Wine Cooler Fridge

[joeyyy]

Hi All,

I did a quick search on the forums but couldn't find an answer.

I've seen some fairly inexpensive electric wine cooler fridges at the local stores, and was thinking whether it would be a good idea to use one of these for the purposes of placing the fermenter in, and controlling the temperature down for lager style beers etc. during the fermentation process. This way, there's no need to modify an old fridge or bar fridge with a separate thermostat.

These electric wine cellars seem to have a digital control read out, and go down to about 6 degrees Celsius.

I would only intend to use this for the fermentation process only, as i am currently bottling the brew - hence no need to refrigerate any kegs.

Has anyone tried this by any chance? I guess the next thing is, is to ensure that the fermenter can fit inside the electric wine cooler fridge as it might be a tight squeeze height wise with the less expensive smaller units.

Big W have these for under $100.

Thanks for any advice and assistance.

Cheers,

 

[ekul]

I was using a car fridge for a fermentation fridge for awhile. It had a thermostat on the side which was handy but not very accurate. As long as you can get the lid on they are fine. My lid didn't fit so i had to build one from styrofoam. It worked but my bar fridge for $30 and stc1000 ($33 delivered i think) is far superior, and cheaper to boot!

 

[Rotgut]

Looks like a good cheap option. My only hesitation would be the thermo electric cooler they use (compared to compressor). If you live in a hot area, they are limited to 25 deg or so cooling capacity only. Still, worth checking out! Might have a closer look myself - thanks for the heads up!