Fridge with bung defrost element as a fermentation chamber

[BrewDaddy]

So - our fridge just flipped out, beeping and flashing red lights. Turns out it the defrost element has given up. However I can disable the beeping etc and it does seem to be working, the temperature seems a bit jumpy though.

New fridge arrives tomorrow morning, so on to my question, is the old fridge still usable as a fermentation chamber??

I would pair it with an STC-1000 - would usually being doing ales, so probably around 17 - 19 degrees.

Any fridge experts or people willing to give their thoughts???

 

[Steve0408]

Hi
I know a thing or two about fridges I have been repairing them for 20 years.

I don't know as much as yourself about brewing so I will just stick to the facts and you can decide.

From the fault you describe I think you have a frost free fridge i.e. cool air is blown in to the fridge cabinet from else where (most likely a frost free freezer) the heater that has failed is to defrost the cooling coils (evaporator) every 8-12 hours.

When the heater fails the coil doesn't defrost this causes ice to build up in the coils and then block the air ways this causes reduced cooling. From my experience units with this fault will run at around +12 degrees C and need defrosting by turning off every 10 days or so.

Hope this helps!

 

[wbosher]

From Steve's description, it sounds ideal as a fermenting fridge. It will probably spent most of it's time off anyway once the desired temp has been reached.

 

[BrewDaddy]

Wow - just when i thought this question had died a sad and silent death

Thanks for the info Steve - it is a frost-free fridge, fisher and paykel active smart.

i had assumed it wouldn't actually need to run much to keep it at 18, and will only be on for 2 weeks during fermentation once or twice every 2 or so months, so regularly defrosting won't be an issue.

The only pain is every time it turns off then back on, the alarm sounds, apparently it won't clear until it completes a defrost cycle, which it never will BUT i've found out about Sabbath mode that will disable the alarm (and a bunch of other things). So i'll just activate that at the start of fermentation and reset periodically (think it lasts for 80 hours).

I guess i'll find out how it goes soon enough (wiring up STC tomorrow).

 

[Steve0408]

Sounds like a good result and although not ideal for the fridge I'm sure with 2 week runs it will live to fight another day, FP fit good quality compressors so should keep you out of trouble for a while.