full refrigerator a good idea?

[mendozer]

I found a full fridge (no freezer) on CL for a good deal. Would this make a good meat chamber for salami (and I'll also do dry aging beef)?

I know people prefer bottom freezers for the compartment to hold the humidifier and such. But if it's fully open, that's still good right? 

 

[chef jimmyj]

That would be fine. I just watched a Youtube build where the guy went through a lot of trouble to remove the divider between compartments...JJ

 

[mendozer]

Got it! 50 bucks never felt so good. I'll have it up and running once I run some new wire in my garage to it. First project will be a dry aged roast, then some charcuterie

 

[mendozer]

OK well i got behind on projects. I cloroxed the entire fridge today and I'm ready to get it going. Got my Inkbird temp/humidity controller. I wanted to put an exterior outlet box in the fridge for the humidifier and fan to plug into. How do I know if the side of a fridge is safe to drill into?

 

[daveomak]

Warm the fridge.....     then put it on really cold...   put a pan of BOILING HOT water in it so there will be steam....   the steam should condense on the cold coils and form frost / ice where the coils are....   be sure to mark them well...  

 

[crazzycajun]

OK well i got behind on projects. I cloroxed the entire fridge today and I'm ready to get it going. Got my Inkbird temp/humidity controller. I wanted to put an exterior outlet box in the fridge for the humidifier and fan to plug into. How do I know if the side of a fridge is safe to drill into?

Post pics inside and out sometimes the condenser is built into the walls daves method works for the inside not the out side front and back if you hit the cold coils i.e. The evaporator to the hot coils i.e. The condesor your done!!!!!!!!! Without a very handy friend and will cost more than the 50 you gave for it sorry Dave to interfere

 

[mendozer]

Somehow I didn't get these email updates. I went ahead and drilled straight through the bottom (two layers metal with insulation in between) and ran my wiring that way. It's set up now for 37 F and 50% RH. Letting it run for a week or so with those settings to make sure it stays there before I order 60 lbs of rib roast. 

 

[mendozer]

Day 1.jpg

• mendozer
• Mar 18, 2017

There's the outdoor rated outlet in the corner to power the DC fan and humidifier. So far my RH has been ranging quite a biut. I set it to 55% with a 5% buffer and sometimes its 50 other times it's 70. Not sure if the device maybe takes a while to respond or if I need to calibrate it. I have a manual hygrostat in there and it routinely measures maybe 10% more than the digital one. But I don't know if that's calibrated either. 

I plan to by a UV light in the corner, but mistakenly didn't order the ballast for my setup. 

 

[mendozer]

Few more pics of the UV light I installed today, and a shot of the switch controlling it, as well as my Inkbird temp/humidity controller .

20170326_164121.jpg

• mendozer
• Mar 26, 2017

20170326_164116.jpg

• mendozer
• Mar 26, 2017

 

[meatsweats86]

Good Looking set up.

Can you explain how everything is wired together. Is the fridge plugged in directly to your Inkbird? Is the fan plugged into your Inkbird or hardwires to your switch?

Also wondering what UV light and fixture/balast you used?

Has this issue been resolved :

So far my RH has been ranging quite a biut. I set it to 55% with a 5% buffer and sometimes its 50 other times it's 70. Not sure if the device maybe takes a while to respond or if I need to calibrate it. I have a manual hygrostat in there and it routinely measures maybe 10% more than the digital one. But I don't know if that's calibrated either.