Very Cheap Fridge

[the_fuzz]

Anyone near Ferntree Gully, I wish I was,

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BEER-FRIDGE_W0QQ ... dZViewItem

For $10 you really can't go wrong?

[lethaldog]

Funny bout that it must be the season for selling fridges cheap, i got on ebay yesterday and picked myself up a Kelvinator No frost 480L about 10 mins away from where i live for $50 in perfect working order, That makes 2 for the shed now

[drsmurto]

Damn! Am patiently waiting for a brew fridge here in Adelaide. 32 degC yesterday and 34 in my shed!

With towels, a fan and a very patient other half i can brew at 24-26 inside....

[lethaldog]

Damn! Am patiently waiting for a brew fridge here in Adelaide. 32 degC yesterday and 34 in my shed!

With towels, a fan and a very patient other half i can brew at 24-26 inside....

Check out the trading post and ebay, they usually have something, if not go to your mates house and pull the plug and tell em its blown up and you will get rid of it for them

[SpillsMostOfIt]

That's nothing - I live in the sort of place that doesn't have a shed, so I am fermenting in a little-used bathroom (and I have to eat gravel for breakfast before I am allowed to check on it).

I'm currently playing with Peltier-effect devices, heatsinks, fans and insulated boxes to simulate a fridge. I don't think a bar fridge would be big enough to hold a fermenter?

[gregb]

Spills, you can get a bar fridge that is all fridge, and a fermenters should just squeeze in, or you can fit two corny kegs instead.

Cheers,
Greg

[lethaldog]

I have a 120L bar fridge and that would fit a fermenter if it wasnt for the damn shelf thing at the bottom, i think it covers the motor or something so just be careful that its not one like this if you want to brew in it

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Spills, you can get a bar fridge that is all fridge, and a fermenters should just squeeze in, or you can fit two corny kegs instead.

Cheers,
Greg

Hmmmm...

Less faffing around than what I'm doing (both good and bad).

More expensive than what I'm doing (bad, particularly if I want lots of Grolsch bottles).

I just need to find somewhere to put it where the wife won't see it. What if I bury it in lethaldog's pile of bottles!!!

[lethaldog]

[KEG]

I'm currently playing with Peltier-effect devices, heatsinks, fans and insulated boxes to simulate a fridge.

i'd be quite interested to see how that goes for you.. keep us posted

[SpillsMostOfIt]

It is all with 'found objects'...

IBM ThinkPad power supply brick,
33W Peltier device from Jaycar (the TP PS supplies about 35W, so a bigger one is no good for me),
Some big old heatsink I had laying around for decades,
Some heatsink grease,
A 12Volt computer fan.
Some thick aluminium bar.

I started out strapping it to the outside of a fermenter-like object full of water and otherwise enclosed in a wetsuit. It didn't quite work. I suspect that the rig is capable of moving a bit of heat, but just couldn't get it out of the fermenter clone due to 'transmission issues'.

I'm now looking at bolting a heatsink and fan to the cold side of the rig and mounting it in/on an esky-like device (initially a cardboard box and some closed-cell foam and/or whatever comes to hand), thus making a crappy fridge.

I've got a microcontroller and thermistor acting as a 'storage thermometer' which I have calibrated against an alcohol thermometer and can use to switch the Peltier on/off or change direction.

I've a mate who owns a Peltier fridge which can bring four litres of water from 18C to 4C in four hours and figure I must be able to get some measurable fraction of this...

Tomorrow is 'Do Something with a Cardboard Box' day.

[velophile]

Spills

A 140L bar fridge does fit a 30L fermenter with air lock & isn't much bigger than the 120.

I got lucky & found a working one in hard waste! It was on the side of the road in the next suburb east of you too.

A Peltier, bigarsed heatsink or 2 & a fan each side of a well insulated box should work OK. If you already have most of the bits, go for it.