Brew Fridge

[Rick_UK]

Hi Fellas

After recently stating with confidence that I don't need a brew fridge given my set up and living oop North where it's always cold and wet, I picked up a free old fridge someone had left out which is in good working order. It needs a damn good clean make no mistake but for next to nowt it'd be silly to pass up an opportunity for some tinkering and fiddling...

The fridge is a basic under counter one so there's only room for 1 FV which I can live with, but it does have a built in freezer compartment which I'm worried will cause problems with the STC Controlled cooling. Just wondered if anyone more experienced in such matters can advise on this.

Sorry if this sounds a bit thick!

Rick

[Fil]

all depends on the fridge, pics may help, But as a rule the fridges with a freezer compartment are not the best choice as the cooling is focused on the freezer bit.

i have seen some builds documented with the freezer compartment radiator bent back and down to emulate the more common back panel chilling fridges BUT a wee tear or rent in the cooling tubes and their connections will dump the refrigerant gas effectivly killing the fridge..

if u can fit a brew in underneath it pointing a fan inside at the cooling radiator and pulling off the freezer bit door could be all u need do to effectivly circulate the cold from the top bit round the whole of the fridge.

[Kev888]

If its just a small freezer compartment in the fridge then it shouldn't really matter as far as the STC is concerned. A normal fridge has the cooling plate at the back (or at least they did, these days they tend to be hidden in the walls); those with a freezer compartment have instead formed the cooling plate into a box shape to make a freezer compartment. Its cooler inside the box itself and the cooling of the rest of the fridge may be a bit compromised as a result but it still works okay, so if your sensor is in the main part of the fridge with the FV all should be good. If you aren't interested in using the freezer compartment (say in the future) you could take the door off to improve cooling to the rest of the fridge.

The main issue with these is that the freezer compartment can get in the way of some FVs, so people sometimes have to bend it out of the way, which is a bit risky as cracking a coolant pipe means no-more fridge.

(If its a fridge-freezer with two doors thats a bit different)

EDIT: sorry for the duplication; Fil posted as I was typing

Cheers
Kev

[Rick_UK]

Thanks for the replies lads. Here is a pic of the beastie

It will snuggly fit an FV standing in the bottom tray so no need to build any reinforced shelfs fortunately.

[Fil]

i would be tempted to just pull the freezer door off and place a tube heater in the freezer compartment with a little fan blowing over it.

have the fan running 24/7, with either heat or cold is being applied the fan will move the air out and into the fridge to distribute the temp change asap.

[Rick_UK]

Thanks Fil. Would my 100w aquarium heater work as the heat source - either in the FV or enclosed in a small container of water / starsan - like a hot water bottle!

Being a tight Yorkshire git I'm loathe to shell out on extras if I can you what I already have

I'd quite like to keep the freezer compartment for storing hops - unless it's gonna cause to many probs.

Rick

[Fil]

Try it.. im doubtful, but its easier to test the fridge as is before you start hacking things apart..

but i doubt the freezer compartment will maintain a freezing temp while maintaining fermentation temps in the fridge body.

if your happy sanitising an aquarium heater for immersion in your beer that would work, but i reckon a 60-100w light bulb suspended inside a clay flowerpot would be more effective at heating than trying to get 2nd hand heat efficiently from a small radiant tank of water heated by your heater?

but test it out and find out for sure.

[Kev888]

Something to think about with the aquarium heater is how to control things properly; to avoid heating and cooling fighting each other or conversely to avoid having too much dead-band between heating and cooling then I'd ideally want the STC to control both the heating and cooling.

You could potentially control the aquarium heater with the STC if you wanted to, but you'd have to give some thought to the sensor location. If the aquarium heater heats the wort directly then you really need the STC's sensor measuring the wort too, to stop the heater getting ahead of things; however the fridge will cool the air around the FV and it will take a long time for that to change the wort temperature enough for the sensor to notice so the fridge will be on for ages at a time rather than its normal duty cycle (when I tried that my fridge compressor started overheating in summer).

Personally I'd recommend either 'heating and cooling and measuring the air', or 'heating and cooling and measuring the wort directly', but not some combination of the two. So perhaps either have your aquarium heater in a separate pot that essentially then heats the air, or go for something simple like a 60w filament bulb or a pipe heater or something. TBH I'm not all that keen on the aquarium heater in a separate pot, it seems a bit over-complicated to me.

Cheers
Kev

[Rick_UK]

Thanks Kev, appreciated. Sounds like I'd be better just using a tube heater or bulb then. There is a bulb fitted which comes on when you open the door but it says 15W Max which is obviously insufficient - would there be a way up beefing this fitting up to take a 60W and wiring this into the stc or am I showing my complete lack of electrical experience!

[Kev888]

You possibly could, but it would likely take more work to make it safely take a larger/hotter bulb than it would to install a fitting designed for one, and you'd also be restricted on where the heat source had to be. You can buy a batten holder (or batten lampholder) for £2 or less in places like wickes and wilco's - though they come in different lamp fittings so check the type, if that matters to you.

The only issue with these is that they aren't waterproof and the lamps are fragile so situate it somewhere suitable - and obviously if you screw it down take care not to puncture any cooling pipes or wires that could be in the walls of the fridge (if unsure, you could screw it to a metal plate or plank or something to make a stand instead).

You probably know already, but a popular splash-tolerant alternative is the 60W tubular/pipe heater such as from toolstation for about £17.

Cheers
kev

[DeadFall]

Hair dryer? Heat and blower.

[Kev888]

Interesting idea; I'd be concerned that they weren't designed for lots of continuous use and are powerful enough to be a potential safety hazard in a closed box/fridge (e.g. if the STC didn't work or was set wrongly). But It may be that I'm being too cautious; perhaps it would be okay if the noise wasn't an issue.

Cheers
Kev

[AnthonyUK]

I bought a 60w tube heater recently on Amazon for £12 delivered. I went for the more expensive Dimplex one too as non-branded ones were £10.
It was delivered next day too so can't fault the seller who was Alert Electrical.

[Rick_UK]

Thanks Anthony - I'll probably go for the tube heater option given the price and all other considerations.

One attraction of the lamp holder / bulb option is that I think I could recess this into the door to keep it out of the way. I've also read those reptile tank bulb heaters work well and would be easy to recess. I assume there is no gas circulating round the door and there will just be insulation behind the panel. Can anyone see a problem with this?

Rick

[Kev888]

Ideally I'd want to allow a bit of air space around whatever heater was chosen, to allow air to circulate past it freely (and of course definitely not be close enough to set fire to anything!). So it depends very much on the specifics as to how much the insulation in the door would need to be compromised if you recessed the whole lamp/heater.

Cheers
Kev