Cooling Down Fermenters Wit A 50mm Hole Saw.

[fifteenbeerslater]

View attachment 5292View attachment 5292Well i must have had good xmas cause Boxing Day i woke up with a great idea and had to go straight to the shed. Armed with a beer and a 50mm hole saw i started.
(I have always had trouble keeping the fermenters at the right temperature in the hot weather.)
To try my idea i fisrtly built an air tight timber box (thanks ROSS) to cover the fermenters, pushed it hard up against the fridge, and picked out where the two holes should go-they are roughly where the two small pieces of red tape are. I cut two 50mm holes thru the fridge and into the fermenter box, the holes have a short piece of pvc pipe fitted in them. The lower hole has a small PC 12volt fan to blow cold air into the fermenter box and the other hole allows the air to circulate back into the fridge, the fan is regulated by a small 6,9,12 volt power pack.
The temperature dropped immediately when turned on and later on i had to turn
the fan off.
Can't wait to later today when the temperature will be in the mid 30s. After a little more testing i will build a proper insulated box and include a small themostat to switch the fan. :beer:
CAN'T FIT PHOTO will try to send later.

 

[fifteenbeerslater]

Fermenter photo

 

[muga]

I was thinking of doing something like that and have some 12volt fans in the PVC pipe and have them wired up to a temp controller to turn on and blow the cold air in towards the box when it gets to warm.

I now just have 2 fermenting fridges and don't need any more room... yet.

Nice work!

 

[Gout]

I thought of doing this also. I have 2 fridges and a large temp controlled freezer, but I have a area under my bar, and it has chilled lines to the taps. I thought i might used this area and run the chilled lines into a coil to keep the under bar temps cold enough for ales. (will leave the lagers to the freezer)

A thought on the fan method, can you run a pipe on the inside of the fridge to the bottom area, so you are picking up cold air, then it returns the warmer are back into the side of the fridge (so it travels through the entire fridge and not cycles around the 2 holes)

if you get what i mean?

 

[dirk]

they sound like great ideas at the moment I freeze 2L milk containers with water and place 3 around the sides and one on top of each fermenter in a cuboard under the bar and that seams to work very well so far. the next thing to do is insulate the cuboard. I do want to make a special insulated box to put a 60L fermenter into that will fit under the bar on casters with alifting macanism for bottleing first thing i need a 60L fermenter.

cheers
dirk

 

[fifteenbeerslater]

MUGA, Iwill p/u a themostat at JAYCAR today.
GOUT, Great idea i will try picking up air at the bottom.
DIRK, You could make a box that just drops over the 60L fermenter an seals to the floor.
Cheers Guys :beer:

 

[Jye]

fifteenbeerslater, I did a similar thing before I got myself a fermenting fridge. The fan I ripped out of a busted fridge, it sucked air out of the freezer into the top of the box, and the return tube goes from the bottom of the box back to the freezer and ends on the opposite side of the freezer. This made the air cycle through the entire box and freezer. I hooked the fan up to a thermostat and it worked well for ales but would really go much lower than 16C.

 

[Jye]

I forgot to mention that I am no longer using it and if some one would like it you can have it for a couple of brews. It also works well with frozen milk bottles instead of being hooked up to the fridge.

Jye
:beer:

 

[Jye]

Hey wally

It is used for making concrete pillars... or in my case subwoofers

To buy it new cost about $150 in 3m lengths from Boral, but you can pick it up as off cuts from construction sites if you lucky.

 

[fifteenbeerslater]

Jye,
Looks great,a small window to view the air lock etc could be an advantage.
Mine is only a few days old now and is working well in the shed with temperatures in the high 30s, it's now controlled with an electronic thermostat set to 21 degrees. After a few weeks i intend to build a new insulated unit with a few minor changes.
CHEERS :beer:

 

[Jye]

From my viewing of your original pictures the "Formatube" appeared to me to be a type of polystyrene.

What is the "Formatube" actually made from?

The formatube is actually made from 1cm thick cardboard, I lined it with layers of 5mm polystyrene to build up a wall thickness of about 3cm.

a small window to view the air lock etc could be an advantage.

Its a really pita opening it up but I only needed to do it a day after pitching to make sure it had started.

 

[Ross]

I'm thinking of building one of these as an extension to the top of my fermenting fridge, just big enough to take a starter bottle - would be great for building up a decent sized lager starter at the right temp...

cheers Ross

 

[fifteenbeerslater]

Sounds like a good idea, it's works well with a small fan and a small hole so you can control the amount of cold air electricaly.
Cheers 15BL :beer:

 

[Ross]

Sounds like a good idea, it's works well with a small fan and a small hole so you can control the amount of cold air electricaly.
Cheers 15BL :beer:

[post="99951"][/post]​

Yep, it's my old dispensing fridge - I'm thinking of either running pipes through the holes left by the taps or putting new ones through the fridge top - decisions, decisions...

 

[PistolPatch]

How you goin' 15BL!

Just reading this thread and thought it would be great to get an update on the new box you were going to build with the improvements.

I'd also be really interested to know what brand parts you used, where you got them from and how you connected them eg fan, thermostat control etc.

I've got a coolroom joint close by so am hoping I can pick up some panel offcuts cheap and basically do what you've done.

I was thinking of just connecting the box to my 360lt converted freezer running at 2degrees with a bit of larger PVC (the box will have to go on top of the freezer). To adjust the temp I was going to put a slidable cover over the hole so I could make the opening smaller or larger. I was hoping that because the insulation is so good, once I played around I could have markings in place to achieve certain temps.

Though the above would be very simple, I'm unsure whether it would actually work!

Cheers mate!

 

[fifteenbeerslater]

Pistolpatch,
I had a few hot days in a row and the unit worked very well even though it wasn't insulated. I haven't got around to building another and have decided to build a small cool room instead. If you go ahead i think you will be happy but build an insulated box and be sure to have two holes, 50mm is a good size, the cold air needs to circulate, i used a small 12v PC fan and you can regulate the amount of cold air going in by reducing the voltage.
GOOD LUCK & Cheers 15BL :beer:
PS Will be starting the COOLROOM maybe this week.

 

[PistolPatch]

Thanks for the update 15. A coolroom! You've got to be happy about that!

Been thinking on the above all day, doing drawings etc., etc! Might post the efforts of my handiwork later in a different thread. Your feedback has given me some more hope that it will actually work!

Look forward to seeing your coolroom 15 as I'm sure everyone else will!

Cheers! :beerbang:

 

[fifteenbeerslater]

The coolroom has just began, got the panels and will have ready in a week or two (if i can find time)
Cheers 15BL :beer:

 

[fifteenbeerslater]

The coolroom has just began, got the panels and will have ready in a week or two (if i can find time)
Cheers 15BL :beer:

 

[fifteenbeerslater]

Coolroom/fridge should work out to about 5000 litre capacity, that should hold a bottle or two!