Fridge to cellar conversion question

Discussion in 'Cellaring / Aging Beer' started by hopswap1, Jul 11, 2013.

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  1. hopswap1

    hopswap1 Initiate (0) Apr 27, 2012 Illinois

    I've seen a lot of posts about this but can't find an answer to my (maybe dumb) question. I'm converting an old fridge (fridge on bottom freezer on top) into a cellar. My question is, will lowering the temp of the fridge with a temp controller affect the usability of the freezer? The fridge portion is large enough for my cellar with room to grow so I was hoping to still use the freezer portion for its intended purpose.. storing food stuffs safely.
     
    #1 hopswap1, Jul 11, 2013
  2. stupac2

    stupac2 Pooh-Bah (2,031) Feb 22, 2011 California
    Pooh-Bah

    In all likelihood it will, if you're using a temperature controller to get the temp to 55 (I assume you meant "raising" instead of "lowering", since storing beer at colder-than-fridge temperatures is ill advised). Those things work by cutting the power to the fridge, basically bypassing its normal cooling mechanism. This should mean that the freezer will be cooler than the fridge, but warmer than it should be. (Rough guess would put it at about the same difference as the fridge, so if the fridge is normally 35 and is going to 55, and the freezer is normally 20 it'll be around 40. It won't be exact but that gives you an idea.)

    Typically it's recommended that you put the fridge's built-in temperature controller to its lowest setting, but you could try setting it to the highest while the freezer in at the lowest, and seeing what happens. (Put some ice cream in, or something, and see if it stays frozen for a day.)
     
    #2 stupac2, Jul 11, 2013
  3. hopswap1

    hopswap1 Initiate (0) Apr 27, 2012 Illinois

    Yea I did mean raising sorry. Thanks for the input, I like the ice cream idea rather than losing a steak!
     
    #3 hopswap1, Jul 11, 2013
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