Ferm chamber/ kegerator need some advise

Morning all, building a ferm chamber has been on the brewery to do list for a while now, I was going to use a dorm fridge and build a insulated box measuring 4ft long, 3ft tall and 2ft wide, then a few months ago my wife surprised me with a kegging system so now I need a fridge for that.

I have a dedicated beer fridge in my basement now which is rather small but worked out great for beer stuff, I can keep 4ish cases of beer and all my hops and yeast in. I can use that for the kegerator but then i dont have space for my yeast and hops or the rest of the bottled beer i still have.

When i moved in there was a old and gutted fridge in the basement so I got to thinking that it might make more sense to use that instead of building a box since its already assembled and its much larger and can hold more kegs and whatever I already have in the smaller one will also fit then I can use the smaller one for a ferm chamber. My dilema now is how to cool it my concern now is that the dorm fridge is not going to be able to cool it since its much larger than the box I was going to build, I have a small ac window unit that I was concidering using and I have read some threads and the problem most people have had is it icing up, this is a small unit and i was thinking if I ran it on the lowest setting and put a fan in front of it that should help. I don't want to spend the time to mount the dorm frige if the ac unit is a better way to go.

The size of the fridge I want to use is 19" deep, 27" wide and 53" high that is the inside measurement. hope you guys can help me thanks in advance.

Look on craigslist and get a free/cheap fridge that meets your needs.

acidrain said:

Look on craigslist and get a free/cheap fridge that meets your needs.

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I'm trying to work with what I already have so I don't have to put out any money, trying to be frugal with my brewing.

How many CU is the dorm fridge? Ive seen a bunch of ferm chamber builds on here with dorm fridges used to cool boxes that are much bigger then they are.

Pratzie said:

How many CU is the dorm fridge? Ive seen a bunch of ferm chamber builds on here with dorm fridges used to cool boxes that are much bigger then they are.

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Is that something I measure or is it listed on the fridge? I feel the same I have seen some huge chambers also, I guess it's the amount of liquid I will have that I'm concerned about (now thinking about it more).

Here is a pic of the sticker on the back and the model info.

Transamguy77 said:

I'm trying to work with what I already have so I don't have to put out any money, trying to be frugal with my brewing.

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So you're going to spend time and money adapting a mini fridge (that is too small) to cool a fridge that doesn't work into some kind of Frankenstein fermentation chamber?
I got a really nice fridge off craigslist for free. I'm sure if you looked, you could find one too.

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/...rator&catAbb=zip&srchType=T&minAsk=&maxAsk=20

http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SpecPage&Sku=WMR04BAPBB

Looks like GE doesn't make it anymore. a 4.3 isn't bad though, it could do the job. I can't say how much life u will get out of it but for the dimensions ur saying I think it would work fine for a few years with moderate use.

acidrain said:

So you're going to spend time and money adapting a mini fridge (that is too small) to cool a fridge that doesn't work into some kind of Frankenstein fermentation chamber?
I got a really nice fridge off craigslist for free. I'm sure if you looked, you could find one too.

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Thank you for trying to help me but your not, if it was as simple as getting another fridge I would do it but its not, I live in a hundred year old house with a very short basement and most fridges are too tall to fit, I was thinking of a chest freezer but but after spending months looking I couldn't find a big enough one for less than a couple hundred, then there is the issue of getting it to my house cause I don't own a truck so I would need to ask someone to go with me to pick it up.

So now I'm trying to use what I already have available to me to accomplish what I want that I can handle on my own. So unless you have some input on what I can do please refrain from posting about Craig's list.

Pratzie said:

http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SpecPage&Sku=WMR04BAPBB

Looks like GE doesn't make it anymore. a 4.3 isn't bad though, it could do the job. I can't say how much life u will get out of it but for the dimensions ur saying I think it would work fine for a few years with moderate use.

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Excellent that is what I was looking for, if I can use it for now and maybe upgrade later that would be fine, thanks for your input.

Just make sure u use some good insulation and seal the joints. But I don't see a problem with it working out well for u.

Happy Brewing!

Transamguy77 said:

I live in a hundred year old house with a very short basement and most fridges are too tall to fit,

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Hmm... I wonder how they got that old fridge in your basement.

Do what you want. It was just a suggestion.

If I am understanding this correctly, you are planning on basically putting an "addition" on your dorm-fridge? Expanding the available cool-space by building an insulated box that would be attached to the fornt of the fridge with teh door opened or removed? Including a temp controller so it will keep the space at 60ish* instead of 40ish*?

If that is the case, I think you might be fine with what you have. To me, the key is that the temperature controller will be trying to keep the space warmer than the fridge compressor was originally designed for. Since the compressor won't run as often/long when it is only trying to keep the temp down to 60*, you can get away with the increase in space being conditioned.

That is my thinking anyways, it seems like it would be fairly simple to test it out by hooking it up and letting it run for a couple hours/days, since, as you said, you have everything you need on-hand already.

If I missed the entire point, just ignore everything I wrote.

LowNotes said:

If I am understanding this correctly, you are planning on basically putting an "addition" on your dorm-fridge? Expanding the available cool-space by building an insulated box that would be attached to the fornt of the fridge with teh door opened or removed? Including a temp controller so it will keep the space at 60ish* instead of 40ish*?

If that is the case, I think you might be fine with what you have. To me, the key is that the temperature controller will be trying to keep the space warmer than the fridge compressor was originally designed for. Since the compressor won't run as often/long when it is only trying to keep the temp down to 60*, you can get away with the increase in space being conditioned.

That is my thinking anyways, it seems like it would be fairly simple to test it out by hooking it up and letting it run for a couple hours/days, since, as you said, you have everything you need on-hand already.

If I missed the entire point, just ignore everything I wrote.

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Yes that is the plan, life has kind of gotten in the way of this project so when I get around to finishing it ill post how it turned out.

Something like this, Transam??

As of now, this sits in my garage in which i've built a "brew-bench" on top of it. It will tightly hold 3 carboys/buckets and holds temps quite well. Im thinking of adding another layer of 1/2" foam for more insulation as it is starting to heat up down here in Texas.

BrokenKnucklesBrewery said:

Something like this, Transam??

As of now, this sits in my garage in which i've built a "brew-bench" on top of it. It will tightly hold 3 carboys/buckets and holds temps quite well. Im thinking of adding another layer of 1/2" foam for more insulation as it is starting to heat up down here in Texas.

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Yes this was exactly what I was originally thinking of doing! Thanks for the pics.

No problem. Saturday, it hit 106* outside. Ferm chamber held fine at 65*