your only hope using a fridge as a res chiller is to have a res in teh fridge that is large enough, and the pump slow enough that the hot water being added to the res does not change its temp.
fridge's KEEP things cool, they arent designed for rapid cooling. that would be a blast freezer.
fridge is only about 750 btu. that is not shit.
if you put 20 gallons of 80 degree water in a fridge, it will take it a solid day to pull it down in tempurature.
by the time you buy a fridge, and all the shit to rig it up you could have got an actual chiller that takes up 1/3rd the space of a mini fridge, works 300% better and costs less to operate.
lastly, by continually adding warm water to the fridge cooler, the compressor will operate much longer cycle and much more frequently than it was ever designed. so after about a week of working itself to death your fridge contraption will have a burned up compressor and be another big broke piece of shit.
wort chillers dont pull that much heat, there coil is extremely non efficient. you would be better just pumping in and out of a 5 gallon bucket full of nutes in the fridge. water holds more heat and absorbs it much faster than copper ever will.
at least once a month this topic comes up. it doesnt work, its costly....just buy a chiller. |