Brew Fridge.

[stuart_A]

Hi

I plan to build a brew fridge soon and would appreciate any advice on the following please:

- I have a old undercounter fridge, approx 85cm tall x 50cm wide (external measurements). Should I be looking at 40w tube heaters or would the 60w better. Would a 60w in the small confined space be dangerous?

- can someone please post a link to a suitable fan I could purchase. Ideally with plug and wires, ready to use.

- can I position the heater on the side walls rather than under a shelf at the bottom or is this less effective?

- will this all work with a SD fermenter or only plastic and glass?

Thanks

 

[Fil]

Hi

I plan to build a brew fridge soon and would appreciate any advice on the following please:

- I have a old undercounter fridge, approx 85cm tall x 50cm wide (external measurements). Should I be looking at 40w tube heaters or would the 60w better. Would a 60w in the small confined space be dangerous?

- can someone please post a link to a suitable fan I could purchase. Ideally with plug and wires, ready to use.

- can I position the heater on the side walls rather than under a shelf at the bottom or is this less effective?

- will this all work with a SD fermenter or only plastic and glass?

Thanks

The tube heaters generally used dont get too hot so no they dont pose a risk.

An off the shelf fan solution is tricky, i used a PC fan ripped from an old tower pc case, you should be able to pick one up one ebay for a quid or 2.

you then need a dc power supply to run it any old phone charger or redundant dc power supply you have will do it.

a pc fan with a molex connector (white translucent plastic 4 pin connector)
will generally have 3 wires Black red and yellow Black is the ground or the -ve connection, Red for +5v yellow for +12v (you only use 1 x +ve connection depending on your power supply 1 to 5v use black n red, 6-12v black n yellow, over 12v look for a different power supply.) Pc fans are ideal as they are designed to run 24/7 , Just Dont do what i did and use epoxy to stick the fan in place, cos after a couple of years mine did go and that was a pita to deal with..

Edit by CT - look at WHOOPS !!! CORRECTION!! below.


you can mount the heater where you like i had to mount mine top left hand side above beer level but with a fan running 24/7 and constant air movement going on all is good

whats a SD fermentor?? if a typo for SS no problem, the SS is a metal and while being a crap metal for conducting heat, a crap metal at conducting heat beats any plastic and to the best of my knowledge any glass or ceramic too

 

[stuart_A]

brilliant, thanks for the advice Fil!

 

[Fil]

WHOOPS !!! CORRECTION!!

While the power wires coming out of a pc power supply terminated with molex connectors for plugging into hard drives, fans, etc.. are Black = GND or -ve, red = +5v, yellow = +12v

ON the fan side the wiring can be different.. with 3 wire fans red = 12v black = -ve, and the third wire which can be white or yellow or black ( no hard n fast convention... afaik) is a control..

I am so sorry for the mis information posted above, I came from the pc psu side of it and just assumed the wires on the fan side would correspond 1:1.. just browsing this evening took me to a place where the same subject was discussed http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/108395/which-wire-is-negative-on-this-pc-fan , it made me pause for thought and dig deeper and to my shame i realised my error..

again apologies..

If its any consolation i had a big face palm moment when i twigged my screw up and realised id been running my pc fan in the brew fridge at less than 1/2 speed supplying it with iirc a 5v dc brick

 

[Bigcol49]

Should I be looking at 40w tube heaters or would the 60w better. Would a 60w in the small confined space be dangerous?

Hi!
From the point of view of possible future expansion, perhaps to a larger fridge, the 60W would be the better buy. It will be perfectly safe inside the fridge.
Colin

 

[Nial]

If its any consolation i had a big face palm moment when i twigged my screw up and realised id been running my pc fan in the brew fridge at less than 1/2 speed supplying it with iirc a 5v dc brick

This probably doesn't really matter if all you want is a slow fan to keep the air moving in the fridge.

The 5V brick's a simpler solution than a PC power supply.

Nial

 

[jayjt29]

Mine uses a 45 watt heater with great results think it was 15 quid! One of the best upgrades to my brewing set up was the fermentation fridge/chamber :)

Link to my fridge with wiring diagram ; http://doghousehomebrew.com/equipment/brewfridge.html

Cheers Jay

 

[stuart_A]

Hi
Ive now got a PC fan and found a old power source. Would you be able to advice if this plug is suitable? If so, where would i cut it; before or after the little cell thingy? Also, how do i go about connecting the plug to the fan?

Thanks

 

[Leon103]

I think you need a 12 volt plug. An old router one will do.

 

[stuart_A]

Ah ok. Think I've got one of them somewhere . Cheers

 

[donchiquon]

Probably another daft question, but what size of fan are folks using?

I've seen a range of sizes starting at 40mm on eBay....just wondering what size is good for the job.

Thanks!


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[nigelnorris]

I don't own a beer fridge and have never used a fan for this purpose, but I've done something similar elsewhere and imagine the information is transferable. Most listing for PC fans will give you a cfm rating [cubic feet per minute]. Even a little 40mm fan running 5 volts will move up to 10cfm, I guess that means if properly positioned it will cycle the entire fridge airspace in under a minute. I don't imagine there's much benefit beyond that.

The most common size is 120mm though, if you're going to make some sort of fixture for it it might pay to go for that size just because it's the easiest to replace when it goes faulty.

Oh and experience tells me that the really cheap eBay ones mailed in from China are a waste of money, the mouldings tend to be so thin they fall apart in no time.

 

[Twostage]

Probably another daft question, but what size of fan are folks using?

I've seen a range of sizes starting at 40mm on eBay....just wondering what size is good for the job.

Thanks!


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I tend to use between 90 and 120mm. 8 volts is enough to circulate the air.

Make sure you get the 'old fashioned' ones, typically with a red and black cable (plus one other colour), the newer ones need a stepper motor controller to make them work.

 

[donchiquon]

Thanks Twostage and Nigel - sounds as though 120mm would be a good start.

Fridge, Inkbird, and heater all ready for assembly. Just need to find some off cuts for the new shelves.

I put a batch of Golden ale in the FV last weekend and popped it in our boiler room which stays at about 19 degrees all the time.

I was surprised to find that 48 hours in the beer was at 22.5 degrees! I should probably not have insulated the FV!

Looking forward to having the fridge set up at times like this!


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[donchiquon]

All sorted now except for the fan....will get that installed this weekend.

Got me thinking about a kegerator now!

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[Crawfordid]

Do people find having a fan to circulate the air makes a big difference? as was thinking of building one of these myself soon but hadnt considered putting a fan in

 

[stuart_A]

I have a fan in mine but tbh it's hard to tell what difference it makes.

I would say however the biggest difference I saw was when I moved the probe from being against the fv to being inside a thermowell through the side of the fv. The temperature became far more stable and didnt fluctuate each time I opened the fridge for example. I kept a thermomenter in the fridge also and I'd see difference of say 5 degrees in the fridge but 14 in the Fermenter. It takes a long time to chill/heat 23l of liquid compared to just heating thw ambient temp within the chamber. I read lots of people saying there was almost no difference but that's not what I've found.

Might be worth considering having your thermostat probe in your beer or in a thermowell. Then tbh the fan probably doesn't make much difference (but it is very cheap and easy to install, even I managed it!)

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Didn't someone say a fan isn't really necessary as air will move naturally due to heating/cooling.

 

[Fil]

No a fan isnt really necessary, In fear of repeating myself ... It will improve the efficiency of both cooling and heating. the natural convection currents and down draughts wont be anywhere near as powerful as a small pc fan, and can form a pattern that excludes areas hidden behind a big brew bucket.
Most commercial fridges and hi end domestic fridges come with fans built in which boost their efficiency ratings. .

and for the nominal cost of an ex pc case fan and old redundant phone charger or similar, it seems to me at least foolish not to add it.

 

[Wabby]

Sorry to hi-jack the three, but I just got myself an under the counter fridge for in the garage to cool my beers, to make my double height larder fridge available for doing two ferments at once (and to enable me to brew with lager yeasts).

What would be the best size heater for the base? Considering that this fridge is around 170cm tall ?