Is a True GDM-69 too big?

[NorCalMisfit]

New to home brewing and one of the most consistent things I've read to improve the final product is to get a fridge to control your fermentation and aging temperatures. In a stroke of beginners luck, I was able to get a free True GDM-69. It's a bit bigger than I was going for and bigger than anything I can find being used as a fermentation chamber / storage in any of the forums. Any reason I couldn't use it with a temperature controller?

 

[jmark]

That's a score and a half! You could probably ferment 5 or 6 buckets in there,or 2-3 conicals! If you wrap each fermenter in feemwrap, you could set the fridge at the lowest temp needed by whatever you have fermenting and use temp control to heat each fermenter to the appropriate level. If you're just fermenting one batch at a time, this thing will still work fine... just overkill and likely expensive to run.

 

[Jorb]

My wife would not be happy if I brought one of those home. I would still do it in an instant of it were free.

 

[mongoose33]

Light is the enemy of beer; I'd remove any interior lighting and probably cover the glass doors w/ craft paper, unless you store this in a place you can keep dark.

Otherwise, SCORE!

 

[dmarc85]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=487141

Nice work. I had the same cooler for my beer setup. Check it out.

 

[NorCalMisfit]

dmarc85, that thread/build is a thing of beauty, but what happened to your website? I was interested in seeing what you've been up to with your set up.

 

[dmarc85]

Man, it's tragic. Took a risk on a small business, lost my shorts for a bit and had to sell the entire setup so I could pay bills. I been living in a bottomless abyss of beerlessness for years and I'm just now trying to get back into it.

 

[rattletrap1970]

Got my hands on a True GDM-37 cooler. I took out all the fluorescent lighting, the stock temperature controller, and evaporator fan.

Replaced the lighting with remote controlled RDB LED strip. This is in place of the marquis lights, and interior lighting. Also added it around the perimeter of the upper evaporator cover.

Replaced the 120VAC evaporator fan with a variable speed 12VDC fan.

Replaced the temperature controller with an Inkbird 12v ITC-1000.

Added a 1" X 20" 100w Watlow Silicone Strip Heater.

All the wiring is point to point on Phoenix Din Rail terminal block components.

All the 120VAC is down on the bottom. The upper control panel that handles the temp controller, fan and lighting is all 12VDC. There are two relays at the bottom with 12VDC coils controlled from above that do the switching for the compressor and the heater.

Also making a custom marquee which will be backlit by the LED lighting. Also made the control panel and graphics. The frame for the marquee and control panel is "Frame World" EX-67 aluminum extrusion.

[/IMG]

 

[odie]

Got my hands on a True GDM-37 cooler. I took out all the fluorescent lighting, the stock temperature controller, and evaporator fan.

Replaced the lighting with remote controlled RDB LED strip. This is in place of the marquis lights, and interior lighting. Also added it around the perimeter of the upper evaporator cover.

Replaced the 120VAC evaporator fan with a variable speed 12VDC fan.

Replaced the temperature controller with an Inkbird 12v ITC-1000.

Added a 1" X 20" 100w Watlow Silicone Strip Heater.

All the wiring is point to point on Phoenix Din Rail terminal block components.

All the 120VAC is down on the bottom. The upper control panel that handles the temp controller, fan and lighting is all 12VDC. There are two relays at the bottom with 12VDC coils controlled from above that do the switching for the compressor and the heater.

Also making a custom marquee which will be backlit by the LED lighting. Also made the control panel and graphics. The frame for the marquee and control panel is "Frame World" EX-67 aluminum extrusion.

[/IMG]

How did you wire the stc1000? I had one in my GDM 10 but moved it to a freezer. Now I can’t remember how I did it and fried a new inkbird