Fan In Ferm Fridge...

[muthead]

Hi Guys,

My ferm fridge can fit 2 fermenters in but I'm conscious that I am not getting even air distribution without a fan. I have heard a lot of people say they have installed a CPU fan in their fridge to aid such issues.

I have searched but cannot seem to find a "how to" that makes sense.

Is anybody able to assist or point me to somewhere which can?

Appreciated.

Mut

 

[vortex]

Use an old 12v power supply and wire the fan to that, and you're done.

 

[benno1973]

Yeh, get a power supply with a transformer, like an old mobile phone charger. I tend to look for something that states 12V and over 300mA (or 0.3A) to run a PC fan. Also get an old PC fan - it should have the voltage and amp rating on it (i.e. 12V, 120mA or something). Make sure that your power pack provides the same voltage and the same or more amps.

Now, with the PC fan, you might get a 2-wire, 3-wire or 4-wire kind. It doesn't really matter, you'll only be interested in the red and black wires. It'll most likely have some sort of connection on the end as well for connecting onto a motherboard. Just cut the connection off with a pair of scissors and strip the red and black wires so you have around 1cm of exposed wire.

Then with the phone charger, there'll be a metal cylindrical end that you plug into your phone. Cut this off with a pair of scissors and you'll be left with 2 wires, most likely a black one and a black one with a white stripe. Again, strip these wires so that you have 1cm of exposed wire.

Then you have the option of either twisting the wires together, or using a fancy connector thingy, but basically you want to connect the black wire on the phone charger to the black wire on the fan. You also want to connect the black/white wire on the phone charger to the red wire on the fan. Turn on the power and your fan should start spinning.

NOTE: Although it's obvious, you should only be cutting the wires *after* the transformer wall wart, so you're dealing with 12V, rather than 240V. It's obvious, but I need to say that.

 

[Superoo]

The other bonus you will find is less mould, and the fan actually acts as a small heater in winter.

 

[fraser_john]

$10 at Bunnings will buy you a desk fan, drill another hole in the side of the fridge and run the cord through there and put a new plug back on it and a powerstrip connected to the the output of the temp controller. Easy peasy.

And if you want your fridge to run super efficient, buy another one and sit it around the back blowing air up over the cooling fins just like the commercial jobs.

 

[muthead]

Thanks to everybody on their suggestions.

Does anybody have a picture of a fan in their fridge so I can get an idea of where & what to do. Things make more sense when I can see a visual.

Cheers,
Mut

 

[angus_grant]

Well I built myself a tower cooler: a pc fan from work, some tubing and adapters from Bunnings, project box and 12V 1AMP unregulated power adapter from Jaycar. I am still hoping to write up some instructions and put it in one of the sections here, but here is a picture of it in the fridge. I am doing a fermentation in the fridge at the moment so haven't actually tested it out when running in beer mode, but it certainly pumps enough air up to flow out the tube. It should be right to pump the cold air from bottom of fridge up into tower to cool the lines. Not sure if it will cool the tap as well though.

The pc fan is mounted in the box in "suck" orientation and then the only way for the air to get out of the box is up the tube which runs up to the top of the tower. At the moment it is staying there under friction but I may zip-tie it later on if this fails. My fan did not have red and black wires, but from my reading you can just touch the wires to the power adapter (being careful to not touch any exposed wires as I am assuming 12V will still give you a nice kick) and you can't damage the fan. Eventually you will get the right wires and the fan will spin up.

I will run the power cord up the tube for the cooling lines (where I have run the temp probe line as well) just to tidy up the installation.

 

[angus_grant]

But if you were only wanting to circulate the air inside fermenting fridge I would go with the fan option. Way easier (and cheaper, although my total costs was only about $50)....

 

[fraser_john]

Check this thread out

My experiments with adding insulations and the fans to the system, has all the photos you should need.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Thought I'd resurrect this thread, rather than start another.



I bought a couple of these fans from Jaycar a couple of weeks ago for my fermenting fridges.

They each came with a short USB cable, which wasn't long enough, so I bought a 2 longer ones.

$16.95 each for the fans and about $10 each for the longer cables.

They have 3 speed settings, I have mine on the lowest speed and it pushes quite a bit of air around.

The do cheaper prices for bulk purchases too.

 

[mtb]

That MDF is probably hindering circulation too mate.. get drillin'