Anon's DIY Refrigerator Thread

[Anonymous No.1344241]

Long story short I had a commercial glass top refrigerator sitting in my garage serving as a table. I decided that it needed new purpose. This thread is a pic dump of me turning a broken fridge into a half assed working fridge! Enjoy.

>The compressor is faulty. It has no way to access it to check refrigerant.

[Anonymous No.1344243]

I cut out the compressor using bolt cutters. The potentiometer and led lights were mercilessly pulled too. Then I put the thing on a cart and hauled it inside to air out. It'd been sitting for years.

[Anonymous No.1344246]

Years of neglect, and that film that you get when you don't pull a sticker off properly.

[Anonymous No.1344248]

If there's an easy way to clean these, I don't know it. Lemon oil / goo gone and elbow grease. This was the first pass.

[Anonymous No.1344250]

Second pass. Took about 20 minutes per side. But it's clean now.

[Anonymous No.1344252]

The logic is simple. A big ass peltier cooler, a power supply, and a thermostat with a built in relay. Chinkshit ho!

[Anonymous No.1344254]

Testing the PSU was easy. To test the thermostat first I set the temperatures I wanted. Then I hooked up a 12v PC fan to the relay. I used ice water to change the temperature of the thermostat to make sure I programmed it right.

[Anonymous No.1344255]

This originally housed the potentiometer that set the temperature. My intention was to stick the thermostat on it so I could see how cold it was. My skills with the dremel - I don't have any skills with a dremel.

[Anonymous No.1344256]

>>1344255
Instead I hot glued a piece of extra clear plastic I had lying around to where that little assembly was. I used some bits of plastic from said assembly to make a spacer to mount the thermostat.

[Anonymous No.1344257]

>>1344256
Drilling holes to mount the power supply. I just went by eye and paid for it by drilling 6 holes for 4 bolts. Also I'm tired of clicking on cars.

[Anonymous No.1344258]

Since I'm disorganized as hell this seemed like the perfect time to flip it over and clean out the inside.

[Anonymous No.1344259]

Glass top clean. Wet and clean.

[Anonymous No.1344261]

>>1344259
PSU and thermostat wired up and ready. When I found out that only screws held this bracket in place it immediately got removed for the next part.

[Anonymous No.1344263]

>>1344261
After this there was a time skip while I waited for my Peltier cooler to arrive. I don't trust estimated shipping times from Chinese sites like aliexpress or banggood anymore.

[Anonymous No.1344264]

>>1344263
I didn't have any decent tools to cut this. The metal on the outside was pleasantly heavy. I ended up taking a plaster bit I found in my basement and sticking in my dremel and working really, REALLY slowly. I'm not proud of this cut.

[Anonymous No.1344265]

>>1344264
On the opposite side was aluminum just thick enough that you can't call it foil. I literally scored this with a pocket knife.

[Anonymous No.1344267]

>>1344265
I dug the insulation out with a pocket knife to get a nice taper in there. It didn't turn out nice, but I got airflow to the cold end of the peltier.

[Anonymous No.1344268]

>>1344267
Peltier cooler installed! It's so ugly on the other side though.

[Anonymous No.1344269]

>>1344268
Even though I've been in many scenarios that ~150 watts seems like drops in an ocean at this point I didn't really know what would happen when I turned it on. To cover my ass I cobbled together a "breaker" out of a bathroom outlet and an extension cord.

[Anonymous No.1344271]

>>1344269
Finally, I flicked the switch and walked away. The peltier is blowing cold air and the thermostat reads a temperature that's dropping, albeit very slowly. I'll have to check on it tomorrow to see if it is going to get cold enough to throw pop into or if this whole thing is for nothing.

[Anonymous No.1344304]

Well it’s better than junking it I guess...

Does the pettier chip you have blow air inside of the unit? If no then consider rigging up a fan... or better yet mounting it up high to allow natural convection to move the air... granted not a lot of great ways to do that on this model so maybe try a fan if it doesn’t have one...

You might get pop to cool.. good luck anon.


Also all the gfi outlets I’ve run into won’t trip on excessive ampdraw, only when power is shorting to ground... most panel mounted circuit breakers trip when excessive ampdraw is pulled through them... im not an electrician so you might have some kind of funky gfi that I’m not familiar with but if your not sure just be aware that a gfi isn’t the same thing as a panel breaker and it might not work the way you expect..

[Anonymous No.1344390]

>>1344269
bretty gud
add a real fuse and holder, anon
you definitely want to make sure the door closes tightly and that all seals are good
also you might want to insulate the glass top with aluminum not-foil

[Anonymous No.1344902]

OP here, updating.
After leaving it overnight it went from ~23C to 17C. So moderately successful? No, not really. All the cold air just lingers around the peltier unit. physics is not on my side mounting the assembly on the bottom where the compressor was.

I'm going to take a break from this for right now. I put a lot of money for a poorfag into this and feel pretty bummed out. But in the meantime I'm considering ways to force some convection in the fridge. Either by placing fans or some PVC piping even. If that doesn't work I have considered a water cooling block and automotive coolant and just pump cold antifreeze through the original RJ34A pipe network that's embedded in the insulation.

[Anonymous No.1344932]

Poorfag fridge 1.1:
>a piece of foam
>a PC fan
>some wire & wire nuts
This results in about 50x more airflow. I will see how cold it gets tomorrow morning. The man with curiously effeminate hands who hotglued plexiglass to foam and made a 3 12oz can pop cooler in a similar method made this project look significantly easier than it really is.

[Anonymous No.1344933]

>>1344902
Poorfag fridge 1.1:
>a piece of foam
>a PC fan
>some wire & wire nuts
This results in about 50x more airflow. I will see how cold it gets tomorrow morning. The Indian man on youtube with curiously effeminate hands who hotglued plexiglass to foam and made a 3 12oz can pop cooler in a similar method made this project look significantly easier than it really is.

[Anonymous No.1345489]

Final Update:
After nearly 24 hours running it succeeded in dropping the temperature from 23C to 16C. The temperature is far more consistent throughout the internal space thanks to the forced convection, but it's just not cold enough. Too much open space, not enough cooling. Going to chalk this one up as experience and re-mothball the whole thing.

[Anonymous No.1345512]

>>1344252

>peltier cooler

[Anonymous No.1346138]

>>1345489
Did you check the surface temperature of the Peltier cooler on the inside? You might want to check if the limit is low efficiency on the Peltier cooler or heat leaks through the walls.

Also, does the hot end have sufficient cooling? If it cannot dissipate the heat quickly enough the temperature builds up and efficiency drops.

Worst case is if heat from the hot side leaks into the inside of the fridge.

Don't give up yet, anon.

[Anonymous No.1346562]

>>1346138
Thanks anon but I'm calling this one bust for financial reasons. I loved having a glass top refrigerator when it did work, but after doing a little more math I estimate by the time I purchase enough hardware to finish the project I'll have spent enough to buy more than one conventional refrigerator.

[Anonymous No.1346566]

>>1346138
Uh, peltier coolers are like 10% efficient tops. You have to sink a TON of energy, and then get it off the heatsink, otherwise you just end up warming both sides, or barely cooling the 'cold' side.

How many watts are you putting in? Chances are you're not threading the needle between 'enough to get it cold' and 'too much to keep it cold'

[Anonymous No.1347712]

so who makes miniature vapor-compression refrigeration units, like 2-3oz. or so?

[Anonymous No.1347718]

>>1347712
found one

[Anonymous No.1347807]

>>1345489
Make smaller with more foam?

[Anonymous No.1347808]

>>1347718
Kek. That's cute

[Anonymous No.1348436]

>>1344243
>I cut out the compressor using bolt cutters.

Ishygddt.jpg
Use a line tap valve next time. Never cut refrigerant lines to bleed into the atmosphere.

[Anonymous No.1348765]

>>1348436
i hope you don't actually believe repair guys store refrigerant gas for recycling every fucking time, or i would feel sorry for you

[Anonymous No.1349044]

>>1348436
I'm OP anon. You want my advice? Go back 4 years ago when the thing stopped working and tell me something like "You can refill refrigerant with a line tap valve and it will solve your problems!" because I had no idea it was an option and google searches end at "call a technician if cleaning the vents didn't work"

[Anonymous No.1349782]

>>1348436
AAAAHAHAHAHAHA
LOOK AT THIS GUY!

[Anonymous No.1349823]

OP, quick google around suggests a peltier cooling solution is about 1/3rd as efficient as a compressor-based cooling system. So if you did get this to work, you'd be paying three times the cost to run it as you would with a regular fridge.

That said, props for having a play around.

[Anonymous No.1350665]

>>1349823
also maybe 1/6 the cost, all in
bit shame it doesn't work, eh