Knackered fridge... I've had an idea

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Notlaw

Notlaw

Dubbel Dragon
Joined
Jan 4, 2016
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Location
Garstang, Lancs
Our lass was planning on replacing the fridge and I was going to "liberate" the old one for myself. However, our hand was forced when the old one packed up anyway. So the old one is for the tip, but then I thought of something...

I'd imagine that a fridge (even a broken one) would retain a temperature fairly well. If I kept a frozen pop bottle or two in there and changed them every day or so, do you reckon I'd be able use it for lagering? I could even maybe line it with that silver bubble wrap stuff.
 
I think this would pobably work well, exactly like my cool brew brewing bag which is effectively a humongous cool bag. I switch my bottles out every 12 hours but can leave them for 24 if I want. I use 2L and 500ml ice bottles. I find 1L of ice lowers the temp by 1C Tip: when you first start the cooling/fermentation swap the bottles out after 4-6hours as it takes more energy/ice power(?) to lower the temp from ambient to target fermentation temp than to maintain it at that temp.
 
Yes but it will work just fine as a normal brew fridge with a heater and if it's kept somewhere cool for the summer months. All you need is to maintain 19 for normal ales yeast so based on the summers we have you'll be fine all year round [emoji1303]
 
be sure to open it up every day to air it out, and give it a wipe down with a mild bleach solution and dry up afterwards every week or so. It only takes a few days for a closed fridge to go mankey with anearobic microlife, so keeping it clean and aired will help prevent that.

i wipe my brewfridge out and dry it after every brew, though if i let the door close and seal and leave it for a week or so and open it its not pleasant whiff that greets me..

but Yes it should work fine..

Have you confirmed its the compressor that has died?? it could be the thermostat which determines when to switch the compressor on or off that has failed??. if so simply bypassing the fridge thermostat and connecting power switched by an stc1000 or similar controller directly to the compressor could give you a fully functioning brewfridge capable of 0C lagering too ;)

our kitchen fridge 'died' but was bought back to life with an ebay sourced controller similar to an stc1000 but only has one relay for a chilling circuit fitted.
 
If you've got the space for the fridge but no working fridge, I would look out for a free/very cheap one on Freecycle or ebay. Lots of people have picked them up that way. Then you have the potential for a working brew fridge.

Another £35-£40 will get you an STC-1000 or ITC-308 to control it with and a greenhouse heater or similar to provide heating. If you've got the space I would make the small investment to get a fully controlled brewing fridge.
 
Fil said:
be sure to open it up every day to air it out, and give it a wipe down with a mild bleach solution and dry up afterwards every week or so. It only takes a few days for a closed fridge to go mankey with anearobic microlife, so keeping it clean and aired will help prevent that.

i wipe my brewfridge out and dry it after every brew, though if i let the door close and seal and leave it for a week or so and open it its not pleasant whiff that greets me..

but Yes it should work fine..

Have you confirmed its the compressor that has died?? it could be the thermostat which determines when to switch the compressor on or off that has failed??. if so simply bypassing the fridge thermostat and connecting power switched by an stc1000 or similar controller directly to the compressor could give you a fully functioning brewfridge capable of 0C lagering too ;)

our kitchen fridge 'died' but was bought back to life with an ebay sourced controller similar to an stc1000 but only has one relay for a chilling circuit fitted.
Click to expand...

Another thing that sometimes conks a fridge out is the starter capacitor unit. I had one like that. You can replace them if you know what you are doing. The cue is that when you switch it on and the thermostat is calling for the compressor to start, it doesn't, but there is a faint buzzing in the compressor unit. The motor needs a big torque and high current for the initial start up like many electric motors, but doesn't need anything like that much power when it is once running. The way the manufacturers arrange this is to have two motor stator windings, one that runs all the time and one that is triggered momentarily and fed by a capacitor. If the capacitor conks out which they do (remember the old fashioned fluorescent strip light 'starters') the compressor will have a very unreliable start up. Sometimes it starts and sometimes it doesn't. This usually shows itself when you open the fridge and the thing is warm. Then the good lady of the house rightly demands a new one. This doesn't mean it is finished though....

There are all sorts of different ones. Take care .....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...ter+.TRS0&_nkw=fridge+relay+starter+&_sacat=0
 

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