fridge conversion

[bubble]

I have a spare fridge, a fridgemaster. I want to convert it so that it can be thermostatically controlled as a fermentation cabinet. I've searched on here and while there's several technical discussions etc I cant find a simple how-to could anyone post up a link or something? There seems to be several aproaches and I can't work out which one will work best for me.

A few things that seemed important: its a fridge and has no freezer comp. The shelves are fully removable wire racks. My brew kit fits in ok. Its situated in an area that is quite cold in winter and hot in summer (a sort of lean-to shack coming off my kitchen).

Before I searched I was thinking about leaving the electrics intact and putting in a separate system of thermostat heat tube and power supply so it would have 2 plugs: 1 for 16-25 degrees and the original one for 0-7 degrees. However it appears this is not what people do.

 

[anthonyUK]

Search for STC-1000. It is a single temp controller that will control your fridge (by switching the power on/off) and heater.
I bought mine from ebay for £15ish delivered http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0628773067

There are a few posts on here and on other brewing forums on how to wire it up http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/t ... my-brewing

 

[StubbsPKS]

Darcey is selling 2 of the controllers in this thread. Sure beats waiting the 10-20 days I was just quoted from Hong Kong :thumb:

 

[anthonyUK]

Darcey is selling 2 of the controllers in this thread. Sure beats waiting the 10-20 days I was just quoted from Hong Kong :thumb:

He was. I bought them. Sorry.

 

[bubble]

cheers

thats exactly what I need nice one fellas

:

 

[StubbsPKS]

Darcey is selling 2 of the controllers in this thread. Sure beats waiting the 10-20 days I was just quoted from Hong Kong :thumb:

He was. I bought them. Sorry.

Oh, haha, didn't even see that. Well, grats on the more local buy then! :rofl:

 

[Kev888]

Hi,

Unless you want to get down to temperatures around those at which the fridge normally operates its not actually necessary to bypass the fridge's thermostat if you're using an external controller - just set the fridge to minimum temperature and it will always try to cool whenever your external controller gives it power. I find this works fine for fermenting with ale yeasts and cooling to say 5c before kegging (lager may be different, I'm not familiar with lager yeast or lagering myself so am uncertain exactly what temperatures you'd want for that).

For heating I use a 60watt pipe heater in the fridge (this was enough even out in the unheated garage over the last cool winter); light bulbs of a similar rating are also popular and work just as well but my pipe heater is splash proof so (knowing what I'm like!) I thought it the better option for me.

In addition to the stc-1000 mentioned in a previous answer, popular controllers also include the TC-10 and ATC-800+ (e.g. from forttex) - I've used both and they work well too. BTW, if you're at all dubious about your wiring know-how, then forttex do a package of the ATC-800+ ('package 3') that comes pre-wired with trailing sockets - so all you need to do electrically speaking (caveats about lager mentioned above) is to plug in the fridge and heater.

Cheers
kev

 

[StubbsPKS]

Hi,

Unless you want to get down to temperatures around those at which the fridge normally operates its not actually necessary to bypass the fridge's thermostat if you're using an external controller - just set the fridge to minimum temperature and it will always try to cool whenever your external controller gives it power. I find this works fine for fermenting with ale yeasts and cooling to say 5c before kegging (lager may be different, I'm not familiar with lager yeast or lagering myself so am uncertain exactly what temperatures you'd want for that).

For heating I use a 60watt pipe heater in the fridge (this was enough even out in the unheated garage over the last cool winter); light bulbs of a similar rating are also popular and work just as well but my pipe heater is splash proof so (knowing what I'm like!) I thought it the better option for me.

In addition to the stc-1000 mentioned in a previous answer, popular controllers also include the TC-10 and ATC-800+ (e.g. from forttex) - I've used both and they work well too. BTW, if you're at all dubious about your wiring know-how, then forttex do a package of the ATC-800+ ('package 3') that comes pre-wired with trailing sockets - so all you need to do electrically speaking (caveats about lager mentioned above) is to plug in the fridge and heater.

Cheers
kev

That ATC-800 Package 3 is a nice find for anyone without that inner sparky (or those of us smart enough to realize that our inner sparky isn't trained )

I've already ordered my STC-1000 or I might consider snatching that up!