pcm
Novice
Posts: 75
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Post by pcm on Aug 12, 2011 12:07:27 GMT -5
Hi, I am thinking of buying a double door beverage fridge to use as a cooling station for racks of tempered bars. It will serve as a cooling tunnel.
Before I do it, should I be concerned abut anything? Moisture?
Also, what temp should it be set to? I am afraid it will be too cold. If so, is it hard to rig a fridge to sit at a higher temp?
Is this even the right way to go? I am not married to this idea at all.
If anyone has any great, inexpensive solutions for this problem, I would love to hear them.
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Post by cheebs on Aug 12, 2011 16:41:38 GMT -5
You can get a special thermostat for the fridge to keep your temps at 10C. Moisture will be your bigger problem, probably solved by installing an additional blower inside the fridge, plus a few Polar Fresh moisture absorbers.
With that said, for a whole lot less you can make yourself a custom cooling cabinet based on a window AC. All you need is a CoolBot to allow it to go to 10C plus the aforementioned blower. Any old broken fridge is usable, or you can build a Hilliard's-style wooden cabinet.
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Post by oaxacalote on Aug 12, 2011 17:20:18 GMT -5
Timely discussion! We are researching the same topic.
PCM, we're thinking the same thing you are: - purchase a used double-door commercial fridge set up to receive full sheet pans (which hold our molds) and customize it to be a cooling cabinet. - Use a thermostat, either the one in the fridge or one of the units that sits between the fridge plug and the outlet with a temperature probe inside the fridge (used by homebrewers and charcuterie folks), to keep temperature 50-55. - Install a blower or fans to improve air flow. - The unit will be inside our climate controlled shop, so humidity shouldn't be much of an issue and we won't be storing anything but chocolate in it. If it is, cheebs' recommendation of Polar Fresh absorbers is a good one. I'll add that we found a great price on a double-door fridge used, which makes this a reasonable economic plan.
Nice tip on the CoolBot, cheebs. Thanks! We had a previous experiment using an a/c unit fail and were looking for exactly this kind of device.
I'll post back with updates.
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