AlanHarper
Foredown Brewing
I found a free BEKO larder fridge TLDA 521 and had misgivings about drilling holes in it but since I would not be losing anything if I did kill it i decided to go for it.
I bit the bullet and had a look inside to see where the best or more likely position for drilling would be.
I removed the thermostat housing - which has a plug and socket attachment so it was easy to remove. The long capillary thermo-couple just pulls out of the side of the casing as it is housed in a tube built into the side panel.
I decided to drill through the side wall at this point from inside the fridge as I figured they wouldn't complicate things by having cooling pipework anywhere near the thermostat!
The hole I drilled was just big enough for the InkBird thermo-couple to pass through from the outside. I drilled a suitable hole in the thermostat housing so the wire passed through that and into the fridge. Removing the built-in thermo-couple ensures you don't drill through it by accident!!!
In this way I could assemble everything back together - so there was as little cosmetic change to the fittings - and the InkBird lead can now reach anywhere inside the fridge.
I also figured that the cooling pipework would also not be all the way down to the base of the fridge and I drilled a big enough hole for the small bar heater wire to pass outside.
It turns out that there does NOT seem to be any cooling pipes in either side panel of the fridge - it is only in the BACK panel - on the internal side of the back panel insulation - the radiator being outside obviously.
All works OK so I have not damaged anything by boring through the sides and the InkBird works a treat. Note: The fridge is set to MAX so it can get as cold as designed.
I suspect that ALL fridges are constructed in a similar manner - it would be a complicated set of cooling pipes if not done this way.
As you can see, using this particular fridge I can actually get two fermenters in at the same time - if I wanted to.
I bit the bullet and had a look inside to see where the best or more likely position for drilling would be.
I removed the thermostat housing - which has a plug and socket attachment so it was easy to remove. The long capillary thermo-couple just pulls out of the side of the casing as it is housed in a tube built into the side panel.
I decided to drill through the side wall at this point from inside the fridge as I figured they wouldn't complicate things by having cooling pipework anywhere near the thermostat!
The hole I drilled was just big enough for the InkBird thermo-couple to pass through from the outside. I drilled a suitable hole in the thermostat housing so the wire passed through that and into the fridge. Removing the built-in thermo-couple ensures you don't drill through it by accident!!!
In this way I could assemble everything back together - so there was as little cosmetic change to the fittings - and the InkBird lead can now reach anywhere inside the fridge.
I also figured that the cooling pipework would also not be all the way down to the base of the fridge and I drilled a big enough hole for the small bar heater wire to pass outside.
It turns out that there does NOT seem to be any cooling pipes in either side panel of the fridge - it is only in the BACK panel - on the internal side of the back panel insulation - the radiator being outside obviously.
All works OK so I have not damaged anything by boring through the sides and the InkBird works a treat. Note: The fridge is set to MAX so it can get as cold as designed.
I suspect that ALL fridges are constructed in a similar manner - it would be a complicated set of cooling pipes if not done this way.
As you can see, using this particular fridge I can actually get two fermenters in at the same time - if I wanted to.
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