Removing ice box from old fridge

[JackoNZ]

Does anybody know if you can just rip out the freezer box of the old Kelvinator fridges and it will be ok? i.e the fridge will still work? My fermenter wont fit in there unless I take the freezer box out but not sure if it's completely separate to the fridge unit or makes the fridge work too.

Any ideas?

[denimglen]

Nah, don't think so. Usually the freezer box is what cools the fridge.

[JackoNZ]

Cheers Glen, have Mcgyvered it and just turned the freezer box around on it's side. Now the fermenter just fits in but not sure how effective the fridge will be for fermenting as it's chocker full. Tempmate will hopefully be here soon and I can test it out and see how she goes.

[denimglen]

If you want to increase the cooling effectiveness a bit you can rig up a PC case fan with a 12V DC adapter to circulate air and just screw it to the wall of the fridge. My keg fridge keeps temps heaps better now and less foaming in the lines because if it.

Be careful moving the freezer box, if it's the cooling plates that make the 'box' and you kink the gas line that goes into you'll have no cooling.

[JackoNZ]

ok thanks, might look into the fan idea. The fridge is on and it seems to be working fine so hopefully haven't fcked the gas line up. Was going to drill a couple of holes through the sides to re-screw it back to the roof of the fridge. At the moment I've a shelf wedged in there to hold it up, it might be safer to leave as is then. If I wasn't so tight for space then I could have just gone with the bigger fridge, oh well hopefully it will help with the fermenting temps.

Cheers

[denimglen]

Yeah, will definitely help, once ya got temp control you never go back.

[denimglen]

Oh yeah, if you wanna get ultra-MacGuyver on your fridge.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/finally-my-fermentation-chiller-65929/

[JackoNZ]

Well she's working away ok with the freezer unit on it's side. Played around with the thermostat settings on the weekend and got a range from -2 on the max setting to 13 when set to off. Tempmate arrived this morning so looking to get that wired up.

Was thinking though are there pro's/con's to having the thermostat set to different settings when using the temp mate? Should I just put it on the coldest setting and let the Tempmate do it's thing? I'll be looking at doing a lager in there first if that makes any difference.

[denimglen]

Just turn the fridge thermostat to the coldest setting then use the tempmate to control.