Beer Forum

Hey all. Has anyone successfully converted a side by side refrigerator to control the freezer section temperature independant of the refrigerator side? I am assuming they use one compressor, and then utilize Normally closed valves (x2) to open the flow of coolant to both, or one or the other when cooling is needed (in junction with bringing on the compressor motor).

If one can tap into the coolant valves and control the sides independantly, then one side could be dispensing and the other can be fermentation control. My side by side in my kitchen is large enough on the freezer side to hold 4 kegs stacked (4 total, 2 on 2), and the other side can hold my conical.

Why you ask? They are more common and more cost effecitve. Less space than two refrigerators, same # of external controllers.

Thanks!

this sounds like what mylo did with his here is a link http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/The- ... n-Chillers

p.s. This sounds like a job for a second probe on the brew droid.

Kind of, Henning (and thanks for the plug!), but I used a chest freezer. It is much more efficient, since cold air sinks. It's much more efficient to run. I have been extremely happy with my design and execution, so far. The materials for the box cost me about $150, the controllers were $150, and another $50 for miscellaneous fans, relays, lights, electrical boxes, and wire. I got the freezer off of craigslist for $50. The real expense is all the draft hardware - which I haven't completed yet (and which you would need in any kegerator design).

So, for $400, I have 20 c.f. of precisely controlled fermentation space, and 15 c.f. of serving space. The way I look at it, if you are going to have two zones of cooling, you are going to have to spend $200 on controllers and misc, anyway. Could you find a cheap side by side for < $200? Sure. But you certainly can't fit 8 corneys and 4 carboys in it.


Mylo

A large side-by-side can be a fantastic kegerator. I've rigged our old kitchen fridge to maintain two different temps in the two sides, with the freezer side colder, of course. I use two Johnson analog controllers. One controller measures the freezer temperature and controls the fridge power. The other controller measures the refrigerator side and controls the power to two computer "muffin" fans.

I ripped out all of the controls for the refrigerator, exposing the vent between the sides. I put one fan on the freezer side of the vent, blowing into the refrigerator. I put the other fan on a vent running across the back of the refrigerator down where the top of the drawer section used to be.

I run the freezer side from 33F for lagering to 38F for serving lagers. The refrigerator side is maintained from 42 to 52F for serving ales and fermenting lagers. This bad boy can hold three 5-gal and one 2.5-gal kegs in the freezer and eight 5-gal kegs in the refrigerator side (4 on 4 stack.)

Best of all, since it originally had icemaker and water dispensing, there are grommets through the back for the water lines. I pulled those out and ran my CO2 lines in from my tank sitting outside the fridge, where it belongs.

Hey ROBF and others. Thanks for the replies. I really want to tap into the Refrigeration cycle on the system more so than add pass through fans. They have seperate controllers as is, so adding two more, more temp specific controllers for fermenting and serving, should not be a problem, I just need to dig more on how the ref. cycle works in ref/freezers. Thanks though!

Happy brewing!

robf wrote:A large side-by-side can be a fantastic kegerator. I've rigged our old kitchen fridge to maintain two different temps in the two sides, with the freezer side colder, of course. I use two Johnson analog controllers. One controller measures the freezer temperature and controls the fridge power. The other controller measures the refrigerator side and controls the power to two computer "muffin" fans.

I ripped out all of the controls for the refrigerator, exposing the vent between the sides. I put one fan on the freezer side of the vent, blowing into the refrigerator. I put the other fan on a vent running across the back of the refrigerator down where the top of the drawer section used to be.

I run the freezer side from 33F for lagering to 38F for serving lagers. The refrigerator side is maintained from 42 to 52F for serving ales and fermenting lagers. This bad boy can hold three 5-gal and one 2.5-gal kegs in the freezer and eight 5-gal kegs in the refrigerator side (4 on 4 stack.)

Best of all, since it originally had icemaker and water dispensing, there are grommets through the back for the water lines. I pulled those out and ran my CO2 lines in from my tank sitting outside the fridge, where it belongs.

Pictures?

That's too much to ask of a guy with one post. It's completely ghetto but works great.

kbar: if your fridge has two complete refrigeration systems, that's awesome. But I've never a seen a kitchen fridge like that. They always control the freezer temperature though refrigeration and the fridge through controlling the amount of cold air vented from the freezer. Good luck!

OK..So I made the system more difficult than I thought. I made the assumption that they had separate heat exchangers, but one compressor using a 2pos/3way valve to choose the side that needed to be cooled. BUT, with that said, it seems to me that I could still tap into the refrigerators control system with external controllers, set the temp to the coldest for both sections and let the controllers bring on the compressor and fan.

Thanks all!