Buying a fridge to house keg/fermenter

[110ben]

If you are using mdf or plywood i would suggest drilling some holes in it to allow the warm air of the heater to rise and circulate easily.

 

[BarnBrian]

I would go for marine ply and varnish it on all sides, much easier to ke sanitised.

 

[Kinneuchar]

Hi there!
I find using a full SS brewbucket a little awkward when putting in or removing from the fridge interior (because of the rubber feet) so I use a perforated platform on castors to wheel it in and out of the fridge onto a raised piece of board.
Hope this is useful.

 

[BarnBrian]

Hi there!
I find using a full SS brewbucket a little awkward when putting in or removing from the fridge interior (because of the rubber feet) so I use a perforated platform on castors to wheel it in and out of the fridge onto a raised piece of board.
Hope this is useful.
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That has to be one of the best simple ideas for managing FV’s

 

[GhostShip]

I would go for marine ply and varnish it on all sides, much easier to ke sanitised.

I like that idea. I've gone right off MDF because it's clear that it just soaks up moisture and starts to swell and change shape fairly quickly. Varnished ply makes much more sense.

Love the little platform on castors! Probably a bit OTT for what I need - I'll just be moving an FV, but great idea.

 

[cushyno]

And that's exactly why I post on here! An hour ago, I was going to buy an ITC-1000 and now I'm buying an ITC-308.

By the time I bought the ITC-1000, enclosure box, two sockets and some cable, it would probably have cost the same as the 308 anyway - and now I don't have to do any wiring (which I'm not particulary confident with anyway)!

Thank you all for your help - I'll let you know how it's going once I have everything up and running.

Similar situation here. Bought an old Hotpoint fridge off Gumtree for a tenner about a month ago. STC-1000 for £11 plus a couple of cheap sockets from B&Q. I had a few cable scraps I could reuse. Decided to build a wooden enclosure for the STC with everything inside being earthed.

Latterley I bought a two gang unwired extension from Wilco which I intend to modify and use with 4-core cable as a pendant style similar to an Inkbird. Trouble is, cost of 4-core was more than two cheap sockets, so sticking with the 'version 1' for now.

All up cost for the brew fridge was less than £25!

Used it for 11L brew last week and now conditioning at Const 20degC.

Since it's cooler outside tonight and the fridge is in the garage, I had to hastily make a heater contraption from an old pan with a lightbulb inside. Works a treat.

 

[welly3]

Just checking to see if you've thought about fermentation temperature being much higher than serving temperature of beer? Even for a lager, you'll be fermenting much higher than you would for serving your finished beer. You really need two separate fridges.

 

[ElvisIsBeer]

Best thing I've done is convert our old fridge using a 308 and a heater from screwfix. Keeps all the gubbins out the house, constant temps, easy to keep clean. I could do with improving my slightly rickety wooden platform - it holds the FV fine, but I probably could have made smaller gaps between planks. The bottles sometimes stand awkwardly over a gap. A minor quibble, especially given that the mancave roof needs fixing....