Using Fridge for Wine Storage

[tfries]

I have three of those controllers. One is connected to a chest freezer
which is used as a keggerator. Another is connected to an old Pepsi
display fridge that I use for fermenting in during the summer, and the
last one is connected to a small upright freezer that is my cheese
aging cave.







The concept is that you plug the AC of your fridge into the controller.
The fridge is then set to its coldest setting. The controller will cut
off the power to the fridge when it reaches the max temp you set.
Since the controller cuts off the power to the fridge, you would not be
able to have the freezer portion to continue.






I would think that the upright freezer would make a nice wine cooler.
You could even build some racks to increase the capacity.

My tapper system

The fermentorium

Cheese Cave

 

[Wade E]

Thats a heck of a nice setup you have going there tfries. WOW!

 

[jsmahoney]

I have a closet that I had intentions of making into a wine storage area. Would it be wiser to invest in an old refrg to store the wine so it maintains the 50 degree temperature? I have no basement. The room that I was thinking of making into the wine storage area stays at around 60 degrees.

 

[Coaster]

I bought one of these and installed it on my garage freezer. Now it's getting colder and I wonder if the freezer will actually come on in the next few months. I can change mine so that it can work for a fridge or a heater. Should I disconnect the freezer and hook up a small lamp inside the freezerinstead and use the lamp to heat the freezer to the mid 50's during the winter?

 

[tfries]

The Ranco Digital controller can be set to either heat or cool. I
think that it is a jumper that you have to switch. I believe that
the Johnson controller, the one with the knob, is set up for cooling
only. At least if you can change it, I do not know how.



You can then connect the Ranco to a lamp to heat up your freezer.
If you are concerned about light being emitted, you might want to look
into something like a reptile terrerium heater as those do not emit
light.



Thanks Wade for the compliment



Tom

 

[Wade E]

Hers mine and as you can see, Im in desperate need of more storage but
will wait until after the basement is finished. The bottles in the
boxes are off limits till late next year!!!!!

Edited by: wade

 

[pkcook]

Wonderful idea tfries!


Do you make your own cheese? This is another hobby that I would love to get into. I love wine and cheese and nothing goes better with either one than the other!

 

[grapeman]

That's a great idea tfries! You need a bigger cave though if you are going to keep making cheese.


Wade you better get bottling. I only count enough bottles for a month and a half without getting into those boxes.

 

[Wade E]

Those do not open for any reason! We'll go commercial before I open up
those puppies. We dont have much restraint other than those boxes. The
only time that one of those boxes was opened was to dig out 1 bottle of
Black Currant for Waldo! Other than that, I have 2 to 3 bottles of
everything Ive made. Need more boxes for next batches though! I do
havbe some more bottles of wine besides those. I just cant fit them in
there.


Edited by: wade

 

[Coaster]

OK I ordered the heat lamp, hope the heat wont hurt the wine. Don't know exactly how I am going to install the heater yet, might have to build a box to frame it and shield the wine bottles closest to it. I am also going to have to figure out what to do when the temp changes and it's right in the storage range (ie its 45-65 outside during the day and night and the set point is 55).

 

[Coaster]

The outside temp is about 28 deg. The reptile heat lamp is 80w. The freezer is 20 ft^3. The set point is 59 deg but actual temp is 48 deg. Seems the reptile heat lamp can only create a 20 deg differential with the outside temp.

 

[Wade E]

Need more power Captain, shes breaking up!