Refrigerator/temp controller

Probably a dumb question but my parents are giving me a fridge that has the freezer in top. I want to get a temp controller and use it as a ferm chamber. Will that impact the freezer? Wod like to use that for hops and frozen food.

In my experience, with the main compartment at fermentation temperatures the freezer compartment will be pretty much useless...

Cheers!

I figured since its just one plug so its overriding everything.. Thanks for the response

Most fridges used to run off of a transfer system the freezer stays frozen and when the fridge gets warm it blasts cool air in from the freezer then compressor kicks on and cools freezer down again. If you wire up a temp controller correctly it should keep the freezer below 0 also when you say one plug what are you referring to ?

Whsoj said:

Most fridges used to run off of a transfer system the freezer stays frozen and when the fridge gets warm it blasts cool air in from the freezer then compressor kicks on and cools freezer down again. If you wire up a temp controller correctly it should keep the freezer below 0 also when you say one plug what are you referring to ?

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This presumes you wire your temperature controller directly into the refrigerator, bypassing the refrigerator thermostat. I think a lot of home brewers use Ranco/Johnson controllers or the eBay aquarium controller, and with those, you plug the refrigerator directly into the power outlet on the temp controller. In other words, the refrigerator isn't getting power unless cooling is needed, and in that case, the freezer doesn't stay frozen.

Ah Ha thanks for that clarification I did not realize those controllers existed I just controlled the fridge temp internaly.

I'm thinking of doing the same thing, hopefully keeping the freezer for hop/yeast bank storage.

Could someone suggest a good controller for something like this? Not the models that the fridge plugs into, but the kind I would wire into the fridge. I can figure out the writing, I just need to know where square one is.

Edit: After some more reading I'm back to thinking that the best idea for me might be to try to take out the level between the fridge and freezer and make it one large fermentation chamber. Or to sell the old fridge and get something with a small footprint to act as my fermentation chamber.

Whsoj, what temps are you getting your refrigerator to (i.e., how high) using the onboard settings?

You need to use a controller with a wider resolution I got a junky one I salvaged from college project with mercury switches in side the fridge. I think I can get to room temp. Like I said the freezer stays frozen and the separate thremoastat just opens and closes the vent from the frezzer to cool it.

I was planning on the Johnson control, don't think I'm handy enough to go rewiring

You can fool the thermometer into thinking the freezer is cooler than it really is by blocking up the back where the vent is that pumps in cold air. I used a one inch polystyrene sheet. this way the thermostat measuring the freezer temp is really only measuring the temp of the space between the back of the freezer wall and the polystyrene sheet.

You can easily play around with getting the temp in a reasonable range by poking holes (any maybe refilling them) in the sheet to allow more cold air through, Its a hack, but it kind of worked better then I expected and didnt involve any electrical work. And when I decided to sell it off in order to replace with individual small fridges, I just pulled out the sheet and put back the shelves.

I used the freezer compartment for lagers and the fridge compartment for ales.

I did measure the swings in temp, but cannot remember now. Probably +-2 deg C. I think this is not too good for lagers, but better than fermenting at 30 degrees C room temp we have here.

I installed the Johnson Temp Controller on my fridge a few days ago and it works great at maintaining good beer serving temp. I did however notice there is a pool of water on the floor of the fridge inside, I assume from the ice compartment melting. Not sure if this will be ongoing problem.