Buying a fridge that ices over for fermenting

[laxation]

Someone on gumtree is selling a cheap fridge that apparently ices over.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if i were to buy this for fermenting - keeping it at ~20 degrees, icing over wouldn't be a problem would it? Is there something I'm missing?

Unless there's some other underlying problem with the fridge causing it that would screw me over...

 

[wynnum1]

How old is the fridge the door seals can be a problem and cause icing.

 

[Bonenose]

I assume they are talking about the evaporator icing up if it is a fridge in which case no issue go for it. If it ices up then the compressor etc. are fine, as a fridge it would need to be defrosted now and then, possibly seals or may just have no defrost cycle either way no problem for fermenting.

 

[S.E]

Depends on where you live and how hard the fridge needs to work to maintain ferment temp. I’m in NSW and a few years ago my fridge freezer that was only about 3 or 4 years old at the time had a faulty defrost cycle.

I bypassed the circuit board and disconnected everything but the compressor and fan. It worked fine with an STC1000 as a fermenting fridge for a few months but it was in a garage that got very hot in the summer and after a few very hot days I heard the fan hitting ice and had to unplug it and let it defrost.

This only happened once though, it’s now in a cooler garage under the house and has been fine since. So if the door seals are ok you can keep it somewhere relatively cool it will probably be ok.