fermentation chamber - hacked up old fridge

[lgxg]

hi everyone. i hacked up an old fridge that my brother in law gave me. after seeing a cooler that someone had inserted some old fridge guts (freezer box, compressor)

i was originally going to use ice/fans and at ST1000 controller box. this should be easier - no ice, but will obviously use more electricity. it'll mostly be used during the summer when it gets up to 80 in the house, and we only cool down to 70 on a programmable thermostat.

the old "freezer box" which is the only thing that cooled (no coils in the walls) is attached to the top of the

as far as the wiring goes - the compressor has a neutral, hot, and ground, and there was some wiring that went to a thermostat and defroster inside the fridge unit. Since I am going to be using the temperature controller to turn on and off the "fridge" can I just wire up the plug to the compressor's neutral/hot/ground? i was thinking i'd just get rid of the loop that's going to the thermostat/defroster.

any problems with having the compressor on, any time that it gets the signal from the controller? the thermostat in this thing looks pretty "dumb"

any thoughts?

this thing is going to be pretty awesome. it'll be able to fit two 15 gal foodsafe HDPE container that i'm going to start fermenting my ten gallon batches in.

 

[lemy]

That is fantastic!

 

[lgxg]

Thanks. I would have never thought if that if it weren't for this forum.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Konadog]

...
as far as the wiring goes - the compressor has a neutral, hot, and ground, and there was some wiring that went to a thermostat and defroster inside the fridge unit. Since I am going to be using the temperature controller to turn on and off the "fridge" can I just wire up the plug to the compressor's neutral/hot/ground? i was thinking i'd just get rid of the loop that's going to the thermostat/defroster.

any problems with having the compressor on, any time that it gets the signal from the controller? the thermostat in this thing looks pretty "dumb"

any thoughts?

I don't see why having a controller switch the compressor ON/OFF the way you suggest wouldn't work. You shouldn't need the defrost since it will never frost up anyways. The only thing you loose is the redundancy of having the thermostat turn off the compressor if for some reason the controller stopped working or the relay were to stick on.

 

[lgxg]

i ended up wiring back in the thermostat switch/relay, but I cut out the lamp part of the circuit.

i haven't tried it with the controller yet, but it was 57 in my garage and after running it for 45 minutes, I was able to get it down to 35.

just need to add in the computer fans for circulation and this thing is going to be good to go for my new year's day brew session.