Fridge "reclamation" project (pic heavy)

[shilala]

K, Keith.
See those coils? That's what will get cold. Then they are glued, soldered, and clamped to the freezer body. It's most likely aluminum, because aluminum is almost as good as copper at transferring heat.
What you could do is tear off the freezer door, insulate the inside of the freezer with foam (like 1 inch blue stuff), seal that foam around the seams with silicone, then you could store stuff in the freezer section.
That'll keep and condenstaion from touching your stuff, but creates a very high liklihood of mold growing behind the foam.
If you can build a form inside the freezer out of wood, space it from the walls, and blow it full of canned foam, that'd be ultra-awesome. No mold, because there'd be no place for it to grow.

You could also simply build shelves in the freezer, and add a computer fan in there.
You'd have to be VERY careful that nothing (boxes, etc.) ever touches the sides, and be sure that there's plenty of sirculation for the fan to dry the condensation and return it to the air.

Now, the drip pan....
You somehow have to return any drip water to the air. Fans would do it. They make little 60 mm computer fans that'd work. They even have 40 mm fans that would work and be smaller.

It all depends where you put it. If it's in a warm area and it's gonna run a lot, there's going to be lots of condensate (water). If it's in a cool area, it'll run very little and need far less air movement to dry the condensed water and return it to your beads.

Yes, you can remove the freezer if you don't want any cooling. The coils that are on the freezer are where heat transfer happens. Inside those coils reside refrigerant.
To remove the coils from the freezer walls, bundle them, and use them as a chiller would work, but aluminum is VERY fragile. The odds of doing that without blowing a hole are about one in a million.

The best way to approach it is to finish it up, make your shelves or whatever, put beads in it, run it and see what happens.
Then you can make the necessary mods to make it work the way you want it to.
that's what I do.

The inherent design and particular formation of the freezer body and how it works is what's screwing you over. It's designed to condense and drip on the inside and outside of the freezer body so it keeps water off your food.
The ice that forms on/in the freezer is what cools the food below.
There's a thermostat below in the food section that drives the freezer unit to cool, thus ensuring the cycle.
The freezer section is the evaporator.
The coils on the back of your fridge are the condenser.
The compressor is underneath your fridge near the back.
Don't get "water condensing on the evaporator" confused with the condenser on the back of your fridge. It'll just make you more confused.
The reason they call the thing inside your fridge an evaporator (your freezer) is because that's where liquid refrigerant evaporates (inside those tubes) and gathers heat. It then carries the heat back to the compressor, is compressed and multiplied, then the heat is released in the condenser coil where it turns back to a liquid, and heads back to your freezer through an orifice where it "flashes" back to a saturated vapor and starts gathering heat again.
That's the confusing part, kinda. We think the freezer is "making cold", but it's actually carrying away heat.

So you either keep the freezer, or don't have any cooling.
Add some fans and see what happens.
The pains in the ass may be minimal, and might be easy to fix. Ultimately you might even be able to use the freezer section.
If nothing else, you could always use jar humis (beware, puff link) in the freezer section.

[BigAsh]

Originally Posted by shilala

K, Keith.
See those coils? That's what will get cold. Then they are glued, soldered, and clamped to the freezer body. It's most likely aluminum, because aluminum is almost as good as copper at transferring heat.
What you could do is tear off the freezer door, insulate the inside of the freezer with foam (like 1 inch blue stuff), seal that foam around the seams with silicone, then you could store stuff in the freezer section.
That'll keep and condenstaion from touching your stuff, but creates a very high liklihood of mold growing behind the foam.
If you can build a form inside the freezer out of wood, space it from the walls, and blow it full of canned foam, that'd be ultra-awesome. No mold, because there'd be no place for it to grow.

You could also simply build shelves in the freezer, and add a computer fan in there.
You'd have to be VERY careful that nothing (boxes, etc.) ever touches the sides, and be sure that there's plenty of sirculation for the fan to dry the condensation and return it to the air.

Now, the drip pan....
You somehow have to return any drip water to the air. Fans would do it. They make little 60 mm computer fans that'd work. They even have 40 mm fans that would work and be smaller.

It all depends where you put it. If it's in a warm area and it's gonna run a lot, there's going to be lots of condensate (water). If it's in a cool area, it'll run very little and need far less air movement to dry the condensed water and return it to your beads.

Yes, you can remove the freezer if you don't want any cooling. The coils that are on the freezer are where heat transfer happens. Inside those coils reside refrigerant.
To remove the coils from the freezer walls, bundle them, and use them as a chiller would work, but aluminum is VERY fragile. The odds of doing that without blowing a hole are about one in a million.

The best way to approach it is to finish it up, make your shelves or whatever, put beads in it, run it and see what happens.
Then you can make the necessary mods to make it work the way you want it to.
that's what I do.

The inherent design and particular formation of the freezer body and how it works is what's screwing you over. It's designed to condense and drip on the inside and outside of the freezer body so it keeps water off your food.
The ice that forms on/in the freezer is what cools the food below.
There's a thermostat below in the food section that drives the freezer unit to cool, thus ensuring the cycle.
The freezer section is the evaporator.
The coils on the back of your fridge are the condenser.
The compressor is underneath your fridge near the back.
Don't get "water condensing on the evaporator" confused with the condenser on the back of your fridge. It'll just make you more confused.
The reason they call the thing inside your fridge an evaporator (your freezer) is because that's where liquid refrigerant evaporates (inside those tubes) and gathers heat. It then carries the heat back to the compressor, is compressed and multiplied, then the heat is released in the condenser coil where it turns back to a liquid, and heads back to your freezer through an orifice where it "flashes" back to a saturated vapor and starts gathering heat again.
That's the confusing part, kinda. We think the freezer is "making cold", but it's actually carrying away heat.

So you either keep the freezer, or don't have any cooling.
Add some fans and see what happens.
The pains in the ass may be minimal, and might be easy to fix. Ultimately you might even be able to use the freezer section.
If nothing else, you could always use jar humis (beware, puff link) in the freezer section.

Thanks Scott...you are a wealth of knowledge and a fine BOTL!....I'm gonna try it and see what happens....I'm optimistic all will work out well in the end.....Next will be firming up with Chuck on shelves/drawers.....

[bsmokin]

Originally Posted by shilala

K, Keith.
See those coils? That's what will get cold. Then they are glued, soldered, and clamped to the freezer body. It's most likely aluminum, because aluminum is almost as good as copper at transferring heat.
What you could do is tear off the freezer door, insulate the inside of the freezer with foam (like 1 inch blue stuff), seal that foam around the seams with silicone, then you could store stuff in the freezer section.
That'll keep and condenstaion from touching your stuff, but creates a very high liklihood of mold growing behind the foam.
If you can build a form inside the freezer out of wood, space it from the walls, and blow it full of canned foam, that'd be ultra-awesome. No mold, because there'd be no place for it to grow.

You could also simply build shelves in the freezer, and add a computer fan in there.
You'd have to be VERY careful that nothing (boxes, etc.) ever touches the sides, and be sure that there's plenty of sirculation for the fan to dry the condensation and return it to the air.

Now, the drip pan....
You somehow have to return any drip water to the air. Fans would do it. They make little 60 mm computer fans that'd work. They even have 40 mm fans that would work and be smaller.

It all depends where you put it. If it's in a warm area and it's gonna run a lot, there's going to be lots of condensate (water). If it's in a cool area, it'll run very little and need far less air movement to dry the condensed water and return it to your beads.

Yes, you can remove the freezer if you don't want any cooling. The coils that are on the freezer are where heat transfer happens. Inside those coils reside refrigerant.
To remove the coils from the freezer walls, bundle them, and use them as a chiller would work, but aluminum is VERY fragile. The odds of doing that without blowing a hole are about one in a million.

The best way to approach it is to finish it up, make your shelves or whatever, put beads in it, run it and see what happens.
Then you can make the necessary mods to make it work the way you want it to.
that's what I do.

The inherent design and particular formation of the freezer body and how it works is what's screwing you over. It's designed to condense and drip on the inside and outside of the freezer body so it keeps water off your food.
The ice that forms on/in the freezer is what cools the food below.
There's a thermostat below in the food section that drives the freezer unit to cool, thus ensuring the cycle.
The freezer section is the evaporator.
The coils on the back of your fridge are the condenser.
The compressor is underneath your fridge near the back.
Don't get "water condensing on the evaporator" confused with the condenser on the back of your fridge. It'll just make you more confused.
The reason they call the thing inside your fridge an evaporator (your freezer) is because that's where liquid refrigerant evaporates (inside those tubes) and gathers heat. It then carries the heat back to the compressor, is compressed and multiplied, then the heat is released in the condenser coil where it turns back to a liquid, and heads back to your freezer through an orifice where it "flashes" back to a saturated vapor and starts gathering heat again.
That's the confusing part, kinda. We think the freezer is "making cold", but it's actually carrying away heat.

So you either keep the freezer, or don't have any cooling.
Add some fans and see what happens.
The pains in the ass may be minimal, and might be easy to fix. Ultimately you might even be able to use the freezer section.
If nothing else, you could always use jar humis (beware, puff link) in the freezer section.

WOW shilala... you know your stuff, eh?!

[Savor the Stick]

Originally Posted by bjones

WOW shilala... you know your stuff, eh?!

That's what the man does (used to) for a living.

Scott's da Man!

Thanks for bumping this back up Jonesie!