Fermentation Fridge Build

[Richie_asg1]

Look what I found beside the road....

No plug lead so I put one on (liberated from another freezer by some bins). Doesn't work of course, but will do what I can to get it working. Seems to be complete even if the door is off.

STC1000 getting fitted ...somewhere.

It was actually in a layby close to the municipal tip...that doesn't take fridges. To properly recycle it would mean a 20 mile round trip for someone, so I can see why they dumped it and scarpered.

Testing it electrically I get good continuity and ohm readings fr the compressor, and the start capacitor tests ok. Just the starter relay is open circuit when it should rest at closed. New one ordered at £16....fingers crossed I don't have to do major surgery on it.

Interestingly these industrial display fridges have condenser coils on the whole of the base as well as all of the back, as well as a striplight at the top front and blower fan at the top back. But no defrost heating element. Just the basic thermostat at the back. Maybe they don't get that cold to ice up.

I was thinking of adding a defrost element under the evaporator coils at the back as a means of heating. See if I can get it working before spending any money on it.

 

[Richie_asg1]

Ok £16 into it and the starter relay turned up today. Fitted that with the old capacitor and it started up!
Replaced light with one I had from a camping striplight - same type. Door needed a spring to hold the top pin up so replaced that (comes of having drawers full of "useful" junk). Progress so far -



.....but it's not cooling. After 10 minutes with the compressor running the temperature went up by a few points.

Compressor starts and runs, sounds of gurgling when turning off so it is pumping something, slight cooling at the evaporator coils but not enough. This thing looks like it is out of gas too.

There is also a blower fan at the top back inside that circulates air past the cooling coils - it's very good at that - but way too noisy and I think much too fast for my purposes. Will see about slowing that down to a more gentle pace.

Next step - check gas charge pressure static and running.

 

[Clint]

I really admire people who know how to fix stuff...I tend to "learn" stuff I'm interested in and become a bit obsessed and "have" to get to a decent standard and understanding or it does my head in...and Mrs Clint's!
Usually nerdy stuff...fishing,metal detecting,brewing...

 

[Richie_asg1]

"Liberated" another compressor from a fridge, and by chance that had no gas in it -so I'm not destroying ozone anywhere by removing it .
Bought some stem service valves (£5 for 10) and soldered them on to it so now I have a means to (A) pressurise the system to find leaks and (B) vacuum it down before adding gas.

Fitted a piercing valve (£4.51) to my fridge and used a gauge set (another £18) to find out that - yep - I have no gas in it. So pressurised it to 50 psi and tested it for leaks with a kids bubble liquid (Asda 50p)
Took off all the covers and tested all the joints - but still can't see any bubbles!!!

Bought some fluorescent leak finder (£2.62) and will inject that with some more gas. (2 cans £13.80) If / when it leaks again I can find it with a UV light.

Ok this is not as cheap as a second hand fridge through Gumtree for £20 - but I value the learning experience as much as the end result....Plus it is a pretty cool looking glass door on the thing, and now it seems I can repair my own fridge.

 

[user 18729]

"Liberated" another compressor from a fridge, and by chance that had no gas in it -so I'm not destroying ozone anywhere by removing it .
Bought some stem service valves (£5 for 10) and soldered them on to it so now I have a means to (A) pressurise the system to find leaks and (B) vacuum it down before adding gas.

Fitted a piercing valve (£4.51) to my fridge and used a gauge set (another £18) to find out that - yep - I have no gas in it. So pressurised it to 50 psi and tested it for leaks with a kids bubble liquid (Asda 50p)
Took off all the covers and tested all the joints - but still can't see any bubbles!!!

Bought some fluorescent leak finder (£2.62) and will inject that with some more gas. (2 cans £13.80) If / when it leaks again I can find it with a UV light.

Ok this is not as cheap as a second hand fridge through Gumtree for £20 - but I value the learning experience as much as the end result....Plus it is a pretty cool looking glass door on the thing, and now it seems I can repair my own fridge.

You deserve a beer or 5 after all this!

 

[Rodcx500z]

Nice one Richie, I like this keep us informed, I like to strip things down when they break to see how they work

 

[skulltat280]

Excellent mate, may have ended up costing more but you can't put a price on experience and learning

 

[eyuptm]

This is my effort, roadside fridge, STC 1000 and 30w tubular heater. Total cost c £30... Needs a good scrub, but seems to work well!!!

 

[eyuptm]

Mmm, couldn't upload, now there's two lots of pictures..!!! Sorry!

 

[Rodcx500z]

That looks cool will look the biz when the door is on

 

[eyuptm]

That looks cool will look the biz when the door is on

Door is on, just out of shot. Bit cleanernow too!!

 

[eyuptm]

UPDATE- now cut the shelf support in the middle of the door off, and I can get my circular FV's in there too!!

 

[eyuptm]

Well, seems to work.... 19° with very little deviation over 6 hours and counting!! Well chuffed!

 

[Cameron Smith]

I'm very new to brewing, I've done a basic coopers starters kit, and then found a medium spray DME recipe. The first one was terrible, the second - dubbed The Hairy Yak - was a great success and disappeared amongst my friends very quickly.

This thread has inspired me to start a DIY kegerator project. I'm currently living in Nepal. It may be a challenge. Going for sub £100 all in...stay tuned, project due to commence next week, and could be a while until I find a suitable fridge.

 

[Richie_asg1]

Nice Eyuptm ! Roadside fridges - the way forward

I'm using the same controller, plus a fan speed controller as mine has a fan in it but is on full blast all the time. This is because it is a stock type commercial fridge I think.
Gas arrived from France yesterday. R134a is now getting harder to obtain in the UK because of the EU rulings....but I can buy it from France ok?

Just bought some 4 core flex to connect controller and heater inside to the compressor at the back. Controller fits well inside some PVC rectangular ducting from Screwfix, and will fit inside under the shelf with the 40w bar heater.

 

[Richie_asg1]

Well it is mostly finished. Gassed it up yesterday and added some leak detector fluid as I never did find where the original gas went, and it was holding vacuum and pressure ok.


Today the electrics were connected up as it was cooling ok, and that seemed to work as well.


Not sure on the fan at the back running all the time, or that light being on, so that is the next bit .

I ended up drilling a hole through the lower step as there was nothing behind it, and used the original insulator tube for the cable that used to be for the thermostat cable.
Used 4 core 1mm flex to supply the panel from the back and that gave a spare wire to supply the compressor when switched on.
The stc1000 is inside rectangular ducting from Screwfix and is a nice easy to work insulated box to keep all the wiring in. Also needed 3 bits of choccy block to terminate everything. The STC module really can only accept one conductor in each terminal.

The 40W tube heater is screwed upwards into the wooden board - so is quite easy to remove the lot if it wasn't for the one 4 core cable.

There is a cold wall back plate I haven't fitted yet because I'm still messing with the fan speed and light which has a connection there, but is functional and holds 19 degrees.

 

[Clint]

A clear door is getting on for bragging status ...as we all know when a brew is in progress opening the fridge to check is impossible to resist.

 

[MmmBeer]

I heard a click coming from my brewtility room earlier and when I went to check it out, I couldn't find an obvious explanation for it until I noticed the temp on my Inkbird registering 25.6°C, compared to the set point of 20.0°C. On closer inspection the brewfridge compressor was not running and was very hot (65°C measured with IR thermometer).

I'm guessing that it has a thermal cut out, I switched it off for 5 minutes and it came back on, but cut out again within a minute. The fridge is a DIY construction, baased on a Husky tabletop beer fridge, extending into a MDF and polystyrene chamber, so it has a lot of work to do, especially in this heat. Fortunately there are only 3 DJ's of wine in it at the moment, so hopefully nothing will spoil.

So I'm wondering, is there something simple I can do to reduce the strain on the compressor? I know today's weather is extremenly unusual, I have considered constructing a polystyrene bulkhead, to reduce the volume of the cooled space, to just enough for the 3 DJ's. Are there any simple DIY servicing tips that could help?

 

[BarnBrian]

I heard a click coming from my brewtility room earlier and when I went to check it out, I couldn't find an obvious explanation for it until I noticed the temp on my Inkbird registering 25.6°C, compared to the set point of 20.0°C. On closer inspection the brewfridge compressor was not running and was very hot (65°C measured with IR thermometer).

I'm guessing that it has a thermal cut out, I switched it off for 5 minutes and it came back on, but cut out again within a minute. The fridge is a DIY construction, baased on a Husky tabletop beer fridge, extending into a MDF and polystyrene chamber, so it has a lot of work to do, especially in this heat. Fortunately there are only 3 DJ's of wine in it at the moment, so hopefully nothing will spoil.

So I'm wondering, is there something simple I can do to reduce the strain on the compressor? I know today's weather is extremenly unusual, I have considered constructing a polystyrene bulkhead, to reduce the volume of the cooled space, to just enough for the 3 DJ's. Are there any simple DIY servicing tips that could help?

I think you're overloading the fridge, also the insulation doesn't like as if it's sufficient. Are you getting it close to airtight when you close it up? Is there plenty of ventilation around the heat exchanger piping at the back of the fridge? What's the ambient temperature in the brewtility room?

 

[MmmBeer]

The insulation is 50mm polystyrene all round, its fairly air tight. I gaffer taped around all the joins and the door seal is reasonable. The back of the fridge is in open space, so plenty of ventilation. It has worked perfectly happily non-stop for two years, but the big elephant in the room is today's temperature, which is in excess of 30°C.

I unplugged the fridge for half an hour to allow it to cool. On plugging it back in, there was a slight whirring noise, but within 30 seconds it clicked and the compressor housing was very hot again. I'm beginning to fear that it has seized, or otherwise joined that big utility room in the sky. Will test again more thoroughly later. Already started searching ebay for local used Huskys.