Beer Fridge

Knock on wood, so far, so good. My beer fridge used to be the kitchen fridge but one day the thermostat stuck in the 'on' position and froze some food items (not a major loss). That's when the fridge got moved to the basement and became my beer fridge. However, rather than getting a repairman to install a new thermostat in it, I bought an external thermostat that allows the fridge temp to be set at higher temps, thus it is now used as a fermentation chamber for my homebrewing.

 

All fridges have some trouble at some point, no matter how nice they are. Most of these problems are probably caused by our usage. I've got quite a few fridges in my house, some might say too many. Our main fridge in the kitchen is never really cold enough and doesn't make enough ice during the summer because it's used too much. It's a very nice fridge but when you've got a teenage son who plays sports and fills up over a liter of ice and water before leaving the house and when he's in the house is eating every 5 minutes you can't really expect any fridge to keep up. On super hot days the fridge struggles and its a high end fridge.

In the basement we've got a full sized fridge where we keep the overflow food and most of my beer. It's a decent fridge but it's a mid range fridge at best. The temperature in this fridge can vary due to much lower opening and how full it is. Currently it's packed for a party this weekend and fortunately I don't have much beer at the moment otherwise I'd have to start shifting to the overflow beer fridge (I will when I go to the beer store some time this week). The beers tend to be on the colder side in this fridge because it's not as opened as much (a few times per day). Things on the very top shelf, which is not far from the top of the fridge, can slightly freeze if they sit for too long. I had some sour cream the other day that had a top layer of ice. I would never put my beer on the top shelf and I've never had any beer problems.

The beer overflow fridge is one of those smallish "bar" type fridges. Bigger than a college dorm fridge but basically the same type of design. Just under 3 feet tall. When my wife drank beer we kept most of her beer in there but now there's just random stuff in there, couple of 12 packs of hard seltzer, a few random beers, etc.. Been contemplating retiring that fridge or shutting it off unless it's needed when we are having a party and need the extra room. Like any of these fridges you are going to have problems based on how much is in the fridge and how close it is to the freezer plate. All bets are off for this fridge because it's now opened like once per month. If I ever have my bar and it's used more regularly I'd probably store beer in there but would still have to be careful of the freezer plate and the natural variation of temperatures in these small type fridges. This fridge is affected by both usage and the nature of the type of fridge.

My kegerator is a pretty cheap one with a cooling plate on the back of the unit. Generally my temperatures stay consistent. The problem is ice build up on the cooling plate when it's muggy out. Eventually the ice covers up the temperature sensor and it won't cool to the proper temperature. Only solution is to de-ice between kegs. You also need to be sure to not let the beer tubing touch the back plate otherwise it can freeze. If I had a better kegerator I probably wouldn't have these problems.

You might be thinking 4 isn't too bad but I haven't talked about the deep freezer or the fridge in my mother in law's "apartment" So yeah I've seen problems here or there with my beer fridges.