kegs when needed.
Had carefully spotted this hole so the PTC connector would just fit between the condenser loops.
Then I mounted a 3-port hub for the ds18b20 "OneWire" sensors used by one of my BrewPi satellite controllers...
Next I drilled through the upper right corner of the back wall to install a second MFL bulkhead to be used to convey fermentation CO2 to kegs for purging.
Finally I installed the freshly painted plywood platform along with the combo stirring fan/reptile bulb heater module. Totally went fancy with the white paint as the other two fridges in the brewery are still rocking bare plywood with all of the stains that implies. I might have to paint those as well
So much space! Two italian 6.5g carboy side by side without touching the walls or each other is a convenience as in the 17cf units I had to stagger them front/back which meant I often had to remove one to get to the other.
I fired the "new" fridge up and within a couple of hours the freezer was at 0°F and the food compartment was in the "Safe" zone. It's all good in the 'hood!
Twin chambers again!
Cheers!
).Anyway, back to Craig's List I went, looking for top-freezer units =/> 17cf, and readily finding a pair of contenders for $150 or under. The first seller never got back to my inquiries over almost two weeks from my first attempt, but the second replied the evening of, and by the next morning we'd lined up my visit, and the day after that I picked the 18cf unit up and landed it on our lower level deck.
I had a sketchy feeling about this unit as the house it lived in took "rustic" to a harsh level and it seemed unlikely the owner would have bought a replacement unless the original fridge was exhibiting symptoms of an imminent demise. But he had plugged the fridge in overnight per my request and an IR thermometer check of the interior showed good numbers for the freezer and food compartments, and no obvious issues were seen nor heard.
Single handedly loaded and unloaded this thing without leaving any scars...
As I transported the unit on its side it had to be allowed to rest upright for a full day before energizing the compressor, so I went ahead with the "conversion" effort and hoped it would come to life when I was finished. After bringing it inside and bleach-bombing it inside and out it was ready to be outfitted for fermentation/conditioning chamber service. First step was cutting and fitting some 3/4" plywood pieces to form a platform. The bottom piece picks up the oem mounting points and the second maximizes the platform space.
Quicky verification that there's plenty of z-axis space. This should easily handle up to six full corny kegs which would be roughly 300 pounds.
After pulling all of the part diagrams for this Kenmore fridge to ascertain the layout of tubing and wiring the next step was to start making holes through the back wall. This unit has an external condenser and internal ducting from freezer to food compartment so there was nothing traveling near the corners. Nevertheless I drilled just barely through the liner from the inside using a 1/8" bit then used a probe to verify no plumbing or wiring was behind the each of the holes I needed before widening the holes.
Inside...
Outside...
Next I mounted a 4-port manifold to the side wall and drilled the back to install a 1/4" MFL bulkhead for the incoming gas line. This will be used for both providing positive CO2 pressure during cold-crashing fermentors as well as carbonating kegs when needed.
Had carefully spotted this hole so the PTC connector would just fit between the condenser loops.
Then I mounted a 3-port hub for the ds18b20 "OneWire" sensors used by one of my BrewPi satellite controllers...
Next I drilled through the upper right corner of the back wall to install a second MFL bulkhead to be used to convey fermentation CO2 to kegs for purging.
Finally I installed the freshly painted plywood platform along with the combo stirring fan/reptile bulb heater module. Totally went fancy with the white paint as the other two fridges in the brewery are still rocking bare plywood with all of the stains that implies. I might have to paint those as well
So much space! Two italian 6.5g carboy side by side without touching the walls or each other is a convenience as in the 17cf units I had to stagger them front/back which meant I often had to remove one to get to the other.
I fired the "new" fridge up and within a couple of hours the freezer was at 0°F and the food compartment was in the "Safe" zone. It's all good in the 'hood!
Twin chambers again!
Cheers!
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